Looks as if basic economics is working -- to the detriment of the drivers -- exactly as would be predicted. Apparently the number of people able and willing to drive under the described conditions is sufficient to meet the demand for drivers. Kind of like coal miners or steel workers in the absence of unions. Nothing new here.
I'm not familiar with the history of the Teamsters' Union, other than to remember some bad scandals involving thieving leaders. Whatever this history is, just about the only way I can imagine improving the drivers' situation is an honest and effective union.
39
I trained to be a trucker, but because the pay and conditions were so poor, the only job I ever did as a trucker was as a truck driving instructor for a few months while I looked for work that paid a living wage. In the end I went back to being a courier -- the driving version of a bike messenger... which speaks volumes about how poor truck driving has become as a profession.
In an industry where 2 days at home in 10 days is considered good, and virtually all federal motor carrier safety regulations place all fault on the driver no matter the circumstances; where giant gaping loopholes exist in the agricultural industry that run counter to all other existing passenger safety laws; where the common exhortation is, "Sure you can make more money! Just work longer!" And where it is federally mandated law that the safety of every vehicle is the responsibility of the driver, yet employers can demand drivers take out unsafe vehicles or face termination, it's painfully obvious that deregulation of the trucking industry has served profit margins well, and proven murderously cruel to not just truckers, but every person who must share the road with these overworked, underpaid heroes who keep food in our mouths and clothes on our backs.
I hope that some Republicans read this and stop to reflect that regulation isn't all bad, and the lack of it is hurting their own constituents in ways that aren't made up by the liberal media. Don't believe me?
Ask any trucker.
92
A rusted out axle broke sending two tires through a nnew car lot bouncing wildly off cars and then through a diner window killing one customer and injuring another as well as closing the diner down for months for repairs. The owner and everyone inside has to deal with trauma that will last a lifetime. The insurance company for the trucking outfit still hadn't paid anything out last I heard. There is more wrong with the system than low pay for drivers.
30
Why would the Trump government pay attention to the economic circumstances of Truckers when most of them (working class whites) voted for him and will continue to vote for him. As a successful immigrant and person of color, I consistently vote and will continue to vote for candidates and parties who will increase my taxes so that others can have health care, better working conditions. But frankly I am getting tired of feeling sorry for people who refuse to see that they are colluding with their own misery and who would probably want to see people of color like me get kicked out of the country
73
I’ve read so many articles on these pages about the decline of unions, and with them, the decline of wages and benefits for workers, including teachers, truck drivers, retail workers and service professionals. There seems to be no end to the ways in which the moneyed class can exploit working people in order to keep profits high and taxes low. Even after the wave of successful teacher strikes across the country leading democrats have by and large been silent. Are they listening? Workers of all complexions and orientations in red and blue states are waiting to see who will actively support us in 2018 and beyond.
37
The most informative passage in this article is the third to last paragraph.
“Despite the bleak economics of their chosen occupation, many drivers don’t want to quit trucking. They are loath to trade in the cab of a big rig, and all the autonomy it offers, for an office cubicle or a factory floor. And they like seeing places that they may never have traveled to otherwise”
Classical economics says that workers who feel they are underpaid will seek out better, different jobs. But those same workers will also weigh other factors to judge the overall desirability of their work situation.
14
What is it about this country that constantly destroys in the name of "progress" only to find that we have to reconstruct a form of the things we destroyed? The waste. Yet, some get rich overseeing the destruction that diminish us all.
A perfect example, we destroyed New York's Penn Station, reducing travellers and commuters to scurry underground like rats and replace it with a sports arena, which is now deemed inadequate. American Exceptionalism.
Destroy unions and turn workers into serfs. Serfdom, didn't that start being discredited hundreds of years ago. Now we are lamenting the destruction of unions that helped us transcend serfdom.
America, constantly rushing forward yet never learning anything. As long as a few make a buck, who cares about tomorrow.
Keep voting for Republicans, truck drivers, they care about you and your family's well-being.
40
@Eddie Lew The last sentence, “Keep voting for Republicans, truck drivers, they care about you and your family's well-being“ is intended to be sarcastic, isn’t it.
12
God bless these hard-working men and women, who are also that rarity in today's America: careful drivers for the most part - they have to be.
14
Instead of no driver trucks, how about trains? That would get many of the trucks off the roads .
8
So... an industry whose workers are suffering terribly. And yet, hard to blame immigrants for this. Much less Chinese or Bangladeshi workers. Is this going to help people realize the hardships of most American workers are due only to a limited extent to immigration and cheap foreign labor? And that the way American society and the American economy are designed have a much greater impact on the working class' welfare?
36
This article is misleading as it ignores a large proportion of the industry. I am a trucker working in the food delivery sector and we work four to five days a week and earn 60 to 90 k a year.
Long haul is tough but it is not the whole of the trucking industry. There are thousands of jobs for food service delivery drivers out there. The only issue is you have to work hard unloading at restaurants, but this is good for your health.
I earn 80k a year and spend to nights away from home a week and this is not some elite position. Food Servies of America, a union company, was offering 5 grand bonuses to hire for a job that pays over 30 dollars an hour with a pension and almost no nights away from home here in Portland Or.
So when you write about trucking but you really mean longhaul trucking you should say so.
28
America was built on free labor: why have we been and still surprised.
12
Well, that’s what happens when people vote against their own best interests.
29
Corporations are not people, my friends. But there are greedy people hiding behind a corporate veil to disguise their true identity. Corporations are now able to claim their greed is legitimate by virtue of laws against regulations that would benefit the workers. Profits are the only goals of corporations with help from Republican lawmakers who pass laws to deregulate most industries. To fully understand how this unmitigated corporate greed works, we must realize that deregulation and Citizens United work hand-in-hand
to take the profit away from the workers in order to enrich the corporate leaders and the investors on Wall Street.
A great deal of these corporate profits are then recirculated to corporate donors through tax cuts to win elections.
Republicans have to go. They are the culprits.
39
Donald, good response; however, I believe the real culprits are those who vote Republican.
22
A former driver for Prime Inc gives details on the vertical integration of a Prime Inc truck lease. Its drivers are EXPLOITED. Read the 59 comments too.
"..to my understanding, Rob Lowe, the owner of Prime Inc also owns the sales company that sells the trucks to the leasing company. He owns the leasing company, he owns the shop that they 'make' you get your repairs done in if at all possible, he owns the Tax Service you are pushed into using, he owns the insurance company that you MUST use."
https://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/new-prime-inc-c182104.html
America is still a nation that believes if you work hard, you should be rewarded. Still, we need to wake-up to the fact that to stop exploitation, it takes FAIR LABOR laws, regulations, and enforcement.
The Republican Party wants you to believe that's a disease and recipe for disaster. Republicans loosen all burdens on all owners, think THAT'S ENOUGH FAIRNESS, and use immigration hype to gain votes.
"Wall" gets advertised, but understand that President Trump has also campaigned on "big, beautiful gates". If he can achieve the corporate immigration legislation, then he will expand his worker visa program beyond the 15,000 additional in 2017 and the 69,000 additional in 2018.
17
We are truly reliving the gilded age after slavery was abolished when big business came up with a plan, if you have to pay wages find a way to claw them back. It took the personal intervention of Teddy Roosevelt to settle the 1900 anthracite strike in favor of the union. vote big business out of office !
34
Yet another illustration that unregulated market capitalism is essentially neo-feudalism.
33
Thank you for this article. However, while this might be profoundly new news to many, it is not new, nor is it just the trucking industry that has been suffering under stagnant wages for years.
It would seem that every needed occupation in America is suffering. From farmers to teachers and all who supply them and build and maintain buildings.
This year has seen more large fires than ever before. Most of those on the firelines are seasonal. Their overtime wages have been drastically curbed since the mid-90s. Most see no healthcare and no retirement. And once they are too broken to work, they are discarded with, again, no access to healthcare to fix their chronic injuries.
Why is it, then, that the needed occupations in society are so poorly rewarded, when things as dumb as marketing food to captive students at publicly-funded universities are not?
Public employee unionized workers see routine wage increases on the taxpayers' dime. Something that most two and three job people never see, yet their property taxes (or rent) pay for those steadily increasing wages, further hurting the struggling lower wage earners.
Why is is that those who prostitute their health for years doing hard physical work, while actually producing something, and suffer for it at an earlier age, are rewarded less than empire-building swivel-chaired administrators creating busy work for no other purpose than to keep themselves in jobs?
9
I find your comment very divisive in nature and I do not believe that it solves anything. Just because few public employee have union representation with bargaining powers does no impact the many employees who work for private cooperation. What happened to company pensions, regulations, workplace safety, etc? It became deregulated and companies shifted their obligations to the banking industry, which makes good money from managing 401 K accounts that most people do not even understand. This all does not happen on the tax payers dime. This is the agenda pushed by the GOP who believes that social justice, regulation, fair wages, healthcare, good education is the devil.
27
The forebears of the Trump “base” left their feudal European societies for a better life in the New World. It seems feudalism is a socio-economic phenomenon that cannot be escaped. Rich get richer, poor get poorer or, at least, remain poor. Call a spade a spade, give all the millionaires and billionaires noble titles and all of you can live just like in the old times! (Isn’t that how they want to live?!)
16
Truckers and the rest of the service economy was the point of Fight Club 22 years ago. Trump's election is an omen of the civil unrest brewing among the very hardworking non-tech citizenry. Neither party cares beyond getting reelected. It's going to get ugly.
6
Anyone who voted for trump who isn’t a 1%er has voted against their own interests. I don’t know what so many people were thinking when they voted but I can guarantee they were not thinking long term, and now that’s bitten them in the behind!
19
Where the founders of Uber and Lyft learned everything they know.
11
Life without qualified experienced CDL drivers would bring Americas commerce to an abrupt halt. From construction materials and equipment deliveries, to grocery and department store replenishment, to receiving your mail, getting milk and produce from farm to market, the truckers made it happen. The vehicle you're driving arrived by truck. Those huge distribution centers around airports, they're for trucks. Putting teenagers behind the wheel of a semi is just stupid. Think a suburban millennial will last at that job? No, but perhaps immigrant teenagers would do the work. The teenager looking for a job that doesn't require college will go to trade school if they are employable. Turning the rest loose on the highway is a manslaughter charge and an insurance claim waiting to happen. When my company pays hundreds of thousands of dollars or more on a specialty piece of equipment with an oversized load, only the best drivers get anywhere near our jobsites.
15
Can't the NYT have more steady reports on the real nuts of bolts of working in 2018 America? This editorial has great detail and is a good start. This needs to be a more visible part of regular reporting. Make it into a series so that the common destructive patterns of shark capitalism are apparent across different jobs and industries.
34
@KJR Good response! The NYT could take a lead role in showing how the downfall of the blue collar worker happened. Why all of the work was sent abroad, and who fought for and against this practice.
They could highlight an industry a week, like construction, or meat cutting, and show the forces that changed these from middle class jobs to menial, minimum wage positions.
32
There is an alternative to the grinding, mind-numbing, under-compensated contribution that truckers make to the high standard of living that America enjoys. The alternative is explained in short and long-form, pictures. and book form at www.magneticglide.com.
The alternative proposed is a 300 mph, all-weather, superconducting Maglev truck, freight, and passenger network running mainly along the rights-of-way of the Interstate Highway System interconnecting our urban centers, ports, and producers. The efficiency of this system gained by transferring freight at 10 cents per tonne mile and passengers at 5 cents per passenger mile is projected to save about $1000 per year per person in reduced cost of goods sold and travel savings.
Freight and passenger terminals would be on the network and most truckers would work out of a terminal to make last-mile deliveries, of goods received and sorted overnight. Truckers could go home at night and share time with family/friends. Long-hauling of freight can be reduced and replaced with this automated, freight delivery service.
This public carrier guideway network and the Maglev vehicles should be tested in a government test facility so that the performance and cost data can be competed with alternative offerings of suppliers. This will establish a national standard for the guideway, driverless control system and reduce the inefficiency of having several alternatives, similar to establishing the gauge standard for railroad trackage.
6
Not a trucker, but this story strikes a cord with me and is a piece of a bigger picture. I just returned from a PGI (pyrotechnics) convention where we heard a presentation about joining with a group that wants to ease the regulations on hours of operation for truckers noting that the regs are "one size fits all" and some people can go longer hours than others. I attempted to argue with the guy that as soon as you weaken "one size" regs, there will be people who abuse it, to no avail. Apparently he thinks if someone feels safe driving 100 hours a week, that's OK.
Well, its not OK with me. Those regs are part of a system designed to save lives. They may not be perfect, but repealing caps is a poor idea. I understand the desire to be able to drive longer hours if you are underpaid and earn by the mile, but a better solution is address the pay itself, not open up roads to sleepy drivers.
The bigger picture here is that employers need to have a social contract with their employees and society in general rather than being driven by nothing but bottom line profit. Much of European society has these contracts and folks there do a better job of looking out for the welfare of all. The profit motive is important to drive the economy, but it can become a raging bull or a scorched Earth policy that wrecks the lives of our citizens. Unfortunately the US has always had this flavor to it and only when required by Congress has it stepped away from ruining people's lives.
22
The editorial board of the N Y Times makes the case for Unions
Is it to snarky to say that only now, when NY Times reporters and editors face job cuts, that they see how unions are better then deregulation ?
Cause I remember Times reporting on the original A Kahn proposal to dereg air travel, and the Times was certainly all in
6
I feel like the Teamsters ruined unions for everybody. I graduated in 1989 with a professional degree and $17 an hr at my first job. I remember watching a documentary with a Greyhound bus driver who was complaining that he made $17 an hr after 5 weeks of training.
It was a hefty wage back then. Starting for my job is $50+/ hr now, and I feel like it buys less.
I know Teamsters have lost a lot of ground and other unions picked up a bad connotation that they don't deserve, but the Teamsters of the 80's and 90's were completely unreasonable and pretty thuggish.
1
This is a very complicated subject. Rates of pay in the trucking industry in general differ tremendously. Most union members do better, UPS drivers are unionized and generally among the best paid. Walmart tractor-trailer drivers although non union, also do very well as Walmart is willing to pay to keep out the union.
Independent contractor jobs are much less attractive, their pay has dropped partly because of stricter enforcement of regulations requiring the use of electronic log in devices which has made the independents less efficient.
Drivers paid by the hour are making less as they are not paid for down time while waiting to drop off or pick up their loads. Sometimes, at the end of the day hourly drivers are forced to spend their own time just to find a parking space for their rigs, especially in urban areas.
Contributing to shortage of long haul drivers is the fact that local drivers in smaller trucks can make as much or more without all the hassles of being a big rig driver.
The lack of long haul drivers, if unchecked could threaten our economy due to higher shipping costs causing higher inflation,
The Trump administration in response does not seem to be advocating more humane treatment of the drivers. The Transportation Department is proposing eliminating the requirement that the big rigs must have built in speed governance device as higher speeds would cut down the run times, reducing costs. Profits before safety?
12
Whenever the effects of raising wages on the economy are mentioned, I want to remind people that in an economy 70% driven by consumer spending, putting money in folks' pockets is a major stimulus. They pay rent, buy houses and cars and all the other things that create demand for investment to produce, and they do the work of actually providing the goods and services. The working people of America are the real job creators! The GOP loves to extoll work as good for one's health and dignity, but refuse to honor work with the dignity of a living wage. This needs to change!
16
Here is an idea. Large truck terminals operating 24/7 near all major cities from which long haul trucker and trucks could drop off and pick up trailers. Combine this with local trucks that distribute the trailers locally only in a second step. In this manner, you get more stability in the kinds of trucking jobs, by making a clear division between long haul and local and regional hauls. Also, it is more time efficient for truckers, who know are unfairly burdened with free waiting for all logistics issues.
3
"...an average of $44,500 last year." Why not tell us what the median is instead of the average? The median (which is $42,480) is far more representative. It means that half the truckers make under that number and half of them make over that number. A few very high paying jobs brings up the average, but the median is what you need to look at. Imagine: half of drivers make less than $42,480.
I also wonder if trucker drivers are anti-union. Many states, especially in the south, have a "right-to-work" law (and what a misleading name that is), which means, for all practical purposes, that unions aren't going to be formed. Perhaps the truckers are cutting off their nose to spite their face.
