Drivers are beginning to demand economic and social justice.

Unbridled competition, coupled with no wage protection for its drivers, has sent the truckload segment of the trucking industry into a death spiral. While the public wants, and has every right to expect, safe highways and a reliable transportation system, drivers, under pressure to deliver quickly and at low cost, are being forced to push far past safety parameters.

This year the federal government, in an attempt to improve trucking safety, issued a new Hours of Service (HOS) rule, which, barring any last minute court challenges, will take effect next January. But as the waters around the new HOS rule continue to roil, out on the horizon, like a small wave gathering strength and momentum as it rolls toward the beach, drivers are beginning to demand economic and social justice in addition to safer working conditions.

Can a nation that is so dependent upon its vast transportation network continue to deny basic employment rights to those who keep the network running smoothly?

It is indeed time for change and a good place to begin is to have Congress repeal the trucking industry’s absurd exemption from provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Such a repeal will grant truck drivers the same overtime rights and protections currently enjoyed by the great majority of American workers while creating jobs and discouraging carriers from overworking their drivers.

There is strong opposition in the business community to such action. Those with a financial stake in keeping men and women shackled to rolling sweatshops argue that since the Department of Transportation already regulates a truck driver’s hours of service, further regulation under the Fair Labor Standards Act amounts to overkill.

They confuse apples with oranges.

Whereas the FLSA affords minimum protections regarding pay and overtime, the HOS rules set maximum hours for the purpose of safety. For example: Although airline pilots are protected under the FLSA the FAA tightly regulates pilots’ hours for the purpose of public safety. Such regulation has never been referred to as “overkill.”

So long as carriers are allowed to disregard the FLSA, they will continue to compete solely on the basis of low wages. Such competition encourages negative efficiency among carriers and shippers while contributing positively to the continued bloodshed on our highways.

While repealing the FLSA exemption, pay by-the-mile and percentage pay must also be outlawed and replaced with pay by the hour. Make certain that drivers are paid for all time worked, including loading, unloading, fueling, wait time, breakdowns, etc. Without this change in the status quo, removal of the FLSA exemption will be meaningless. Transport companies will simply circumvent the requirements of the FLSA by continuing to pay drivers on a piecework basis. Drivers currently paid in this