14
Although many of the points in this article are true Especially the ATA being the voice of the big companies As you gain experience pay goes up and many companies are beginning to pay detention pay guaranteed for the time you sit. I am never in a dock where I do not make 20 an hour. The average pay is 44000 for a new driver but very few experienced drivers make this. In my area 50000 i upper middle class. My wife is a nurse and we make the same money for about the same hours although I am gone 4 nights a week but part of my pay is untaxed so I actually bring home more than her. There are bad companies out there and ones that pay nothing and as a former trainer there is no way 18 year olds should be driving. I have never had a job I loved I work because I have bills but trucking is as fair as any other corporate monster. Over the last 5 years I got a 3 percent raise every year which is more than many of my friends and family got in other fields so it is like every thing else it has good points and bad points and it is my sincere hope that as the driver shortage gets more severe pay will drastically go up. Young people want to make 80000 for 30 hour weeks and be home every night so the young people going in today do not last long so there will have to be major changes in the next 10 years
3
Whenever the effects of raising wages on the economy are mentioned, I want to remind people that putting money in folks
Let's not forget that de-regulation was all the rage in wait - the Carter administration. Carter was the first of three Democratic presidents, followed by Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, who "punted" on Labor Law reform legislation.
So this is an important article which reminds the Democratic Party that it has walked away from the working class over decades. It has become something quite different than what it carried out of the old New Deal. A green New Deal is needed, based on FDR's Second Bill of Rights.
But there is a struggle inside the party between the Sanders-Ocasio-Cortez wing and the cultural wing, as epitomized by the primary contests in Kansas and Maryland.
I urge the Times to also cover the de-regulation of the airline industry, also launched under Jimmy Carter, and its effect on routes, corporate concentration, consumers, and yes, the workers in the industry. It won't be pretty.
6
Focusing on the president to understand who controls the political decisions is very misleading. Just consider Obama's last six years. Republicans in Congress held the real power and rejected virtually everything Obama proposed. Wealthy interests pull the strings of our government, now more so than ever. The rest is smoke and mirrors.
11
@bruceb
That was not the case under Carter, who came in with a sweeping anti-Nixon Watergate Democratic surge; but these were new Dems, not New Dealers. "Free-Up" those markets.
Nor with Clinton in 1992.
Obama had majorities, slim ones, in 2009 and until Nov. 2010. He would not rile any corporate powers. Placated bankers, and has said nothing about the creation, electronically, of trillions to be given to banks for their, not public purposes. The creation of hyper liquidity which took a very long time to have any Main Street effect, and still hasn't in my estimations. When Chris Cuomo asks Bernie backers "how you gonna pay for it" the proper come back is, in good part: how did Wall Street get trillions - free - unless you want to consider their bad assets as payment - but these rules don't apply to the average citizen
We might ask: why not "Me Too?"
2
Here is the main problem, and it extends well beyond truck driving: many voters extoll an independent , antigovernment freedom- illusion type of lifestyle. Less government, more freedom. Freedom! Well, that theory may sound good, but the very people that espouse this type of governance and lifestyle simply can’t afford this type of life. They can’t afford it. Mind-numbing. Continue to vote against your own self interests and I’ll continue to ignore your plights.
13
Why aren't ALL truckers unionized? A national strike would fix many of the problems intros article quickly.
9
@Larry
Problem is,many of the drivers are freedom-loving anti unionists. They must love their freedom more than their lifestyles. They are independents, organizing with others is communist. Let them eat bullets, they can’t get out of their own way and they don’t trust the government and likely others.
6
Here is a job that can't be moved off- shore and the workers have no power. I cant6 think of an industry that doesn't need unionization more.
14
And then there's safety.
6
this is all part of the gilded age America business plan: if you have to pay wages find a way to claw them back. Before the 1901 anthracite strike forced them to recognize the union, the coal barons relied on the coal camp and the company store to pad profits. In 1907 turpentine companies were even sued for peonage .
6
I'm sure the trucking executives can't wait for the self-driving truck--then they'll get an even bigger paycheck and bonus! Funny thing is these exec's actually think they earn their enormous paychecks.
7
Truckers, welcome to the your own version of the "gig" economy. Remember, when all the corporations and wealthy elites refer to maximizing shareholder value, you're simply that portion of the balance sheet (under liabilities) that the owners and management want to eliminate.
How dare you peons want a piece of the pie!
16
Part of our family owns an LTL trucking firm so this is a well-known issue, and the Editors wrote a rather accurate portrayal of the wage and working conditions. I would add a couple of underlying structural problems that may be partly explanatory. One, trucking firms are in a highly competitive deregulated sector. They are like the airline industry in many ways: a previously regulated, high-paying professional career area, that has become a least-cost commodity service and where every nickel of expense is fought over, and many costs, outsourced. In this regard, our assumptions about competition economics may be wrong: sometimes competing produces counter-productive results. Two, like many manual labor areas of the US economy, immigrant workers are drawn to these jobs and will, or feel forced, to accept what can be nearly subsistence wages. There are other frictions including labor laws, or training, but the biggest causal factor to this article is unregulated competition. This affects highway safety as well, along with other costs including congestion and emissions. Last, this is an area where infrastructure investment becomes highlighted, as our roads, bridges (there are several bottlenecks in the mid-south lanes for example) and other components are old and sub-standard. Americans rarely think holistically because they're too busy chasing dollars. Here's one of the symptoms.
22
It is funny how deregulation works. Supposedly it should benefit everyone, but that is surely not the case. So all you voters out there in fly-over country keep voting for the Republicans. Keep MIDDLE AMERICA RED. Maybe, just maybe you will become rich one day, and keep thinking that you will succeed like the Grifter-in-Chief, but I am not holding my breath for you. When are you truly going to wake up and see what they have done to you and for themselves?
12
Drivers should be paid at least the minimum wage while they wait around for their trucks to be loaded/unloaded. I always feel for the drivers stuck in traffic knowing they are making next to nothing.
8
Thank you NY Times editorial board for this factual report on the plight of long-haul truckers. Increasing numbers of mighty massive rucks rule the high ways of America and scare me. I encounter them on my commute to work in my small Mitsu mirage and I try to stay away from them as much as possible and speed past them if they happen to be in the next lane. I have a big 18 wheel truck phobia that I could be squashed into a pulp by a single mistake.
Luckily after decades of driving along side the long haul truckees, I am still alive. Thanks to the truck drivers who receive extensive special training before they are licensed to go on long-hauls. If you take time to talk to some of them, one will find they are actually very nice, level headed caring people. I always begin my conversation with complimenting them for driving their "small truck" and most of them get my sense of humor and are ready to answer my next question "did you get enough sleep?". Then I tell them on long drives I feel sleepy quickly and have to pull off the road. They then explain the rules and point to their sleeping quarters behind their driver's seat.
To those employers who are not paying the long-haul truckers appropriate salaries and benefits in this growing economy, I say please do not cut corners and take undue advantage of or frustrate these great Americans . Most have limited life span to work as long-haul truckers, a very demanding task. For road safety and their sanity sake, pay them very well.
16
Why do you glorify the economy by saying it is booming? Then you write an article stating it is killing an entire group of people. Mr. Oliveira has had to sleep in his truck! How can the economy be booming because we know we can generalize Mr. Oliveira's plight to large numbers of workers. Millions!
So if you would please stop talking about the "booming" economy like all the main stream media and point out that the definition of "booming economy" is obvious false and meaningless and has no meaning for millions of working people.
Most stock is owned by a narrow group of people, not Mr. Oliveira.
Then we wonder why 62.9 million people voted for Trump. It is because many of them are in the horrid economic state like Mr. Oliveira and the Democrats have no ideas or do not want to "fix" the situation.
Please, New York Times, you can do better than this.
10
"Corporations are earning record profits. Yet workers are getting minuscule raises that don’t make up for the rising cost of living."
Maybe the second sentence is part of the reason for the 1st.
13
Hey, it gives new meaning to the term, "Working like a slave". That's just where the industry wants them. They don't consider their employees to be human. They are just cogs in their money making machine.
7
My brother owns a business in Texas. He often talks about the jobs that illegals are taking—not only manual labor, such as roofing, concrete work, landscaping, paving, painting, carpentry, etc—but also operating heavy equipment and YES—driving big rigs and other delivery vehicles. No longer are illegals here to help with the harvest. Imagine almost any job title—including attorney and school teacher—and you’ll find illegals filling them.
It’s difficult to take liberals seriously on the subject of wages, when they vociferously support open borders, sanctuary cities, in-state tuition and drivers licenses and even voting rights for illegals.
Liberals want to welcome migrant blue collar workers—because it seems like the nice, humane thing to do—never giving a thought (or caring) how much it depresses the wage scale for our citizens—those of us who are living here legally.
2
@Jesse The Conservative
Are you saying that if there were no illegal immigrants, the trucking industry would pay drivers a living wage?
7
@Jesse The Conservative I'll take conservatives more seriously when they STOP hiring them and JAIL the employers who are breaking the law just as much as the undocumented workers are breaking the law.
8
At all and every opportunity American businesses never hesitate to not only extract further productivity and profits from Employees whenever they can, but to also further degrade, lower and subtract the benefits and even pay levels enjoyed by Employees previously by sometimes 2 decades!
In 10 or 20 years of generally boom times and rising executive pay by factors of 10 or more over other Employees pay, America's workers are slowly but surely being impoverished by making them do more for less money in an age where the cost of many products, services and expenses are far above the purchasing power and equivalent remuneration so many received years ago.
The constant and successful continued exploitation of many Americans to such low and unacceptable levels,by so many ways and means as seen never before is astounding in its scope of exploitative actions by business and vested interests and so contemptible by how easy the facilitation of what actions needed or wanted taking up, is now controlled by Representatives once of and for the people, by the people but these days are little more than lackeys to the money they must chase, regardless of the costs and consequences to the people they once served so much better and well than memory serves.
6
Well, the first thing we could do is enforce the minimum wage law for ALL the hours worked. This is including time waiting on the employer. Employers who deliberately flaunt those laws should be first given a warning and a large fine and then, if they continue, prison time.
9
One word. Teamsters.
8
I was a trucker for 30 years. I worked for all of the big name companies in the Northeast. If I listed them here, you'd recognize every one of them.
In the 1980s I worked for a division of the larges food hauler in North America. We had a master freight Teamster contract. We were earning, with overtime, which was virtually mandatory and easily led to standard 60 hour work weeks, between 60k to 70k per year. Full benefits, health insurance, dental, eyeglass, pension, generous sick and personal days, the unused of which were paid at the end of the year.
Nice bonus.
There were approximately 2 million Teamsters back then. I told my union brothers back then that we should be signing up every driver we can find. But they wanted an exclusive club. See how exclusive it is now???!
These were drivers who didn't even bother to read their union contract.
Now we're paying the price for their laziness, insular protectionist attitudes, and sheer stupidity for not expanding their base when they had the chance.
One more thing. People complain about truck safety on the roadways today. We were paid by the hour. We were paid overtime over 8 hours per day or 40 hours per week. We followed strict hours of duty service.
There were far fewer accidents back then than there are today. Because truckers weren't racing for that next load to try to make ends meet. Now they are.
When they asked everyone if they wanted lower prices we should have asked them what it was going to cost us.
402
The only protection for workers in a capitalistic system is unions.
Has there ever been any other type of protection?
This is where the Democratic Socialists and their solution of socialism will fail. Companies will still find a way to work around any laws passed. Only unions can provide the effective counterbalance to business owners in a capitalistic system.
The irony is that most people are not business owners. Instead, they are workers. Yet those workers, over time, have voted to support candidates that have destroyed the unions that created better wages and lives for them.
16
Republicans have for decades sold American workers on an ethos of rugged independence, with unions and government regulation portrayed as the enemy. They have then worked to suppress or break up unions and to push through deregulation to assure that all those ruggedly independent workers give their all in a system designed to make it next impossible to ever get ahead.
Contract truck drivers are just modern sharecroppers on the highways. By assuring that they can do little more than break even, the drivers end up bearing the costs of transporting goods while the businesses that contract with them reap the derived profits. The businesses then use a small part of those profits to rent politicians who then continue the sales job on American workers while passing laws to benefit the businesses.
It’s a long con game, with the current President serving as con-artist in chief. Remember the images of Trump in the cab of a semi, play-driving like an eight-year-old? Poll all these independent drivers and most probably support him, as he blames minorities, immigrants, foreigners, the press and the ‘deep state’ for their plight, while his administration continues to enact more policies to pick their pockets.
Perhaps one day soon there will be a reawakening in working class America, where workers will once again demand legal protections from exploitation and a seat at the table with sufficient collective bargaining power to simply demand fair pay for hard work.
29
This is what happens when deregulation and union busting follow their natural courses. Unfortunately the teamsters bear some responsibility for the situation. They made a deal with the devil when they endorsed reagan in return for less government oversight of the teamsters.
11
I suspect if these truckers voted, they voted Republican, the party least likely to look after their interests. If the bulk of these truckers would quit, wages would rise. The real problem is most of this product should be in train cars & not in trucks that destroy our roads & pose a risk to motorists.
They need unions. And to vote for Democrats. And if I were to be honest, they need to take out student loans & go to a community college to get a new skill.
5
Reading this article just breaks my heart. People today, do not understand how much the government really effects us on a daily basis. Everyone is so blind to all the little tricks and mind games they use. Trying to decrease the amount of income long-haul truckers make is just sad. Without them, transporting different items to different destinations will start to become more difficult. The fact that many truckers have lost their homes, families, and other important things to the little pay they receive is not okay. People say everyday that they want to make a change in the world, but has change really been made?
5
Ironically the Wall Street Journal printed a story Friday stating wages are rising in the transportation sector as trucking and logistics companies struggle with a shortage of drivers. I guess one paper is looking in the past, while the other is looking at the current, and, more importantly, future compensation.
More proof that the so-called "job creators" are really just paycheck siphoners.
The Heart of America is the working class. These are the people who do most of the hard work to keep our economic blood flowing.
I hope that someday soon they realize that the GOP has been lying to them all along and taking advantage of their suffering. I hope the majority of these workers can soon choose to support the lawmakers who truly work for their benefit, not for their oppressive owners.
4
You touch on autonomous vehicles, personally I don't believe these will be the panacea that many boosters are predicting. However, you can be sure that every management suite (both private and public sector, i.e. transit) that oversees a business involving vehicles operated by human beings is already undertaking an analysis of what their business would look like without human vehicle operators. The obvious one is Uber, they have made it no secret what their intentions are. This should be a red flag for every trucking, delivery and transit driver: now is the time to seek out union representation, organize and unite. If, in the wake of Janus, you are in a public sector union, pay your dues and keep your union strong. (My transit union has been reinvigorated by Janus, not the opposite.) Labor leaders need to be empowered NOW to negotiate contract language regarding autonomous vehicles before those vehicles become even more technically feasible.
4
This is the natural - and intended - outcome of Reagan/Thatcherism. A modern plantation economy, a feudal serf economy, an "entrepreneurial" economy, whatever you want to call it, it's the result of the rich simply feeling they weren't getting enough, hoarding enough of the pie, so they bought enough politicians to retake the government that had been so rudely captured by FDR and the hoi polloi. For a while.
I noted that the airline ramp worker who took a company plane for a fatal joyride Friday night was part of a labor segment making obscenely low wages, too. Meanwhile, Wall Street and the City of London are in clover, and third homes in the Hamptons and other playgrounds of the grifter class are doing brisk business.
Don't expect much from wimpy, sold-out Clintonian-Obaman "Democrats," either. They're a major part of the problem, too. The wealthy and powerful spread just enough of the skim around to keep lackey professionals and the complicit "investor class" in what Thatcher called the "shares economy" distracted and bought off with material glut. It's time for the pitchforks.
6
Drivers need to unionize on a national level ASAP. Whether in a right to work for state or not, they need to organize and strike when needed. They have the power to shut the economy down, but they've given it away. For the most part they all vote for Republicans, despite that fact that Republicans make their lives worse at every turn.
9
This is typical of today's America. The laws of supply and demand do not apply anymore. Unemployment overall is low, but there is no rise in wages. The head of the FED was on NPR recently and he said he did not understand why. Corporate Greed is the answer.
10
Is it really fair to criticize the Democratic Party for being tone deaf to the "working man/woman?" A better question: How can unionized shops vote Republican and then bellyache that their wages are stagnating?
You can't have it both ways. A definition of political insanity would be voting for a party that is on record as union-busting and then complaining that you have no protection against low wages and abuses by your employer.
12
Self driving trucks and their impact are dismissed here w/out reference. There is a ~$70B incentive to remove drivers per Andrew Yang 2020 POTUS candidate's book.
If Mr. Oliveira thinks the McConnell court will help his cause, he is delusional!
We are witnessing the end of trade unions and many of these drivers voted for the man who will destroy their only hope of a decent living!
5
But my guess is that most vote republican. Go figure!!!
5
@LC
On the other hand "progressives" would love to impose a carbon tax on the diesel fuel they use. To "save the planet" our "progressives" would put all the truckers out of jobs. The truckers understand that fact and know that "progressive" politicians are not their friends.
Cost cutting at the trucking level is reprehensible. We all rely on these people to move goods for our needs. They have dangerous jobs. Within the last few years people's diving habits have become more reckless, inconsiderate, at times I wonder how they got a driver's license. Apparently many are unaware of what it takes to stop a truck hauling a load.
With the many corporations using on line sales and delivery, there is a need for more trucks. Drivers deserve good pay with compensation/retirement.
As with many other "hidden" services~auto care/repair/plumbers/electricians/ditch diggers/housekeepers/restaurant wait staff/cooks and so on these are people we need to function as a society. Without them~oh my can you just see some of the people you know cleaning their own septic lines, repairing anything? Yeah I appreciate these people. I look out for them and give every allowance of space on the highways and by ways. They deserve it.
3
In 20 yrs this problem will go away, along with the drivers, due to self driving trucks. The next 20 yrs for those still driving is going to be rough.
1
Wait one minute what about the Judge Gorsuch case he actually voted against a over the road truck driver who disconnected his trailer from his tractor because he was about to freeze to death. This person with ZERO judgement is now on the Supreme Court
6
The white mob voted for Traitor Trump. That's it in a nutshell.
"....a pilot project that would allow 18-year-olds with the military equivalent of a commercial driver’s license to haul freight across state lines."
Roger that. Now we can look forward to teenagers tailgating us in the right lane in tractor trailers. But they'll be arrested by MPs, so not to worry.
2
"Such changes would increase costs for trucking companies, their customers and, ultimately, American shoppers. "
It always comes back to this, whether the industry is trucking, services, manufacturing or what have you: the American consumer will not shell out what is required to pay American workers (themselves!) a decent wage. This also applies to government services and their financing through taxes. American citizens and consumers want it all but don't want to pay the price.
4
@Denis Pelletier
I agree with you but would add that record profits are going to shareholders and CEO's not the workers. Leaving workers who can not afford american made goods. If corporations would reduce the payouts to shareholders and CEO's a fraction they could afford to pay workers more. It's a myth that any increased salary costs would have to be born by consumers.
4
Truckers must be Trump voters that are stuck in stupidity and malaise. 40k a year driving a truck is tantamount to cruel and unusual punishment. You'd be better off homeless living in a nice city park on South Beach, Miami. Terrible terrible.
1
We can summarize this article in five words. Conservatives are robbing you blind .
3
IF Mr. Oliveira's lawsuit goes to the Gorsuch/Kavanna SCOTUS, he will no doubt lose.
4
Right to work states = the right to work for nothing.
Raygun convinced these people that unions were no good ...
so now that's your problem not mine.
1
WORKERS REUNITE!! Let us finally relegate Reagan to the trash heap of history, along with Nixon, Bush 2, and the current clown we have now.
1
Stop, the economy is not booming. As epitomized by the trucking industry, wages are stagnant. That means the economy is not booming. Stock prices are going up, corporate profits are up, unemployment is down with wages stagnant means people are accepting underpaid jobs because they have to.
The overall mentality of everyone, lead by the media is that the status of the stock market IS the economy. It isn't.
Trucking is a great example. Labor has slowly been squashed by the "big corporate profits, supply side" argument. Somehow Democrats and Republicans have forgotten that a thriving economy is based on a REAL free market with a balance of the three major factors: labor, consumers, and companies. Labor and consumers take a back seat, even in the minds of liberals who nominally support labor. Unions have been obliterated, for the most part, as summarized here for most truckers.
Want a "booming" economy? Get rid of the laws that emphasize supply side economics and the proven falsehood that corporate profits mean that everyone benefits. It means that the rich benefit and nothing more.
15
"The trucking industry complains it can’t find enough drivers. And yet the value of drivers’ paychecks just keeps falling over time."
Im not an economist but I think supply/demand is completely the wrong model when considering the complexity of the matter as well as actual economic developments (whole IT industry, automation, etc.).
In addition, I want to mention that no matter how well the job numbers might seem in the US at the moment, and no matter whether they are interlinked with historically reoccuring recession cycles, it does not mean a lot. Western nations are well developed and suck up jobs from other countries (in fact, all the major companies are concentrated in a few countries; there is no need and demand for a new Apple headquaters in Venezuela). Even if job numbers in US, Switzerland, etc. remain stable, it does NOT mean that everything is as hitherto. Think global, not local (doesnt make sense in a globalized world)!
1
Easy solution: Let's agree to pay more for things--cars, furniture, tools, etc.--being shipped intrastate and interstate. Refuse to use Amazon or Walmart, for example, until they start paying more to their own truck drivers and independent drivers. Time to write the check, right?
1
They used to be called Teamsters. We need Teamsters back. A union. A trucking association that will represent the drivers, the truckers, not the trucking industry, the owners, the companies.
3
@ivo skoric The Teamsters' pension plans are fully funded, right?
This is another in a long series of articles where I wish the question had been asked: "For whom did you vote". I'd bet that the answers would strongly skew towards either "Vote?" or "Donald (bleeping) Trump, man!".
Follow up questions could ensue, of course: "You understand by not voting, you were ceding the decisions about how your life is run to others, others who might not be operating in your best interests, right?" or "You understand that by voting for Donald, bleeping-or-not Trump, you were voting for exactly the situation you now find yourself in, right?".
The final follow-up to either, of course, ought to be "Knowing what you now know, would you have voted or voted differently?". But I'll bet we can predict the answer to that question too.
4
@Atlant Schmidt No doubt truckers who voted, voted for Trump, and probably vote Republican normally. That´s what people in ex-urban and rural areas do. And for good--well, at least understandable--reason. I cannot think of a single reason they would have faith in Democrats representing and championing their cause. Liberals and "progressives" have this mistaken idea of Democrats being for the working class; the non-unionized working class does not.
People need to be smarter, not get sucked in to bad contracts. Once they make a contract and borrrow to buy a truck they are trapped, they have no choice but to keep going to make the payments.. The transportation companies and truck manufacturers sell freedom and independence, see the country, be your own boss, it is bull, and people keep falling for it.
2
People talk about regulation and that largely translates into government action that should work to protect the drivers. But government has historically sat on the side of business. There's no legitimate reason why that should happen.
One answer might be for Teamsters to be able to negotiate industry-wide contracts in the face of government's unwillingness to establish regulations that effectively protect drivers' and related workers' wages, hours and working conditions, including driving conditions (roads and local and national driving regulations) which responsibility would be shouldered by companies not only the operators.
Independent owner-operators could organize and have committee membership on the joint labor side of the table. I'm quite sure the major players can fiigure out how to work together. There are quite a few stories, legend, of groups such as FASH and TDU. We don't get any news lately. Unfortnately, bad acts against leaders in the movement and the just plain grueling and hazards of the business silenced a lot of energy and voices.
Truckers deserve an even hand by getting some actual representation in government and by some support from brothers and sisters in Labor.
1
And so here is the catch 22. Trump wants companies to stay in America but american workers can't afford to buy american products because american companies won't pay an american living wage they want to pay a lower foreign living wage or less than that. In this case the trucking industry can't move these jobs overseas but they can refuse to pay living wages.
Somehow after the last recession corporations figured out they no longer needed to worry about increasing worker pay. The facts are clear: 1) record corporate profits, 2) CEO pay is increasing at record rates, 3) corporate record profits going to shareholders and upper management but not to workers or for capital improvements and 4) worker pay may (barely) or may not be keeping up with inflation.
And so the "booming" economy is only for the upper echelon and not for the worker class. Companies are no longer looking at the long term, it's just squeeze out as much profit right now. Let's face it the corporate world owns our government right now. This is unsustainable. What happens when this house of cards collapses?
9
Forced arbitration has become the enemy of the working and middle classes. Who put these kinds of laws in place? Businessmen, who buy themselves political offices and lobbyists.
Self-identified businessmen who run for office want to become politicians not to serve the people they are supposed to represent, but to be able to write legislation that will always favor management over workers, and deregulation over regulation.
Enough of this destructive pattern. Get rid of "businessmen" in politics, who are in it only for the advantages they can accrue, from engaging in insider trading to legislating against labor and environmental protections. I will never vote for another businessman for office.
If we're going to elect people from professions who haven't studied law or political science, then let's have teachers, artists, police, firemen, nurses, social workers, and others who care about the people in our society and their fates, and who understand the concept of public service -- not some corrupt businessmen who are only interested in what they can get out of public office for themselves.
13
I have had my CDL for years and have paid off two semi's. As an instructor, I have also trained thousands of drivers. What this article fails to mention is the profit margin of trucking companies which ranges from 2.4% to 4% (some trucking companies had 1 6% profit margin in 2017.)
So what this means is that for every dollar spent, the trucking company earned, on average, less than 6 cents - pretax!
So what happens to that "Less than 6% profit" when the price of fuel goes up by .20 cents per gallon?
Would I recommend trucking? NO!
Traffic has tripled since the 70's, yet the condition of our roads have deteriorated because of the States and Federal Governments mismanagement.
Income of 48k to 80k? Really? After driving 10 hours, then having to unload 40,000 lbs, then having to drive 200 miles to pickup the next load, which you have to load by hand two to three times a week... 80 thousand a year just doesn't compensate fairly!
You want safer roads? Then the driver should never touch the freight, unless that time is actually counted and paid for!
I could go on but am limited by what can be written!
I will end by saying again that I don't recommend trucking - it isn't worth the many sacrifices!
6
While the article claims that there are a shortage of truckers, the economic reality is that there are probably still too many. Trucking companies simply don’t have to raise rates. It’s not so different from universities that exploit adjuncts: too many newly—minted doctorates with the sunk costs of years of study—stay in low-paying jobs far longer than they should with the faint hope of a tenure-track job.
Why do truckers stay truckers? Perhaps they have other sunk costs, or like adjuncts, can’t imagine having a “regular” job. If enough truckers and adjuncts were willing to walk away, pay would have to rise, especially because trucking and teaching can’t be outsourced. Look at the current high demand and pay for pilots: 20 years ago there were articles and exposés about the dreadfully low pay and working conditions for young pilots. Scarcity has changed that.
Truckers may own their trucks, but beyond that what is their investment? It’s not like they went through medical school and owe hundreds of thousands (you can’t “sell” your education to get rid of the debt), and really can’t afford to change professions.
If the job is that bad, walk away. Sell the truck and find something else. Don’t expect Trump or anyone else to just wave a wand and make your life better.
2
Being an "Independent Contractor," which is the new employment norm, is the equivalent of slavery. No wonder the Republicans like it so much. The only way for workers to get fair wages, benefits and working condition is to unionize. The bosses get rich and the workers get low pay,long hours, and few benefits.
It is time for the Blue Collar workers to realize the the Republicans are not their friends. Blue Collar workers (and all others) are making less wages in real dollars now that my father did in the 60s.
8
So many Republicans are acting very illegaly, including Trump and many or most of his Cabinet appointees. You are correct in your interpretation of inappropriate treatment of 'Independent Contractors' by employers, many of whom make millions and occasionally billions of dollars by inappropriately having large numbers of people working for them at virtually no payment level. I have a difficult time finding any problem with immigrants who are obviously not illegal but responding to illegal aspects of their government likely caused by US government activities that are very inappropriate.
2
This is another classic example of where capitalism has gone wrong and no longer works for a large percentage of the population.In capitalism, wealth is created by the joint efforts of capital and labor, and the wealth produced is shared in an "equitable" manner. "Equitable" has largely gone out the window, assisted by the increasing demise of organized labor, and the greed of capital. How we get back to a system of capitalism that works for both sides is a mystery, but right now we seem to be going in the wrong direction.
2
Unions. Workers in jobs like truck driving need to act in concert; otherwise, they will be treated as fungible assets
2
"Computers will not be able to navigate all driving conditions, nor can they perform other job functions, like loading and unloading cargo."
I really wouldn't bet on that once someone is incentivized to figure out a system that computers can load and unload (how about compartmentalized pallets?).
The trucking industry, and truckers’ wages, seem to be a microcosm of the economy and wages in general. The age old economic wisdom is that, when there’s a shortage of workers, wages rise to attract them. Yet in trucking we see all manner of tactics being employed to avoid paying truckers more. The contractor subterfuge, in particular, mirrors what we see in other industries, such as Uber, and janitorial services. “We don’t have to pay them more, they’re self-employed!” How convenient that our economy combines “freedom” with the right to earn lower wages and paltry benefits. You want to fix the driver shortage? Pay higher salaries, with good benefits.
8
If you do any long distance travel for work, fun, or culture, you may, like me, spend a fair amount of time at truck stops and trucker plazas. While there, you may also notice the inordinate amount of support these folks have for Donald Trump.
I feel that they are in for some more disappointments on top of everything else. Unfortunately, it will be too late for them and probably anyone else to do anything about it.
Votes have consequences.
6
I drive otr, read the NYT and did not vote for Trump. More California and some out of state companies are starting to pay hourly for otr. They focus on better paying loads, better shippers and receivers who don't waste the drivers time at the dock. Those companies don't suffer turnover with the ongoing overhead to onboard a driver.
3
The article did not mention ELD or electronic loggiing devices that became law on 12/18/17. Such devices limit the hours a driver can actually work and forces them to get off the road. The ELDs have replaced the paper logs which allowed the drivers to drive illegally. as a result of the ELDs, trucking rates have gone up a lot. Layover charges are common place if a driver cannot make it back to home terminal within the hours.
1
Consider that most of what we Americans consume—from food to building materials (read “housing and homeimprovement”),and nearly all consumer products—comes to your store, or home in a truck.
These drivers work very hard, and are under enormous pressure to deilver things as quickly as possible on increasingly unsafe, congested, underfunder highways. It is astonishing that there are not more accidents and fatalities involving the trucking industry.
This is not because of companies’ safety programs but due to the diligence and responsible behavior of truckers who face dangerous work anddeterioration of domestic tranquility for an a diminishing $ reward.
Next time you see a truck trying to change lanes, or staying at or under the speed limit exhibit some patie ce and gratitude.
4
In addition to better pay, benefits, and safety standards in the trucking industry, is more rail lines and more shipping by rail. More rail lines and more rail shipping will reduce road congestion and reduce exhaust pollution.
5
Labor Day should be abolished or rechristened because the working wages and protections that were earned in the past hundred years have eroded.
What has also happened is that those who made it to middle to upper middle class jobs - ones who haven't suffered severe wage erosion in the last 2 decades - lost their connection with those issues.
They "forgot" - or weren't old enough to remember - that those who run big businesses are motivated by profit - which of course makes sense - and few are concerned with the living conditions of those at the bottom of the heap. They - we -are often more worried that we and our children don't end up there - in the wrong jobs,
the wrong neighborhoods.
Which means that this is and will always be a battle ground. Of course there is saner middle ground, but it takes strong government regulations - enforced - to defend the less powerful.
In the end having all of our working population earn a living wage benefits the entire country: to create general prosperity and stability-- money for schools, improved health, better educated children, or even more demand for consumer products (ala Henry Ford).
7
Forty years ago, I wrote a computer program to guide Safeway truck deliveries to stores in the East Bay. The "minutes program" was well-named, accounting for pay and OT, inventory and loading order, departure and arrival times for every store, traffic delays, weather, breaks and the like.
The Teamsters union contract mandated about half the details of the coding sequence. It was tedious, routine and fair, because it was bargained for.
That collective bargaining agreement meant every driver -- and every store manager -- knew exactly what to expect and when. And they had a procedure to address grievances.
Today's drivers would have more control if they organized.
32
The trouble with trucking is the same trouble afflicting labor in other industries.
It starts with the expansive categorization of workers as independent contractors. This enables companies to avoid treating people as employees and being accountable for their benefits. While good for business, it's terrible for workers. Most of the time. There are some people who prefer this arrangement, but most suffer. The industries range from trucking, to software programmers to adjunct faculties in colleges.
It worsens with the expansive use of arbitration clauses in lieu of the right to sue for damages, particularly, class action lawsuits. The reality of contract law in our country is that it is very expensive, requires intimate knowledge of the arcane, and well beyond the means of individual citizens to act as an effective redress of wrongs. In other words, the cards are stacked, marked and dealt from the bottom by corporations and larger businesses.
It completely bottoms out with the demise of unions and the loss of both collective bargaining and organization-funded legal services. The same constraints placed on workers noted above for arbitration and contract worker status applies here.
Unfortunately for labor, far too many individuals have bought into the "right to work" Orwellian speeches that have caused wages to stagnate for decades.
20
Except for the increasing numbers of over-paid and over-perked Deans, Vice-Chancellors, Vice-Presidents, Provosts and all the Associate and Assistant Deans, Vice-Chancellors, Vice-Presidents and Provosts, the average so-called "university" in the U.S. today significantly depends on underpaid non-benefited "independent contractor" professors to provide the "product" they sell. A public school teacher making $35K with benefits is far better off.
21
Years ago, institutions of higher learning began chucking out newly minted MBAs at an increasing rate. What is the focus of those MBAs? Cutting costs. What is one of the biggest categories of cost to businesses? Labor costs.
Labor, whether that be blue collar or white collar, whether that be direct or indirect charge, or whether that be touch or administrative, doesn't have a chance. There is no voice for those labor classes - unless there is a union.
I am not a fan of unions, but I am not a fan of executive management MBA-think either. Left to itself, management will rationalize away any responsibility for labor costs. Outsourcing labor is just one example. Touch labor must protect itself just as management must protect its profits. To do business, both sides need one another. I say they deserve each other. But that's why they call it 'work.'
10
Thanks for exposing the reality behind the current, touted unemployment rate and GDP. These traditional indicators don't really reveal much about quality of life for most Americans. If the economy were rosy for workers, rather than CEOs, we probably wouldn't have an opioid epidemic.
While wages for many sectors of the economy have stagnated since the late 1970s, the cost of living, and the costs of housing and medical care, have all risen inexorably, squeezing many Americans like a vice.
10
As the mother of a former long haul trucker, I read this article with great interest. It mirrors my son’s experience over the past 8 years completely. From the lease operator scam to companies with incompetent load managers, running out of hours while waiting to be loaded, and the best of all, paying out of pocket to ‘reserve’ a parking spot at a truck stop to sleep those mandated 10 hours, he’s seen it all. His pay, dependent on miles, never came close to the promises.
Thanks for telling the truth.
35
Paying by the mile instead of by the hour is the core of the problem. Piecework type wages almost always leads to abuse and overwork. Mandating that interstate trucking pay by the hour would ensure that everyone makes minimum wage and would make it easier for truckers to undersatnd how much they're making.
And it would also remove the tremendous incentive for truckers to falsify their logs and drive without sleep.
9
Piecework, also known as flat-rate, is ALWAYS good for the employer and ALWAYS bad for the worker. An hourly wage would be a start toward a more shared economy.
"WORKERS UNITE!!!"
One of the villains in this piece is the rise of the independent contractor system. This is a scourge across a wide variety of industries. Big tech firms are huge abusers. Take Microsoft. They have tiers of employees, even down to which level of the Microsoft store you can shop at! The independent contractors have no benefits and limits to the months they can work before the job ends and they can’t be rehired (IF they are rehired) for 6 months. They shop on the 1st floor of the Microsoft Store. Regular employees, hard positions to get, can shop on the Second Floor of the Microsoft Store. VIP’s are the only ones who can shop on the Third Floor. Those with the super high wages get the super duper deals. This is how big business wants our country’s workers stratified. Those who support right wing legislators and judges - THIS is the system you have been enabling across all industries. Those of you confined to the First Floor of the American Store - stop voting for the GOP who wants to bar you from the 2nd Floor.
21
Don't worry, this will eventually all be sorted out by torchlight and pitchforks.
AMERICAN WORKERS UNIONIZE!
CAPITALISM NEEDS REVISION!
1
The trouble with trucking is that our freight and much of passenger transportation should be put back on the railroads where it belongs. It would result in fewer accidents and truck terrorism on our publicly financed highways, markedly less pollution and insanely high road damages,less expensive, and the list goes on. The nearby trains we hear occasionally are quiet compared to the constant nasty high whine of tractor trailers on our nearby interstate. Members of our family and myself have been wrecked and terrorized by these behemoths forever, so that going on certain roads in less than perfect weather is avoided.
12
Dock to dock driving will soon be done by self-driving trucks.
Take truck driver off your list of long term job career prospects.
2
The trucking industry is supposedly facing this driver turnover challenge that no one can fix because people don't want to drive trucks.
Average turnover is close to 100% and it can cost over $10,000 to recruit a new driver and much more to make them as competent as the experienced one who just left.
Trucking companies' failure to increase wages can be blamed on greed and the failure of capitalism to properly share the wealth. But unfortunately it's not as much greed as incompetence. Incompetence to recognize the true source of the problem.
Raise wages and let drivers be home more frequently. The investment in making that happen might be repaid much faster than you think.
9
The people who run the trucking industry, and other industries, are too stupid to have thoughts such as these.
GREED is their go-to impulse, and thoughts of economic parity are too much of a stretch.
1
No industry cries out more for regulation than the trucking industry. No industry highlights our abysmal infrastructure more than the trucking industry. Our interstates are now bumper to bumper nightmares where you compete for space and put your life at risk. It would take more space than this comments section to spell out the inefficiency and corrupt practices of at least half of the companies clogging our highways.
The American Trucking Association is little more than the equivalent of the National Rifle Association. Bigger, more dangerous trucks driven by more underpaid, overworked, untrained drivers is their goal.
This message was brought to you by someone who spent more than 40 years in trucking, most of it in management.
430
So, why doesn't more freight get moved by train instead of our highways being clogged up with these highly inefficient trucks, driven by so many sleep deprived, unqualified, drivers?
2
Thank you for the attention to the issue which is really a cry for the resurgence of organized labor. Cheers.
6
Deregulation is antithetical to the idea that "Good rules make good neighbors". Industry spent billion$ cleaning up hazardous waste that they had intentionally dumped into rivers and allowed to seep into our drinking water aquifers. Nearly all of the chemical and petrochemical companies and refineries that did the dumping had chemists and chemical engineers on staff who knew better and knew what the ultimate result would be.
Now, after less than 40 years of expensive cleanup, some of those same companies want to start the cycle all over again. Isn't doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result called craziness?
5
@Dottie The old fixeroo is back, and the corporate heads know it because they financed and masterminded the republican takeover of our country. It's actually the corporate/1% takeover.
1
Killing unions has lowered pay. Another documented case of such. I drove for many years and it is a good job, but not easy.
13
How do you organize a group of people that are scattered across the country.
Big carriers have adopted a subcontractor system that makes organization darn difficult.
Drivers literally owe their soul to the company finance store having a lien or lease on their truck. And controlling the means to pay that note.
Tennessee Ernie Ford's ''16 Tons'' describes today's trucking , ''another day older and deeper in debt''
They are stuck between the trailer and the fifth wheel.
I had a commercial drivers license for 48 years.
187
@Lawrence Actually the new business model is to classify all non-management employees are "independent contractors." Almost all hospital are now 95% independent contractors who receive no pension or other benefits. Why workers vote Republican is beyond me in that the Republican Party is against all worker's rights and unionization.
3
@Lawrence The same way they used to years ago. They should all join the Teamsters Union.
1
If the job is that bad, why are there so many trucks clogging our highways? Why, if the drivers are being so unfairly treated, does the local truck driver school near me continually turn out full classes of drivers who have a job waiting for them? Finally, why drive a truck for a company that treats it's drivers poorly and has low pay? You don't need to unionize, you need to work for someone else, or do something else. If you choose to be a slave, don't complain to the slave owner.
Most businesses when saddled with a 98% turn-over rate would look inside at their practices, particularly wages, salaries and benefits to at least slow the churn.
It has been said that employee turnover costs a company $30,000 to $40,000 per year. Some of those costs could be shaved as the truck driver direct hire possibly pays the cost of training.
Regardless of who pays the training costs, turnover must be a sizable expense for those trucking companies that is ultimately passed on to the customer.
If those trucking companies are content with the high cost of turnover, I believe those managing the companies need to be shown the door and competent management brought in to at least slow the churn.
10
Ironic isn't it? So many of the people who do this for a living happily support the very administration that is hostile to their best interests. I'd say that their karma ran over their dogma.
11
Am an attorney just finishing 1 year as a trucker. Can vouch for this article and will ask my Congressmen to legislate to rectify these problems
3
Most Americans agree that a free market works best. Yet it often leads to a race to the bottom and abuses. Clearly in many instances characterizing people who work regularly for one company as contractors is an abuse that could be rectified by an administration that cares about the little guy.
It's almost comical that the administration wants to drop the age to 18. Weren't these the same folks who claimed we can't raise fuel efficiency standards because it would increase driving and thus deaths?
11
Interesting that this topic is making the front pages now. The problem of low pay and poor working conditions etc has been going on in the trucking industry for many years. Now, when the economy starts to heat up, it becomes a problem thats noticed. Given a few months or years when the business cycle slows again all this discussion about a driver shortage will fade again.
1
Low wages also equal more highway deaths .
3
How many articles about an industry using the law, government regulations and every underhanded trick they can think of to cheat and break their workers are we going to see? Truckers, fast food workers, service people, clerks, etc. etc. all are telling the same story. Soon we will all be in our individual industry’s underbelly. Soon we will have a country of overlords and serfs.
People, stop voting for candidates who will do you harm.
417
Those pesky "government regulations" can improve worker's lives and safety.
Reagan's legacy of "government is the problem" has eliminated many worker protections. This article illustrates the result. "Let them eat cake" has become "Let them survive on 22 cents a mile."
Until enough of the 99% starts voting in their own interest, or starts packing the 0.01% into tumbrils and hauling them off to the nearest guillotine, nothing will change.
Hopefully it is the former, and our Republic survives.
19
Look at how long it took teachers to change their working conditions. Unionize, rally and resist.
7
This is the microcosm of why economic change is slow. Old patterns are sticky even when they are harmful or at least non-remunerative.
1
These issues for truckers and most other workers started with the PATCO strike.
When the Reagan administration broke the ATC union, every trucker should have parked their rig, every miner should have laid down their tools, and every other union worker in the country should have walked in solidarity.
Until labor again unites and demonstrates our might, the workers will continue to get it in the neck.
466
@neal miller
Instead, labor seems to be getting less and less powerful.
1
@neal miller
"Until labor again unites and demonstrates our might, the workers will continue to get it in the neck."
Man, if only. Not just labor needs to unite, bu consumers as well. Especially when you take into consideration the following sentence from today's Op-Ed.
"New Prime, which declined through its lawyer to comment on Mr. Oliveira’s allegations, has appealed the case to the Supreme Court, which will hear arguments in October."
Given the current composition of the Supreme Court, I don't hold out much hope for a ruling in Mr. Oliveira's favour. But if they rule for New Prime, then perhaps not just every trucker could park their rigs, but across the entire economy, everyone who is not prohibited by law from striking could stop work, and all consumers could engage in mass boycotts until the law is changed to be more favourable to humans. Many corporations have proven to be more parasitic than symbiotic to the community.
3
@neal miller Barvo Neal Miller! And every eligible member of the American Electorate must: Register and Vote, Be Informed and Organize.
2
It is sad. I was going to show this article to a friend who recently retired from a career of long haul trucking with his own truck. He thinks Trump is great. I think his companion on those long trips was right wing radio. And those ideas were bolstered by truck stop chats with people also listening to Rush Limbaugh and such-chats that gave him a feeling of fellowship.
It is a good article. And he is a smart man. Somehow though, I think he will come up with something to brush it off-something maybe about how Trump is not like those other Republicans .
Somehow the conditions have been right to lead to the perfect storm of Donald Trump. Deregulation started it under Reagan. And somehow, along the way, unions lost power. And it is odd but union members became more Republican . And issues not directly affecting truck drivers were played up to anger them-like abortion and immigration and welfare and such. And of course racism has been encouraged overtly and with dog whistles (“racism of all kinds” from Trump-his people know he is talking about them as victims).
20
@Anne,
The right winging of union members started in earnest during the Vietnam conflict when AFL-CIO leaders, Teamsters leaders, many law enforcement union leaders and other union leaders supported the war and spoke out strongly against the peace movement. There was a period starting in about 1968 when a significant portion of Democratic politicians had begun to speak out against the war. They were vilified by powerful union leaders. As an anti-war young person who had grown up in a union household in a union city I closely watched this play out. In my opinion the distrust of progressives it sowed in many in the working class is what led to Reagan and enabled everything anti-worker that has followed. I don't believe for a second that was Walter Reuther's intent, he was making sure not to be seen as unpatriotic, but I do believe that was what happened. Remember that very few bought it when Goldwater was selling it in1964.
2
As with any job you have to know the rules and make sure the job (or business) is what you desire, or the best you can do. I know drivers who make 100K per year and being trainers don't even actually drive sometimes. Cherry picking can always find people being taken advantage of. And of course today the value of capital is more than somewhat unskilled labor. Self driving trucks are coming, making the job easier.
1
Cherrypicking can always find people making $100,000 per year. The fact that a FEW drivers make that much in no way suggests that the majority of drivers can make anywhere near that salary in the current deregulated climate. Your logic is faulty. Most drivers, especially younger drivers, are being exploited.
1
The trucking sector is hardly unique in its exploitation of workers within the transportation industry. I am a locomotive engineer with a major Class I railway here in Canada. Like truckers, I’m paid on a per mile basis which means that I’m not remunerated unless the wheels are moving. This has many damaging implications. A 12 hour trip is paid the same as a 6 hour trip. Because of dead time spent at away from home terminals, round trips usually equate to around 36 hours, most of that time essentially unpaid. The company harangues workers to work, three 36 hour trips per week not being abnormal. Everyone operates on an on call basis with no structured or reliable schedule by which the worker can gauge when he or she will be required for duty. Most workers are subject to duty periods that run 24/7, time off only for mandated rest, vacation, or an “earned day off” accrued after 30 days of no absences, taken at the company’s discretion on days allotted to the worker. Fatigue becomes a major factor very quickly, and, over time, general health breaks down. In my terminal alone, over 80 employees of working age have fatally succumbed to illness over the past decade, a horrific rate of attrition. When a worker opts to take rest, he or she is frequently punitively disciplined. The wider detrimental effect on families is vile.
Government complicity is rife in this situation, cases forced to hostile arbitration. There is a scandal afoot in the movement of our material goods.
20
The cost of hauling finished goods from, say, Texas to Colorado is suddenly double that of the return trip by the same shipper. Makes no sense and it surely impacts the costs of goods.
This recapitulates the actual struggle we have between Capital and Labor. Politically we call Capital, Republican and/or Conservative. and we call Labor, Liberal (not Democrat anymore). Liberal is a dirty word because of a marketing campaign that liberals only want gay marriage, hate military, hate religion, hate America, which is misleading.
So, is pro-business, anti-labor? Or is pro-labor, anti-business? Perhaps and thus a balance could be struck but who represents labor? Unions are practically gone. Perhaps they need to be resurrected, but business now owns the presidency, Congress and the Supreme Court, so good luck.
I just read the article about Wisconsin at a crossroads, a once progressive, manufacturing, union state, now a Republican right to work, business friendly state, education less friendly state. What strategy works best, attract business with low wage, yet motivated workers or well educated workers with higher pay and a better standard of living, or is there some compromise (which we don't do anymore)?
Frankly, I think the Democrats have to get back to the labor argument as their core. They have to redefine "Liberal" to its real meaning and redefine "Conservative" as honesty, seriousness, frugality and honor, something they can accept, and ask the "conservative" workers to come home.
3
It's true that many truck drivers probably voted for Trump. But that's backward looking. The question is, are the Democrats paying attention to the real-life stories of people like them and ready to come forward with real solutions on the campaign trail? Too often when asked how they will address income inequality, their response is the tepid "early childhood education, blah, blah," which does nothing to help hard-working people hanging by their fingernails right now. One reason why people often don't vote Democrat is because they seem bought by the same interests that own the Republicans. And the Republicans promise to build a wall because, they argue, all will be well when there are no more "illegals" crossing the border; the voters are then all in. A false solution, but still a solution. To Democratic candidates: Listen to people, present real, immediate solutions, not the gobbledygook that is an obvious wink to major corporate donors, and good things will happen.
221
@DL If you spend any time driving cross country for work, leisure, etc., you will probably also spend time at truck stops and truckers plazas. Fox News playing on all TV's and Limbaugh blasting from truck cabs while pumping gas. I've heard truckers bash "libtards" while sharing these facilities with them.
Lots of MAGA hats too. Truck stops can be educational and depressing.
2
@DL
Excellent advice! I think there are probably many Trump voters who would be willing to vote for Democrats if they would offer real solutions.
@DL you are right there. When you can get health and retirement benefits for your family you feel like you’re building something - when you’re just paying the man you feel like a sucker so you listen to the most belligerent voice in the bar.
Democrats - build the dream, don’t just focus on complaining about the GOP.
I'm old enough to remember the trucker's strike back in the 70's. Our country came to a halt. Truckers are very important but our vile hateful corporations as we have seen no longer wish to pay human for any kind of work. THAT is why autonomous vehicles are coming into being whether we like it or not. We as a people no longer have choices they are decided by our corrupt politicians. Truckers like doctors NEED to be paid a good wage period.
3
@joe Hall
But see, Doctors have the AMA, American Medical Association, basically their union. AMA has one of the largest lobbying budgets in the country.
1
Why can't we just force the capitalists to pay the truckers a Living Wage? And when prices inevitably rise for The People, we can just force the capitalists to lower their prices or face a big fine or, better yet, prison time with hard labor. And when those trucking companies go bankrupt and their employees are out of work, we can loot the companies' remaining assets to help the poor truckers with their expenses. And if that isn't enough, we can always tax and fine those capitalists who exploited Working Families in the first place. Who could possibly argue with this perfectly reasonable scheme?
2
@Ed L.Price controls will result in shortagesI It has happened in the past and would occur again if and when the producers decide "Why Bother" and cease production and/or sales. Your Venezuelan model is a recipe for disaster; just look at how well it is working in that country.
And meanwhile trucking company owners just got a tax cut. Let’s just be really simple about this: the reason long-haul truckers don’t make any money is the same reason nobody else who works for a living in this country makes any money - Republicans. Their policy is economic Darwinism. Just wait until here’s no more Social Security, because that day is coming.
4
I think it's safe to assume that the CEOs and managers of the companies producing and selling the goods that are shipped by truck are not having trouble paying their rent or buying their groceries. The Republican party has brilliantly hoodwinked (white) American workers into believing they have their best interests at heart, and the Democratic party has failed at giving those workers candidates they feel represent them. The Republican party are simply better salesmen.
3
It's kind of funny that capitalism seems to work only in one direction.
If you don't find workers maybe raise the wages and improve the work conditions. It's not rocket science.
19
A bit pollyannish, don't you think?
As a recent entrant into trucking world at the ripe age of 63, I've found it to be refreshing change after working 40 years in financial service industry. I do, however, miss the quinoa salads at the monthly sensitivity training sessions.
Most "newbies" in my eight week training course are like myself - second-career men, 50+ years old.
There's absolutely no trainees under 30 yrs old (let alone 21) probably because there's zero tolerance for drug use of any kind, backed up regular, random DoT drug testing. And if you have a poor driving record, the insurance companies will weed you out (not the trucking companies.)
Like all minimum wage jobs, driving truck offers low-skill job opportunities i.e. the "first rung", or part-time retirement gigs for old guys like me.
Anyone who stays in any low-paying job like trucking for very long must really want to be there... sorta like a staff writer in the newspaper business, I suppose.
3
you couldnt get one of these to get in the union.if they did they could make a living wage.
I once met a truck driver at a truck stop who told me he had worked for a company that instructed: If you are about to crash with a car, aim to kill the passengers, as the liability would be less than if you just disable them.
87
@Susan Orlins
And I once met a truck driver who told me his company told to avoid a collision at all costs - including putting himself in danger.
Now what do we do with our sample size of two?
6
@Susan Orlins Actually, they teach you that because it saves your life as a driver. Clipping a car usually punctures your front tire causing you to tip over and go off the road or into oncoming traffic.
In a world where consumers want cheap products and businesses want to capture all the profits they can, this is the squeeze on the wage earner you get.
All parties offloading costs on to everybody else at every opportunity.
This is the Free Market and the Libertarian Dream World.
My rights and freedoms over your rights and freedoms.
My wants over your needs.
Financial and property wealth flowing to the most predatory humans among us.
MB
9
Like developers in the IT industry and clerks in big-box stores, independent truckers are ripe for unionization. Each of these industries can little afford walkouts over contract issues.
Traditional unions often have governance issues and deep structual problems like the insistance on seniority instead of competence in bargaining. It may be time to rethink unions and develop models that bargain for one single issue: compensation. There ought to be an app for that.
8
The author suggests the increased cost of providing truckers a living wage would be spread among the billions of tons of merchandise moved by trucks each year.
Why not have the cost of a living wage borne by the C-suite wages of the companies providing them contracts? No doubt the C-suite wages have increased more than decreased over the last 30 years.
4
Oh, those doggone unions again, stepping in to assure drivers of a decent middle-class standard of living. Jeezle . . . some of them might even able to afford homes and send their children to college. Hopefully, the GOP will eventually prevail entirely and stop this madness.
11
If ever a profession was screaming for unionization that of a truck driver is definitely it.
5
Please don’t blame this on Trump. The chart of the wages only goes to 2017.
However, for those truckers without satellite radio, all you get for talk radio is Rush and co. This would be a great opportunity for Trump to turn things around. It’s a win-win. He can honestly point to a problem he didn’t create, work to fix it, satisfy a demographic that likely voted for him AND help the country.
And of course there’s the classic shot of him giggling like a girl while pretending to drive a truck!
@SXM I don't see a problem for the government to address, the market will take care of it properly.
Seems to me that the biggest swamp in Washington, D.C. is the politics of corporate power and money that are withholding decent wages and care for their employees.
Why would we ever trust big business? The stink of corporate rot in values and the lack of decency and character in our politicians -- even those who would swear on the bible of greed they are all in for the common good, undermine the trust and respect we have for current leadership.
Religious rot and horrendous abuse of children and adults in many countries, not just ours, has mocked the "Christian" values of care, concern, empathy, and support for others who are suffering.
How dare these trucking companies, and so many other companies and industries, cheat these hardworking employees and undermine their sense of worth and value.
The seeds of destruction are sowing destruction of what we love about our country. It's very hard to get rid of kudzu.
13
@Diane,
"Why would we ever trust big business?"
One can always trust big business, little business and all the businesses in between to be in business for profits, dividends and bonuses and will pay as little as is profitable for overhead.
It's not the business of Business to provide jobs with a living wage, benefits, health care and vacation for the employees and does so only because competition for, and mobility in, the work-force has made it profitable, compounded by the vagaries of the economic cycle.
Business has neither a conscience nor a social calling, trust in that.
2
Let us face it friends, the US is rife with exploitation and corruption but we hide that fact behind a lot of good sounding clichés. Serfdom for many Americans is a reality right now and those doing well as a result are not likely to change. Will the exploited vote for those who will do their best to level the playing field? Unfortunately and sadly, I doubt it. Sorry to post such a negative opinion.
13
I'm not against markets. Money is a great economic lubricant. If you tried to end money and markets, unofficial money and back markets world appear.
But markets have problems that markets can't fix. The biggest problem is market manipulation by those with the most wealth. For example mandatory arbitration gives them control over disputes beaten them and the people they hire. The owners of capital are not above suing people and do it often. But they have set up a system where their employees and contractors can't sue them. They pay the arbitrators and the arbitrators know it. How do we think the market works there?
The "free market" religion that the rich have converted many Americans into believing is centralizing wealth and power in the hands of a FEW THOUSAND PEOPLE that CONTROL more than half of the world's wealth. Half of everything: money, land, machinery, 75% of stocks (to control decision making), etc. Again: HALF OF EVERYTHING!
The very people who keep telling us that centralizing control of the economy is evil have centralized the economy under their them. They own controlling shares all of global mass media, and have gotten the Supreme Court to make their corporations super citizens, and their money into speech.
A market without regulation is controlled by the people with the money to control the market.
Democracy is supposed to spread power to all people equally. We the People are the real Job Creators, because labor creates wealth.
Take Our Power Back.
23
So, what percentage of these drivers voted for Trump? I’m guessing a large majority. And ended up voting for less pay and worse working conditions. MAGA, baby!
8
This seemed like a news article, not an opinion piece. I would be happier if the Times gave us more coverage of the economy and less of Trump's lies and election prognostications.
6
@david
I think you might be underestimating the extent to which truckers, trucking, the maintenance of the manufacturing supply chain, and the delivery of consumer goods "is" the economy.
1
Why no mention of the Teamsters "North America's Strongest Union"? What about their fight with the TDU and the UPS drivers? It's certainly an important part of this story.
5
As a driver who left the industry in 1982 due to deregulation, I believe it is important to note how trucking got to where it is today. Prior to deregulation, most long-haul freight was relayed by companies operating a network of terminals. This allowed drivers to return home almost daily and usually work no more than a 10-hour day. Then came deregulation which lowered barriers to entry into trucking, eliminated geographical operating boundaries, and allowed for competitive pricing on rates. The result was an onslaught of individuals looking to capitalize on this new opportunity. Before long, companies that once operated a terminal network vanished in part because they were unable to support their operation in a competitive marketplace. The practice of relaying freight was replaced by new companies operating trucks with "sleeper berths" and rather than relay freight, drivers today often deliver freight directly from shipper to consignee. These "over-the-road" drivers are forced to live in their truck often for weeks at a time, work a 14-hour day every day, and work for free any time the truck is not moving. If that's not enough, local drivers who do return home daily and that are paid hourly often do not receive overtime. In my opinion, the fix for the industry is not just about money but being able to live a normal life. Only when companies return to relaying freight and stop demanding a grueling 70-hour workweek will driver retention be on the road to recovery.
30
“...prohibit truck drivers from spending more than 11 hours in a 14-hour period behind the wheel. In practice, many work much more than that because nondriving hours are not counted.”
This is incorrect. All hours count toward the 14-hour maximum.
This is part of the problem. If a driver is forced to wait, say, 5 hours during pick-up or delivery, he or she couldn’t legally drive for more than 9 hours.
8
I was a delivery driver for nine years, working for a Coca-Cola bottler. When I started in 2005, we made $60 to 70,000 a year for 60-80 hour weeks. The conditions were very tough, but the money was good. By the time I left, the pay was down to $50,000. The way the company reduced our pay was to switch us from regular hourly with overtime to hourly with VROT (variable rate overtime) which pays you half of your regular hourly wage for the first hour of overtime but then goes down for each hour of overtime. This terrible way of paying overtime is not based on law. It is based on an interpretation of the law by Ronald Reagan's Labor Dept.
I'm a Democrat, but I'll tell you how disappointed I was that Obama did not simply reverse this regulation, and dozens of other anti-worker loopholes that companies use everyday. I sometimes feel that no one in power really understands the plight of blue-collar workers and is willing to fix the obscure loopholes these companies probably fight for with their political donations and battalions of lawyers.
76
@Scott Gray After eight years of Bush and Republican control, Obama had his hands full when he took office. Also, he can't just issue decrees to unilaterally "reverse this regulation". Everything starts in congress and ends up with the President signing or vetoing. I know, presidents can issue "Executive Orders, but these only last for as long as their tenure in office.
The industry is apparently 50,000 drivers short, so it seems supply/demand would be driving up incomes. Trucking rates have risen sharply in the last 6 months (see Cass Truckload Linehaul Index). Where's that money going if not into the trucker's pockets?
5
@Todd Howell Gas, new trucks, technology to improve delivery, congestion.
The problems mentioned in the article are true, as well as worse things. As a short-haul trucker, we paid for our own fuel, tires, and repairs, regularly had to falsify our DOT daily logs to hide driving as much as 17 hours per day, there was little time for sleep, being required to show up at the freight terminal as early as 2:00AM, load and unload our own trucks, pay full retail value of any lost cartons, load freight in conditions higher than 100 degrees (even hotter in the truck box) and meet countless regulations.
When all was said and done it worked out to about minimum wage. Not to mention the sloppy bookkeeping that sometimes "forgot" to pay us our due. The only thing I got out of it was muscles.
Like most of them, I loved driving my truck, at first. It was cool and it was fun. But I would never, ever do it again. I've done a lot of menial jobs but that was the absolute worst. You had to hustle for 10-12 hours at a stretch and get almost nothing in return.
Health insurance? No way. One day after an accident I had to drive back to the terminal with two broken bones, then pay $700 for a cast. There was no driver support system.
New drivers would come in, work a few weeks and seeing how things went, would quit. That's how they kept the place going. and this was a fairly well-known company.
20
Abject greed at the top. That's what has defined the USA since Reagan. That, and patriotism through military service being replaced by flag lapel pin patriotism.
Nothing is said about long-haul truckers of modern day being like cattle drivers in the 1870s. With energy and infrastructure issues, much of this long-haul shipping should be converted to rail, and indeed might gradually be as increasing fuel prices make this unsustainable on such a large scale as in recent decades. In produce in particular, it makes no sense to have this hauled across the country from California or Florida, two major examples, to those consuming the food shipped this way, and yet making much produce (such as Idaho potatoes in the east, or Maine potatoes in the west; or Washington apples in New York or Michigan which grow plenty of apples) cheaper than those grown more locally or regionally. When produce is purchased, people should be aware of buying as much as possible from local or regional growers vs. from across the country.
Nothing was said as well about the necessary infrastructure improvements of roads and bridges that large trucks in great numbers cause great wear and tear, especially with the double and in some states triple trailers that are a hazard to everyone who drives.
4
An issue not dealt with in this editorial is safety. The same safety features now standard in new cars to protect you and your fellow travelers are not mandated for trucks. The trucking lobby quashed legislation that would upgrade safety standards to lessen the number of road accidents and save people’s lives in case of accidents involving trucks. Truckers are also permitted to drive longer hours without stopping. I’d like to see some statistics on the number of accidents caused by truckers and subpar safety equipment in trucks as a result of this laxity and deregulation.
I know whereof I speak. A few years ago my husband and I were the victims of a careless truck driver in an 18-wheeler who slammed into the rear of our stationary car, and we live with permanent consequences. What would it add to the cost of a new truck or the retrofitting of an existing truck to upgrade safety standards? But corporations and their bought-and-paid-for legislators don’t have public safety on their list of priorities.
21
Adjusted for inflation since 1979 truckers wages are down about 20% from $55K (inflation adjusted) in '79 to $45K today. Obviously not a good development for them. The reference to 1979 caught my attention because I was a first year public school teacher earning $13K that year. We forget that historical wage discrimination against women favored heavily male industries like trucking over industries with a greater female presence like K-12 education, secretaries and nurses. I suspect truckers had a 20% sex based premium back in 1979. Accordingly a change in the opposite direction was due and de-regulation spurred that along.
2
Remarkably this could all be solved with a decent minimum living wage.
Trucking companies resist upping wages to attract new drivers because they would lose a competitive edge, but if all the companies had to pay a decent minimum, shipping rates would go up minimally but drivers would have dignity and companies could compete on grounds other than who can get away with paying drivers the least.
11
@Mark Marks’s Sure "solve" one problem and create many others, typical of progressives.
1
@vulcanalex I think the current culture of underpaying people at all costs causes people to utilize gov't safety net programs and many other problems. The only problem minimum pay would cause is a slight increase in shipping rates.
Driver age is not as important as driver emotional control. It is increasingly common seeing big rigs being maneuvered like a commuter cowboy - tailgating, speeding, abrupt lane changes.
These drivers put everyone on the road at risk.
Being paid by the mile is part of their rationale. They are also feeding off perceived offenses of other drivers that boils into various states of rage.
Professional drivers stay out of the escalating packs and maintain high safety standards.
Keep Calm and Live to Drive Another Mile
4
Imagine, doing a job paid piece-rate is an economically losing proposition. Who knew? Ummm..... everyone? The Fair Wages and Labor Act is 80 years old.
Uber drivers, commission sales people, truck drivers, are all paid on piece rate, not hours. Some 1099 work is essentially piece rate as well - a way to spin off labor costs by not hiring full time workers with benefits.
In the trucking industry, the pay-per-mile creates an incentive for a trucker to get the trip done as fast as possible. Construction, congestion, and sleep can cost him serious money, as can a low speed limit. That is not a formula for safe operation.
We need to come to another epiphany, as we did in the 30s. What is our labor goal? To have a robust consumer middle class, or to have the lowest possible wages, skirting being called a sweat shop?
The way we are driving value to the investor at the cost of value to the actual provider of labor and services, makes me wonder if we will legalize indentured servitude again. Actually I don't wonder at all. Look at the payday loan industry and answer for yourself.
41
I feel for these truckers but, as always, the question must be asked: How many of them vote Republican because they're duped by the Fox propaganda? When Mr. Oliveira's case comes before the Supreme Court, he'd have had an excellent chance of winning if Merrick Garland was on the bench. Did he vote? Did he think about that? Sadly, I suspect not.
46
@CarolSon Or better yet why they can't quit and find a better job? Voting has nothing to do with the job you can do, in fact more opportunities mean you can leave and find something better.
1
The downward trend in pay sighted in the article is even worse if you consider that health care costs have soared; especially for independent contractors. This segment of the trucking industry is the equivalent of a Chinese dormitory factory on wheels. I wonder what New Prime CEO Robert E. Low makes in salary? The industry average for a CEO is $6.2M.
https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/people.asp?privcapId=6...
Thank you to the NYT Editorial Board for raising this issue. You could probably do a similar segment every Sunday on different occupations where this is happening across America.
70
This is a dying profession and on the cusp of being automated. The only way for the few remaining to survive is to join the union. But of course the trucking companies will do all they can to prevent this through whatever means necessary including lying to 18 year olds about how great this job is.
9
@Josue Azul Sure it is. In your dreams, even a self driving truck will need a human to do the paperwork, assist in loading and unloading and probably driving on roads as well as parking. Not to mention the fleet would need a long time to turn over if such a truck existed today which it does not.
Those who wish to put the blame for this situation at the feet of the Republicans are incorrect. I was a long haul tractor trailer driver for 7 months in 1976. I left because it was a very poor way to make money. Drivers pull low paying loads out of yards, because if they don't someone else will. Carter was president at the time. Change only comes from a concerted effort between the house, senate, and the executive. Dropping the age from 21 to 18 seems like a bad idea to me. It will all soon be over, when reliable autopilot makes drivers as relevant as buggy whip makers. But being a relatively free country, there will be a few drivers around trying to compete with autopilots in a losing battle against the progress of technology. I am a conservative. We should not pass laws to try to protect people from change. Change is inevitable. Embrace change and succeed, resist change and be swept away. It has always been the American way that we struggle as individuals with these challenges. Failure is the flip side of the success coin. Without the opportunity to fail, there can be no opportunity to succeed. Only mediocrity. The poor will always be with us. and you can help them anytime you want. Just don't expect Caesar to do it. It is not what government is set up for. Ever time government attempts, it just makes the problem worse.
3
@H. S. Rink President Carter was elected in 1976, but took officer in 1977. If you are going to blame a President, blame Gerald Ford who was in the White House throughout 1976.
@H. S. Rink
Far be it from me to spoil a perfectly good rant by injecting facts but Carter did not take office as president till 1997. I suppose you could blame him for Georgia though even there he left office in 1975.
3
@H. S. Thank you for the articulation of the conservative view. However, in the interest of developing some " inevitable change," perhaps you'd consider some mutually beneficial alt-perspectives.
First, "reliable autopilot" for the majority of routes won't be available in our lifetimes, and the potential benefits we might all enjoy if these truckers had a living wage in our lifetimes far outweigh, say a 15% raise over 5yrs e.g. other-occupation training, safety from 11hr days behind wheel. Second, considering the vast disparity of wages in our society, we might agree that a more adequate wage for some truckers would allow more to reach "optimal employment" sooner, making the struggle and its spinoffs less costly to us more fortunate. Are either of us better-off if we have to step over the dying at the curb? And lastly, government was set up for mutual benefit. How are we all better-off if so many are suffering? That we haven't figured out how to provide the right coverage and incentives doesn't condemn the concepts of cooperation and mutuality.
6
I have been asking for years why the per-mile paradigm still is the norm in trucking. It encourages aggressive, sometimes reckless choices on the part of drivers, it creates the need for the government's bizarre, labryinthian hours-of-service laws and an whole industry devoted to deciphering them, it creates tax headaches and hassles for the drivers (and costs to prepare tax returns) and makes our highways less safe. Not to mention discouraging people from adopting the occupation.
Why on earth not make drivers salaried? Or hourly. If you get some who are dogging it to extend their paychecks, address that on an individual basis. Most delays are out of drivers' control -- logjams at loading docks, weather, traffic.
I am not part of the trucking industry but I listen to the trucker station on satellite radio often enough to have a lot of questions about how this vital service is run, regulated and recruted for.
Now they are agitating to get 18-year-olds behind the wheels of i nterstate 18-wheelers, to address the so-called driver shortage. No thanks. I don't like teens behind the wheels of their mom's SUV let alone behemoth trucks at 70mph.
Why dooesn't the NYT do a deep dive -- not anecdate, but using real financials from tucking firms and DoT data -- to tell us more about the financial rubrics of this industry and why it can't be improved?
22
The trucking industry is not alone in trying to pay a non living wage to workers. I saw a TV satellite dish company pay installers for each installation, regardless of the time the installation took, toll roads driven, and deducting $40 a week for gas in the company van.
They to had an almost 100% turnover rate.
18
No mention of the Teamsters. If wages are not going up in the trucking industry then drivers are competing against themselves for wages. One thing unions try to do is to monopolize the labor market in order to determine wages throughout the country. I often wonder why workers place so much trust in their employers to do the "right thing' and pay their workers a living wage, provide nice pension and health benefits and vacation times. The reason is is that they don't have to. Make them have to - unionize!
61
It probably doesn’t help [our labor force] much that the entire point of automation was always intended to completely eliminate all need for human labor.
This was always its widespread appeal. This is the selling point.
7
Unions protect workers from being exploited. Unions protect workers from being under paid. Unions protect workers from unsafe working conditions. Unionized truckers have better pay and better working conditions.
Why isn't every worker in the Union?
111
@Ronny. I recently had some work done on my home alarm system, I belong to one of the top alarm companies in the US. The worker and I chatted as he did his work, telling me that the company is covered by a union, and that he recently had gotten a raise and was due another one at the end of the year. He didn't belong to the union, his position being that a man shouldn't have to belong to a union to work. Louisiana is a right to work state. Sad.
6
@Ronny
If you're barely breaking even its hard to pay your dues.
1
@JoeG
Unionized workers don't seem to have any problem paying their dues. It is only the non-unionized workers who can't afford to pay.
1
We don't need 18 year olds operating semi-trailers on our interstate highways. Somebody is not thinking. It would be one thing if they were involved in an apprenticeship program and accompanied by an on-duty alert experienced driver, that may have merit. Operating solo is a bad idea.
46
@John Warnock. Nobody is thinking!
I think the editors are still rather too optimistic about the future of truck-driving as a profession. Surely the difference in costs and efficiencies between having humans driving long-haul trucks and having technology driving the trucks means that the trucking industry will want to get rid of drivers as soon as the technology allows. The biggest bottleneck is likely to be the relatively slow turnover of the trucks on the road, but a carbon tax would likely grease the skids in the move to new trucks.
It's also likely that automation will soon make humans superfluous on many commercial loading decks. As a drone can deliver a package from Amazon to a customer's door today, my guess is that quite capable automated loading and unloading robot drones for use in commercial applications are on the horizon. Obviously, the easier tasks will be targeted first, but it's hard to imagine that companies won't be eager to eliminate humans from these kinds of tasks. With auto companies rushing to develop driverless cars, will they really hesitate to employ driverless car carriers to deliver driverless cars to dealerships? Will appliance manufacturers hesitate to deliver washers and dryers or refrigerators or televisions to big box stores using driverless trucks? Will office supply and grocery store and clothing store chains not automate their delivery systems to take advantage of the technology? Each succeeding step will become easier and quicker.
3
The key to this article is "its hard getting drivers at the price they want to pay". I represent drivers in various courts, and I've seen a two tier system emerge. Drivers who are truly professional will work toward hazmat and other special ratings, raising their pay. There are a lot of marginally employable folks, but they end up on the bottom rung (hint:these are usually the drivers who end up on Parkways and hit bridges). At this point, most companies are bottom feeding drivers and wages. The concept that "If the company does well, we all do well, including the guy who sweeps the floor" is well and truly dead-the factory owner who'd give everyone a week paid in July as a bonus died in the 70's, and the guy who replaced him is an MBA working on line from his beach house. Trucking is no different....
102
No surprises here and these conclusions could be extrapolated to many other career fields in the US. Many of them promise a middle class income, like trucking, but if you simply get out a calculator and divide the expected hours of work by the pay you get a minimum wage job.
It's hard to believe that a significant number of Americans are making no more (in today's dollars) than they did in 1980, and yet seem to be complacent about it. Deregulated industries, no unions and little government oversight means the individual worker is on their own.
39
They are not complacent but sorely misguided, and that is why MrTrump won.
1
@KCF" Those workers are not complacent, hey vote against their own interests by buying the GOP lie that the GOP "stands for the working man" but sells them down the river every chance they get to plump up their corporate owners' bank accounts in exchange for campaign donations. Those voters are hopping mad, just at the wrong people.
1
Paying drivers hourly instead of by the mile has many benefits for everyone.
Hourly drivers have a disincentive to speed. They don’t cheat on their logbooks because the logbook is their time clock. If they get stuck in traffic or held up at a delivery they don’t become nearly so angry because they are being compensated. They are not inclined to drive when weather conditions are unsafe. If the company puts a governor on their tractor to limit top speeds it’s fine, it’s essentially a raise in pay.
I began driving in the 1980’s and have been doing so continuously since 2001. I always encourage other drivers who complain about their conditions to find an hourly job. If good drivers refused to work by the mile companies would be forced to change to hourly pay.
Most companies are stuck in a by-the-mile mindset because they think it controls costs on a per-trip basis which they think adds up to guaranteed profits overall. What it really adds up to is underpaid drivers, unsafe drivers, and drivers who will do anything to keep moving because moving is money. And those drivers are a danger to the motoring public and to themselves.
76
As many readers have written in their comments, the decline in wages is primarily a result of the destruction of unions. Republicans have always hated unions as they interfered with their unbridled greed for profits. And Democrats, beginning with McGovern, and then accelerating under the first Clinton (Bill), have turned their backs on unions when it really matters. Forget about the media, their owners hate unions and have tried smearing them for a long time, including trying to portray them as just for some elite workers. But the real answer still remains the same: In union there is strength.
97
@Timshel I don't think you can blame McGovern for any sustained movement in the Democratic Party except possibly a permanent pants-soiling terror of any overtly progressive agenda. McGovern 1972 was just the biggest piece (by not much) of shrapnel from the shattering of the New Deal coalition.
No one is plotting out their policy strategy by first asking themselves, "What would George do?"
2
@Timshel,
I absolutely agree that in union there is strength. (I grew up in an IBEW household.)
With McGovern and unions it was the other way around from what you recall. Most union leaders, led by Walter Reuther of the AFL-CIO and Jimmy Hoffa of the Teamsters, were staunchly supportive of the Vietnam War and opposed anti-war politicians such as McGovern vociferously and viciously. Remember the US still had several hundred thousand troops in Nam when McGovern was running in 1972 on a platform that included getting us out of there, and many union leaders opposed him because of that. Since he was not elected we cannot say what he would have done as President for workers but his record in the Senate was unerringly progressive and included support for Johnson's many pro-labor laws.
I cannot defend Clinton on this front.
2
Situations like this will not change in a free market society as long as consumers value only their own pocketbooks and not their fellow citizens. Wal-Mart, Dollar General, Amazon are a testament to cheaper, cheaper, cheaper. It is easy to blame employers, but they are as trapped by the competitive pressures as employees are. Just as the trucking industry suffers from 90% employee turnover, trucking companies go out of business at an alarming rate.
15
@David Hust
If "consumers" are willing to pay twice the actual cost for goods and services, then everyone will be happy, except the "gouged" consumers, who will then blame higher prices on the "capitalists," not the government regulators. It's the same story whenever bureaucrats meddle in the free market. Bureaucrats and socialists still believe in a free lunch. It's their version of the perpetual motion machine.
2
@David Hust
Yes, putting price above all other considerations has created a downward spiral.
The biggest cost is usually labor. Companies continuously try to lower labor costs. Lowering the amount paid to workers (who are most of the consumers) means they have less to spend. When consumers have less to spend, companies don't see demand for their products, so they invest less in expanding capacity. Tax cuts don't make them buy equipment they don't need.
Supply Side Economics is stalling the economy.
In the long run, demand equals supply. But economists paid to argue for tax cuts for the rich have forgotten that demand drives supply.
The world has a huge supply of excrement, but a tiny excrement market, because there is no demand. The drug market won't go away (as Adam Smith explained) because, no matter how much supply you seize, demand raises prices enough to create new supply.
It is far past time to see that Supply Side Economics is just a political gimmick used as an excuse for tax cuts to the rich.
We need Demand Side Economics to grow the economy. Paying workers more puts more money in the pockets of consumers who increase demand which increases investment. It also means that workers can invest in themselves and their families so that they are healthy and educated, which increases productivity.
Markets controlled by the rich will not do this.
We the People must force our representatives to do this through democracy.
We the People are the Government.
5
@Ed L.- you're assumption is that the cost of good would double, which is clearly untrue. And while I believe capitalism is the best economic system out there, that is only true if is regulated. Unregulated capitalism is an utter failure. I do not bow down to the almighty God of capitalism. It is a highly flawed system.
The price paid for labor, particularly where the workers are not organized, are based on classic supply and demand. Entry into the industry as a driver is relatively easy, and more women are now entering the industry. With more entrants and potential entrants, it is not surprising that compensation is weak.
One thing I have learned, sometimes the hard way, is that what people are paid is not necessarily reflective of what they are worth.
5
@RM
Except that is precisely not what is occurring in the trucking industry. As the article points out, there is an inadequate labor supply in the industry with a decling pay rate due to an asymmetrical balance of power between labor and employers. An inadequate labor supply should result in rising labor prices. Employers also externalize their risks by forcing drivers to work uncompensated hours and allowing you and me to take the risk of sharing the road with trucks driven by under-rested and sometimes stimulant using drivers. They also externalize their risks by calling truckers "contractors" and failing to provide health and pension benefits.
26
@Stella B
While I have no doubt that the employers are desirous of paying as little as possible, the assertion that they are reducing compensation while facing a labor shortage makes no sense whatsoever. Whatever they are willing to pay, there appears to be adequate takers of their offers.
Its like saying there is a gasoline shortage because I am only willing to pay 50 cents a gallon. Certainly, at that price, nobody would sell me any fuel. But it would hardly mean that there is a "shortage" in the classic sense.
Perhaps they are unable to find new drivers at what they would prefer to pay because unemployment rates are relatively low nationwide.
@RMt
The price of labor is based on supply and demand--and other things as well. Like whether you can raise prices to offset raising wages.
And then there is the insidious religious fervor among Business schoool types about shareholder value being the only holy grail--any amount taken away from owners is anathema.
I could go on but you get the idea. There's a lot more in the equation than simple supply and demand.
1
It will be interesting to see what happens over the next 10 years. Truckers work hard, transporting goods to consumers all over the country. They should be compensated fairly.
7
Ah yes...deregulation. The seed for competition. Deregulate and yes, competition will grow...but it does not often result in efficiency, or better conditions for the workers, or even the competing entities. What it usually does is lower wages, allow the unscrupulous to set-up shop and exploit the naive and/or "hungry." (as in actually hungry, need to work, provide for a family, etc)
Deregulation has been sold by the Repubs for decades now as some miracle cure to the working man/woman's woes. Its not done much but make things worse. Oh...it sure does raise the incomes of those at the top of the heaps, but not for the people doing the work. In most cases it allows the employers to reclassify workers, then deny them benefits and living wages, basically allowing the employer to continually threaten their workers with cheaper replacements.
The decades of Repub deregulation policies are all roosting for everyone to see. They deregulated everywhere they could, promising that more competition would mean a rise in everyone's boat.
Trouble is only the executive yachts got the lift...everyone else is beached, floundering in the bay, or stuck in heavy seas on a dingy...
Its time to stop the GOP from doing more damage.
Trump wont fix it for the truckers, anymore then he'll improve the lives of coal miners, non-factory farmers, factory workers, or white-collar-tinged-blue office workers.
But he will give more money to those "yacht" owners. All while raising the cost of the dingy's.
49
@Boregard
Yes, workers are the tide that lifts all boats. Workers create the actual wealth, not financiers moving money around and pocketing a spice everything's it goes by.
Workers are the consumers. Raise their pay increases demand, increase demand grows the economy.
Demand Side Economics works.
1
"Lowering the age requirement [to 18] could make roads less safe..."
I agree. 18-year-olds are irresponsible and inexperienced. That's why the voting age should be returned to 21. After all, what's more dangerous: a truck or a vote? If teenagers cannot be trusted with a truck or a cigarette or a glass of beer, why are we giving them the awesome responsibility of a vote? A vote in the wrong hands could get us another Trump. And with this I rest my case.
8
@Ed L.
We lowered the voting age to 18 when there was an uproar about drafting 18 years olds to die on the battle field, or more importantly I think to choose to join the military. Should we raise the entry age for the military to 21? If 20 year olds aren't capable of smart voting and smart drinking, then how can we allow them to decide on a life threatening occupation?
7
@Ed L. So we should bring the age of enlistment to 21 also gun ownership.What is more important than determining life or death.
4
@oscar jr
The point you and others are missing is that irresponsible and inexperienced teenagers make perfect raw recruits for the military. Ask any recruiter. Their suitability for military service cannot be conflated with their maturity as a voter, however. But let's be consistent here. I'll repeat myself with one addition: If teenagers cannot be trusted with a truck or a cigarette or a glass of beer or a firearm, why are we giving them the awesome responsibility of a vote? Could it be, possibly, that "progressives" assume that young and inexperienced citizens will always vote Democrat?
This bleak underpaid haul to be added on the top of the list for Americans who are supporting The Democratic Party. When asking a friend recently of the well-being of her eldest son, she replied that he was missing, and had left his job as a trucker.
The New York Times this year last ran a covering and blistering story on the life of our truckers. Not wishing to cause more fretting on her part, I decided not to share the above with her.
Politics aside, let us help those on this transportation road which impacts all of us, while understanding that not all of us wish to be confined to a hamster cubicle, where the white collar pay is sometimes higher for doing nothing more than a lot of paper pushing.
Keep on truckin', as the saying goes, and give it some added heft and meaning.
3
@Miss Ley
Get real. The Democratic Party is now a captive of identity politics that vilifies working Americans as racist and misogynist. So when Trump made noises about stopping the flow of cheap labor across our borders, working people, including many blacks and hispanics voted for him instead of the party that treats with open contempt.
2
Another problem with trucking is that it's the wrong way, environmentally, infrastructure-wise, as well as health-wise in regards to workers, to move goods across the country. There should be a train network that moves the goods to warehouses close to the cities, from where smaller trucks and vans can deliver to the individual store destinations. Trucks clog streets, adding to pollution. They destroy roads. The use diesel gas. Another bad side effect of the decimation of the railroads by the automobile industry.
In Sunset Park, Brooklyn, the waterfront development has been accompanied by a huge increase in truck traffic in the area. At meetings before the city council allowed this to move forward, the developers promised to revitalize the train tracks. That promise has gone unfulfilled.
The plight of truck drivers described in this article makes the industry that much less defensible.
19
Yet it was blue collar workers that voted Trump in. Despite that fact that he's savaged affordable health care, cut taxes for the rich which will inevitably lead to a decline in the social safety net and is doing crazy things like introducing competition in the trucking industry by allowing 18 years old who will work for nothing to drive - they still back him.
What will it take?
37
Thank you for this article. It is so unfair that truckers make so little. If they went on strike for even a few days, life in America would be noticeably more difficult. Americans take truckers for granted and we must not. Shame on the trucking companies that are exploiting these drivers. I hope truckers organize and go on strike for decent wages-a 30% wage increase would be a fair start.
27
One word: DEREGULATION. In May of 1985, the pressure was really on the Teamsters union. They were losing a lot of jobs and members. Union drivers were down to 28% from over 80%. They agreed to a two-tier wage system, where existing members would continue to make their wage of $16 per hour ($33 per hour in today’s money) and new hires would make $8 per hour. The union agreed to the new contract because new members had to pay the same union dues as old members, and real income for the union would go up. Union busting comes in many forms. It all leads to low wages.
26
Um...the math’s not right.
‘Last month, the Department of Transportation announced that it wanted to move ahead on a pilot project that would allow 18-year-olds with the military equivalent of a commercial driver’s license to haul freight across state lines.’
You have to be at least 17 to join the military. The shortest enlistment is two years. So how could an 18-year-old have the military equivalent of a CDL?
14
In November 1945 in Brooklyn N.Y. my grandfather, the late Jacob Siegel, wrote a letter to his son-in-law, Marvin who was either in Hawaii or San Francisco on his way back from the war in the Pacific. Grandpa Siegel was a combat veteran of The Great War and received the Purple Heart for wounds received during the battle of the Meuse Argonne. His letter to my dad though was notably calm and warm, as he wrote, not of the war and his great happiness at seeing it end, but what he wrote about was the situation at home. Throughout the war years there were great shortages of consumer goods and wages were basically frozen and worst of all, there was little housing and certainly no automobiles or parts. Grandpa advised that upon coming home his son-in-law would find few jobs, stagnant wages, little consumer goods and no industrial production for households and of course little housing or housing priced so high that no one could afford anything. Then he went on to tell of the great strikes across the nation. The men and women coming home after 4 years of deprivation and sacrifice weren't doomed to accept meager wages, few jobs, and no goods, housing or autos. The 17 million and women who made those sacrifices knew what they were missing and demanded more and demanded it now. There was great outrage and discontent and the understanding of the need for powerful unions. Truckers today need that sense of outrage and need to organize and demand compensation, rewards and benefits.
38
@Jay
Yes markets are one dollar, one vote. If you have a billion dollars, you have a billion votes.
Democracy is supposed to be one person one vote.
The right calls Government "the enemy." According to the Constitution, government is how democracy gets things done in our Republic. As long as we keep attacking our own representative democracy, while giving free reign to the mega rich, we will continue to transfer our democratic power and our productivity to the mega greedy.
If the super rich had a history of making superior decisions, we would still have kings.
The arc of history is toward spreading power and wealth to all people. We are now going the opposite direction.
We don't need King Trump to fix everything.
We the People must put more effort into managing our representatives to make it union more perfect.
3
Truckers are the last cowboys. We all tip our hats to their fiery independence. But it is time to move on. Produce, products, and people should be moved by high-speed rail.
11
@Barbara Kenny i don't know what country you are living in (japan?) but the US has no high speed rail infrastructure that would facilitate what you propose.
Furthermore, how pray tell would the "produce, products" get from the rail to the consumer? TRUCKS AND TRUCKERS!
My husband has been trucking for nearly 40 years, hauling everything from wind tower blades, solar energy, cars, petroleum products, produce, heavy equipment, etc. It's a thankless job especially given the new ELD requirements that are creating more of a danger on the roads than when electronic logs were not required. LOOK IT UP.
Your lack of understanding of what the trucking industry does in keeping the economy moving is stunning. These truck drivers are not "the last cowboys" - they are the backbone of what keeps this economy going and putting 18 yo's behind the wheels of these vehicles is NOT the answer.
Everything you have in your lives was delivered by a truck. There's a saying in the trucking industry "the only thing truckers don't deliver is babies" and even that's questionable. Truckers sacrifice a lot to do their jobs, spending weeks and sometimes months away from their families, missing important milestones along the way.
So the next time you think that truckers are "cowboys" and that "people should move on"... you might want to correct yourself.
51
@jenncoolva
None of what you said has any bearing on whether or not we should start investing more in rail and less in highways.
We can be thankful for your service, but also think we should be moving on. Trucking is worse for the environment, and does not support its workers at a dignified or sustainable wage.
@jenncoolva
Amen to everything you said.
1
Their case is going to the Supreme Court, with Republican Gorsuch, who thought it was OK for a trucker to freeze to death?
https://www.theguardian.com/law/2017/mar/23/neil-gorsuch-supreme-court-f...
Until hard-working people understand that the Republicans have been arranging things to rip them off for decades (and opposed the minimum wage, accurate definitions of overtime, not to mention Social Security, Medicare, universal health care.....) and get out to vote for Democrats every election every office, nothing will change
Here was the Democrats' 2016 platform, which would be in the process of being put in place now, if Democrats controlled the White House and Congress
https://www.democrats.org/party-platform
https://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/an-economy-that-works-for-everyone/
48
@Lynn
Great platform, but when it comes to actually implementing their platform, centrist Democrats anyways claim that "it's politically impossible in today's political climate." They surrender before the fight begins.
Meanwhile the Republicans are allowed to control the conversation so they can make their agenda possible.
Trump is doing the impossible every day, because he knows how to control three conversation.
It is time for the Democratic Party to stop blaming voters who see them as spineless doormats, and start controlling the conversation so they can drive the agenda, and actually try to implement the platform.
Politics is the art of making things possible. Workers will start voting for Democrats as soon as they think it will make a difference in their lives.
1
“Walk in the shoes of the Fisherman.” Bravo for this article. It shows as the song by Alan Parsons “Both sides of the Mirror.”
The people who make the rules in Congress should have to spend one week on the road with a trucker. Not only that, but their pay and benefits should also be waived and should only receive what the average trucker makes. Oh, and I might add, they shouldn’t be just an observer! They should have to drive that rig, pickup loads, deliver and unload the cargo, and then instead of finally getting some rest, have to be on their smartphone hustling to get the next load. Without our truckers, our economy would collapse. Oh, and I might add, try driving that rig when it’s bitter cold outside and the roads are covered with ice.
55
McConnell driving a semi.......that's frightening.
4
@Eric Cosh: "Oh, and I might add, try driving that rig when it’s bitter cold outside and the roads are covered with ice." Agreed, our current Supreme Court and GOP-led government couldn't care less, hence that fool Gorsuch being allowed on the bench despite ruling against a trucker who left his cargo so he wouldn't freeze to death. That is Corporate America in a nutshell and they own our government.
3
@Eric Cosh It would benefit Congress to work in many workers shoes, and see the impact of their policies on their constituents, janitors, checkers, food service, cubicle dwellers, agricultural workers, truckers, & clerical. They wouldn't be able to run away fast enough.
2
There is a basic truth that runs across American industry:
Employers are organized.
Employees are not.
196
@Paul '52
Yes, basic economics shows that size matters. Many independent workers individually negotiating with far fewer, better financed, lawyer upped, lobbyist paying, political donation making, employers, who get together at industry to conferences to create "industry standards" (i.e. collusion), have a huge advantage in markets.
Democracy is supposed to even the playing field, but now it is being abused by crony capitalists. .
1
Succinctly stated and to the point!
Anyone taking bets on the outcome of the Supreme Courts decision on long haul truckers versus the trucking companies? Sounds like a five to four decision.
130
You do realize that these facts will be labelled as "fake news" should Trump get wind of them. In Trump's America within America, wages have shot up so high people are filling their bathtubs with Big Bucks. In Trump's AMA, people are quitting jobs without hesitation because there are four or five jobs going begging. In Trump's AMA, those publicly touted bonuses for employees have all been paid out which is far from the truth.
This article is a welcomed snapshot of the realities of the real America. The economy is doing well and has been on the upswing since 2015. Like Reagan and Clinton, however, Trump happens to be president at the right time. Like Clinton and Reagan, the myth of their hand in improving the economy remains etched in the minds of their loyalists as is the case with Trump. Like Reagan and Clinton, the facts will continue to prove their overall effect on the economy was negative as legitimate history will prove to be the case with Trump.
11
@Jacob K When there's a Democrat in the WHite House, republicans love to say it takes years for their policies to come into effect.
In 2008, George W. Bush walked in front of the cameras to inform America our economic lives were about to end. Another Great Depression loomed over us.
President Obama and the Democrats were elected and they set about cleaning up ANOTHER republican economic disaster but even though they saved the ingrates that caused the problems from disaster, they didn't clean the republican mess up fast enough.
So, now we have this traitor in the White House taking credit for the economic expansion put in place by the President Obama and the Democrats (remember, they insist it takes YEARS for a president's economic policies to take effect) when, in fact, trump's insane trickle-down economic policies, which have failed time and again, his unnecessary trade war, and his looming $1.5 TRILLION deficit, to name a few, take effect, we're going to be right back where Bush had us - looking down the barrel of another Great Depression.
That's what republicans do. They grab all the cash on the way in, max out the credit cards on the way out, and leave all of us suckers with the bill for their excesses.
Rinse and repeat because we have a third of Americans who hate the rest of us so bad, they'll vote against themselves every time, time and again.
They vote their hatred and their hatred destroys them every time.
2
Warren Buffet was interviewed by Charlie Rose about a year ago on PBS. He said there is so much money in America that the country can do anything it wants to do.
Unfortunately, all the "can do" goes to the top ten percent and much of the population is so enamored with ideology that they vote against their interests.
We make heroes out of our military constantly, well-deserved but out of proportion, yet we forget people like loggers and truck drivers who have a much higher death/injury rate.
We should appreciate what people like truck drivers do because they are heroes too and are at much more risk than the military and their jobs make homelife very difficult.
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@pete.monica
And now they want to take those hero military people and give them jobs that are grueling and for which they are underpaid.
2
I'm not sure why we are using trucks for cross-country shipping instead of rail. It seems like it would be more efficient to use rail for anything over, say, 500-800 miles. Then use trucks to get goods from the rail hubs to the final destination. I know the U.S. tore up a lot of rail after WW2 because auto makers wanted to kill passenger rail travel in order to sell more cars. But it seems like the demand for mass transport of goods would have caused it to be rebuilt by now, at least for freight, if not passenger service.
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@crankyoldman what you say makes sense but the problem lies in the initial outbuild of railroad grades. Heavy freight can't roll on many of the passenger routes because they are too heavy. Initial outbuild is way too expensive now just like the bridge and highway infrastucture that Eisenhower started.
4
@crankyoldman
you/others miss the reality of the diverse needs of companies who need to move their goods to mulitple and distant markets. Rail can't service everywhere, even in its heyday it had severe limits. Rail cant get the artisans' goods swiftly to market, or an online customer. But trucking can. A small shop can drop ship their goods thru a UPS, or FedEx. They likely don't have a rail depot to drop their goods, have it properly manifested, shipped to the next hub, maybe another...to finally be distributed to a local trucking company to then deliver the good direct to a customer.
The efficiencies of the Walmarts to ship their stores goods from their own Distribution Centers (DC) to all their stores cant be matched by rail. There'd have to be a rail depot in nearly every town with a Walmart, and then their own locally based trucks to receive and deliver their own goods.
Then there's the millions of containers that come into our ports everyday. Some do get loaded on rail, but so many more get loaded onto a truck trailer and immediately begin their trip to a customer, or DC.
You folks think the traffic is bad now...imagine if there were multiple warehousing rail depots (which would require massive build-outs at current ones) close to, every urban center, then being served by locally based trucking, or big retail companies having to pick up and deliver direct to every shop within a certain mile radius.
All compounded in complexities by the age of "Amazon".
2
@crankyoldman
Look around. The railroad right of ways have been turned into jogging trails.
Truckers symbolize what's wrong with the American economy. Without unions and subjected to corporate greed, fewer and fewer truckers can enjoy a decent standard of living.
But wait, it's going to get worse.
As trucking becomes more automated via AI, one trucker will do the work of three, four, maybe five truckers for the majority of their routes. He will drive his truck through long stretches of highway with a few automated trucks mirroring his every move. (Yikes! if that driver goes awry, that will mean several trucks going off the rails).
Unions are one viable answer, Universal Based Income is another, but more and more workers are going to become displaced. So, the question becomes who and what will change? Otherwise poverty and its attending opioid crisis will worsen.
Vote in every election.
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It’s hard to imagine a more important component of our economy. Trucking should be immune from the changes wrought by global trade. Doesn’t matter where a product is made; it’s got to get off the cargo ship or out of the factory and onto the retail store shelf somehow. (Or the Amazon Fulfillment Center warehouse.) Fuel, food, even goods transported long distances by rail; they’ve all got to be moved by truck somewhere on the way. Without trucking there is no economy.
18
The great recession was a recession primarily of the working class with non-college worker unemployment of ~15% whereas those with a college degree had an unemployment rate of ~5.5%. So, it is hardly surprising that wage increases would be felt first in the low employment segment of the workforce while there remained significant slack in low skilled workers. BTW - this has changed. Secondly, you're editorial reads like a socialist manifesto and ignores underlying market dynamics with a presumption that jobs should simply command a wage regardless of the economics surrounding jobs. The trucking industry happens square in the center of the logistics industry where tech is fundamentally disrupting the entire model. You conveniently ignored the growth of short haul trucking and focused on long haul. Long haul is subject to competition from shipping, air transport, and rail. Depending on product, source of manufacturing, capital and fuel costs, this is a highly dynamic industry. It is likely that trucking wages will likely grow fairly significantly over the next 5 years assuming no major recessions. However, it is also likely that long haul drivers will be one of the first segments to lose significant jobs 5-10 years out based on driverless trucks. The path forward is hardly to simply demand people get paid more but for individuals to invest in their own careers with knowledge and training
5
Always good to see both sides of the situation. Still, the discussion in the article about government action is instructive. The idea that government would take action that will likely exacerbate the living wage and road safety problems is troubling. If all government can do is support shortsighted, employer-centric solutions, we are better off having them do nothing.
“Government of the people, by the people, and for the people.” What a concept!
6
@Chris Socialist manifesto? Hardly. Educate yourself.
'Social ownership of the means of production is the common defining characteristic of all the various forms of socialism. The two major forms of social ownership are society-wide public ownership and cooperative ownership.'
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_ownership
1
@Colenso - apparently you use Wikipedia as your source and chose social ownership not socialism to comment. In fact, Socialism is not nearly as narrowly defined and includes the imposition of non-market/monetary forces to imposed a rule based economic/social construct. It is exactly the kind of actions often advocated by the Times editorial board when it ignores market and believes that a government imposed system of wages, routes, etc will work, "Such changes would increase costs for trucking companies, their customers, and ultimately American shoppers.." This kind of approach not only creates non-competitive companies/countries/systems but only works when imposed on a monopoly e.g. government functions. Even then, eventually competition/capitalism will win out.
At some point the drivers will rebel. Unions will be restored as will decent wages and benefits. There's no Jimmy Hoffa and certainly no Teamsters of yesteryear. But, when workers aren't paid enough to keep the lights on, pay the rent or have a few crumbs for the wife and kids, sooner or later something is going to give. Driving a big rig is one job that can't be sent overseas. Lowering the age for licensed commercial drivers will lead to lots of underpaid and overworked teens who aren't ready for the road or the grueling hours. There will be more accidents and more wrecked lives and finally the truckers will stand up and demand decent, rising wages and benefits. Watch for strikes and unions coming soon.
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@Jay
Unfortunately, the conservative war on unions will succeed in crushing any new wave of unionization. The Supreme Court just ruled that public employee unions cannot be forced to collect dues from members, even the agency fees that cover only the costs of collective bargaining. Nothing in the opinion prevents it from applying to all other unions.
The Supreme Court has just turned the entire country into a right to work state. Unions are doomed, unless we re-take the Court and trash the Federalist Society garbage decisions.
3
@Jay: don't worry, since scrapping fuel efficency standards for cars is going to make driving so much safer, teenagers driving semis will be barely noticable in highway deaths!
1
The research backed suggested remedies, minimum living wage, trucking industry regulations, and end of the exploitative contract system, are what irk the Trump administration;for, it has always put the interests of the business over the workers, and will never be a part of the solution to the Truck drivers' problems. This leaves the truck drivers with the only course open to seek redress is through organising the unions and filing the class lawsuit action which too may prove illusory given the conservative and anti-working class bias of the present judiciary.
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Long-haul trucking is an absurd way to move freight long distances. Rail is far more energy efficient, and doesn't involve wear and tear on public roads (I know, I know, trucking companies pay taxes for road use--but please get real about this). Nor does rail involve the high number of safety issues that are associated with large trucks hauling freight right alongside people driving automobiles.
Rail, in short, should be the primary mode of freight transport, with trucks mostly used to move goods to and from rail depots.
Even so, truckers, the trucking industry as a whole, the oil and gas industry, will forever resist this truth, so the changeover isn't going to happen anytime soon. But I repeat: Long-haul trucking is an absurd way to move freight.
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@Emile
I do not disagree that rail should become more important in delivering goods. However, the rail companies must significantly improve service for this to happen.
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@Emile
More railroad beds, tracks and connectivity. Take the money from the Northeast corridor Amtrak.
@Emile
Incredibly naive remarks. Clearly you have zero knowledge about how freight is moved across land masses. While rail does move a great amount, there are not these wonderful rail depots in prime locations where freight can be seamlessly offloaded onto or into trucks.
Little education;
Key component is the into or onto aspect of trucking. "Into a truck" involves a warehouse and people to sort and then properly package various odd sized items to then be put into the trailer of a truck, which might have several destinations, all receiving different pallets of goods.
"Onto a truck" is usually what takes place at a shipping yard, near a river or coastline, where container ships are offloaded with huge container lifting machinery that then places them on the trailers of those special rigs.
Shipping companies that receive freight from multiple sources that then goes into a trailer are places like UPS, etc. A niche service provider. While a company like Walmart has to receive, then sort/load their own shipments INTO their trucks, to send to their stores. They cant have a rail system at their Distribution Centers (DC) doors all across the nation. Although some do, or are close to one, but they cant efficiently distribute their goods via rail. it would mean having their own fleet of trucks based someplace close to everyone of their stores. Instead of at their DC's.
Rail is great but its severely limited by its stationary parameters and lack of rail depots in every town.
2
I remember deregulation. It was promoted as a way to unleash our competitive spirit. The problem with this is that one side benefitted and the other was just exploited.
so we find ourselves some 40 years on with another broken promise. at the end of the civil war, the rumor went around that all freed slaves would get 40 acres and a mule. this new life of freedom would bring a life where a person could be masters of his own fate. Our fortunes would depend on only our willingness to work. the reality is that when it all settled the slaves found themselves still on the plantation and still picking for cotton for the master.
So I guess not much has changed, they own the plantation , the rest of us just pick cotton.
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It’s easy sometimes to forget that none of the consumer goods we rely on make it to the shelves without truckers. People who work full time or more should not be forced to live out of the backs of their trucks, or have their limited time monopolized by companies who require that they wait without pay, or end up owing their boss at the end of the day, and then be forced into arbitration when inevitable disputes arise. It’s doubtful many have decent benefits, either.
If there is a shortage of truckers for the required routes, why are the companies not paying more, or providing more incentives? How can industry find money to pay lobbyists, but can't give their workers a raise? Are workers such a liability that companies will do anything, even the expense of automating driving, to avoid paying them?
Sounds like unionization would help these hard-working folks see more of the fruits of their labors, though under the present administration, support for their plight is a mirage on the horizon.
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I think trucking appeals to individuals that like to work alone. And I think that it why they are less likely to organize and unionize.
16
One of the big changes in our economy is the shift from privately held companies to publicly held ones. Once a company shifts to the public stock market, employees become nothing more than cost, ethical business, health benefits, employee retention, training, career path...they are all traded against the next quarter's earnings.
This is why today, kids don't plan to or expect to work for a company for long...there is no loyalty to company, because businesses no longer have loyalty to employees only to the next quarter's report.
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@C. Dawkins
Well said. Thank you for clearly articulating part of the systemic structures creating these tragedies.
Diane
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@C. Dawkins
I absolutely agree that the problem is the focus on the next quarter's stock price - but that is not primarily due to the public vs. private character of the company. It is the result of the corporate raiders of the 70s and 80s, who threatened or pursued corporate blackmail or greenmail and forced companies to focus on raising their stock value or become the target of a hostile acquisition and having their assets stripped. Still a problem today with all those voracious private equity firms. (And if you're wondering about Mr. Trump's opinion on the issue....his big buddy is Carl Icahn, an exemplar of the worse sort of corporate raider.)
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@C. Dawkins
Interesting thesis, but incorrect. Specific to this article, the companies mentioned as having the highest pay and benefits such as Walmart and UPS are publicly-owned companies while the issues appear to be with small, private trucking firms and the independents. Care must be taken when applying the label, "private". What you really need to pay attention to is who controls the firm's equity ("ownership") and what their intentions are. Many firms are privately owned and treat their employees very well. Other firms are owned by private equity firms who's intent is only to maximize value to their investors and subsequently destroy the company - think Toys R Us. BOTTOM LINE - if an individual has scarce and specialized skills that are highly sought after in the marketplace, they will be paid and treated like gold by any employer regardless.
1
If trucking companies were forced to pay drivers for the time they spent waiting for freight it would -- in turn -- cause companies to be more efficient in their delivery of freight for transport in order to keep their costs lower. If "time is money" then the industry should start valuing the time of their employees.
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Once deregulation started, it has been down hill for workers and consumers. And it is at its very worse under this Congress and the Trump Administration
With the demise of Unions we have also seen the demise of work conditions.
Starting with the Reagan Administration it has been down hill for all
middle class and low income workers.
In most cases deregulation has not improved competition. I give you the telephone companies, banks and airlines as examples.
All deregulation has done, for the most part is give us less to choose from as consumers and less job security as workers.
It is time for the IRS to take a harder look at companies who hire Independent Contractors. Most companies do it to not have to comply with the tax code. They do not have to pay into FICA for the Independent Contractor or pay unemployment taxes and Workmens Compensation insurance.
And maybe it is time for a new Congress to be elected, who actually cares about their voters, instead of their donors.
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Once China became part of the WTO in December 2001, there was instantly a huge surplus of unskilled labor worldwide. Truckers are lucky that their real wages only went down by 3%. Many American manufacturing workers have seen their real wages fall by much more, assuming they even have a job after their plant moved to Mexico or China. The great middle of our economy has been sacrificed on the altar of free trade just so the junk we buy at Walmart can cost a few bucks less.
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@Earl W.
I am not sure it is "sacrificed on the altar of free trade". Ours is a consumption driven economy that values $15 lawn chairs higher than a $15 wage. I don't know how many of us would pay $19 for that same lawn chair at a store across the street that buys only from manufacturers that are certified as treating their workers fairly. Until we change our priorities as consumers, we are stuck with this.
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I am always looking for USA made products when I shop and I am willing and able to pay the difference. If all of us who can afford to pay that difference do so, that would go a long way to raising up more American workers. Food, clothing, and many manufactured products seem cheap and disposable to those of us with a certain level of resources. Unfortunately so many product categories offer no option to purchase American made goods.
1
@Earl W.
True, and yet folks continue to support the demise of the working-class by shopping at Walmart and Dollar and 99 cent stores. Those companies sell nothing but cheap goods made offshore, and make huge profits doing so. They lower the standard of living for Americans and treat workers like nothing more than a bothersome incidental. I haven't shopped in one of those stores for at least a decade, often driving miles to spend my money elsewhere. I will never support those companies; they are as un-American as Trump and his regime.
29
This article only shows the need for more Unions. The Unions gave us the 5 day, 40 hour work week
Trucking companies, retail companies, insurances companies,real estate companies and a host more all have their associations pouring money into Washington for their benefit.
But God forbid the workers try to unite, it's considered a bolshevism revolution by the republicans to keep all the money in the corporations pockets
Get smart truck drivers.
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@Don Siracusa But then inflation rises exacerbating issues of cost of living, leading also to unemployment. The bought politicians might or will likely state the need to lower or eliminate the minimum wage. The issues are more deeply systemic.
This has been the story for the middle class since the Reagan years. Increased productivity has made the top 10% wealthy and the top 1% obscenely wealthy. That productivity has not benefitted the middle class who make it happen. When will they learn that the Republican party is not on their side and does not advance policies that help them economically or socially.
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Maybe they will learn when they see that the Democrats and DNC Are on their side, not just hobnobbing on the coasts with the wealthy?
1
@Bernard Bonn Politicians, often pretty men like actor Reagan, Pence, invoke a few sincere platitudes and we think all will be well.
@JJ:
Please stop the “East Coast liberal” nonsense.
Democrats brought electricity to rural areas. Social Security disability to rural areas. They are trying to index wages to inflation for everyone, including those who live in rural area and vote Republican. They are trying to find a path to affordable health insurance, including for those who live in rural areas and vote Republican.
And yet, people like you charge that Democrats are at fault for the plight of non-coast dwellers because Democrats are so busy hobnobbing with so-called coastal elites that they have forgotten it’s their responsibility to save Republicans from themselves.
Boo woo.
Would that certain swaths of the electorate were smart enough to know where the blame for the current plight of workers really belongs.
1
It might help if drivers band together and form regional cooperatives, and set standards they would demand for pickup and delivery.
If enough did this the brokers they are presently dealing with would be hard pressed to continue as they are.
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@Paul
Sounds like a union.
3
And yet, if you did a poll of these same truckers and asked how many of them voted for Trump and the GOP , I'd bet they overwhelmingly voted Republican. The party that has worked diligently to weaken unions. Unions that have historically helped to negotiate better pay and working conditions for these men and women, and other blue collar workers.
599
Actually, I would bet that the majority did not vote. And given these poor working conditions and poor wages span both Republican and Democratic administrations, I am not sure I would blame them. If the Democratic Party wants to win non-union labor, it has to represent the interests of that population. The evidence is that neither party has done so.
18
@Jusme
Are you saying they deserve what they get? Do you think H R Clinton or the Democratic party cares about them? How many times does the media cover stories like this? How many stories do we get on equal pay for women with multi million dollar salaries in the business world? They deserve so much more.
1
I agree entirely, and there's a logistical factor as well: Many truckers, if not most of them, are highly likely to be nowhere near their legal residence on Election Day. Who could afford to arrange that? They're well and truly shut out of the political process not just by political failures, but by personal economics resulting from those failures.
1
Deregulation. There it is again. How about if truckers joined together and unionized? It makes good sense. I’m appalled the ceos make so darn much money but the workers who make the business thrive are left to fend for themselves.
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@Outraged In Upstate Why don't they unionize? Must be a reason. I just cannot figure out what that is.
@Outraged In Upstate. Excellent question. From 27 years' experience (beginning with three as a Teamster), here's why it's so hard. First, any organizing campaign has to get past the mistrust of unions which we all imbibe from for-profit news media. That often takes repeated discussions with a given person. But that given person is going to be 500 miles away tomorrow, at some other truck stop. That given person is also exhausted, and has only the legally required ten hour break in which to eat dinner and breakfast, shower, catch up on paperwork, plot tomorrow's route, get the truck fixed, call home, relax a moment AND try for eight hours' sleep! Pulling that person aside for a discussion about long-term benefit is not all that easy.
6
@Outraged In Upstate Rather an a union here or there, how about adding to the Bill of Rights Economic Rights.
1
This article makes it seem as if the truck drivers that are so underpaid have no choice. If there's some companies that pay a lot and have good working conditions, why don't more drivers move to them? If they get paid less than they make, why would they accept the job?
I think there's more to the story here. Are these underpaid drivers qualified to work for the "majors"? In general, to increase worker wages, productivity should increase. Have drivers productivity improved over time? Is their safety better? Are they more drug free, crime free or whatever other malady would decrease productivity? What's the impact of gas prices?
There's only one reason why trucking companies can get away with paying such low wages - because they get a sufficient supply of drivers. It's working for them. The truck drivers are not innocent victims here - they have choices (there's plenty of jobs out there). If they are indeed loathe to give u the autonomy and freedoms, then they are indeed fairly paid.
Sorry, the answer is not more government regulation to protect the "poor" victim truckers. The answer lies with the truck drivers themselves - either improve productivity, move to a better truck company, improve qualifications, change jobs or refuse substandard wages.
20
@deedubs, you are correct that transportation firms have plenty of people who want to drive trucks because they have few other options. Many of these folks have high school education levels and romanticize trucking as a modern day adventure. The article points out that the reality of the situation is far from ideal! Your recommendations for truckers will also work for most occupations in the US but how are US citizens suppose to improve productivity when firms require them to buy their own truck and pay expenses, then pit drivers against one another to lower transportation costs? As pointed out in the article, free markets are only free for the companies who divide each aspect of their business into pieces and works to minimize their expenses. Good business practice, but not good for employees who are viewed as expendable.
@deedubs
Don't assume that productivity increases in the industry would flow to the drivers. There's no inviolable rule that makes this so.
And the point here is that wages are actually falling. By your reasoning, can we assuming that trucker productivity is getting worse?
The real and plain question here is whether trucking companies are earning greater profits now than they were in the past.
I'd suspect that the answer is yes.
33
@deedubs But why should an honest days work not reap an honest days pay? Moreover, assuming a low unemployment rate equals worker leverage is problematic. If that were true, every job would pay great. And what about when unemployment rises again? Making work pay is fair.
9
Thanks for this excellent article on the plight of working class people and how Republican policies are harmful to us all. As a former Republican who worked for the election of Barry Goldwater, I began learning in 1966 how wrong I had been when I was working in the U.S. Public Health Service to control vehicle emissions. See
https://www.legalreader.com/republican-racketeers-violent-policies/
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@Louis V. Lombardo
Thank you for the attached article.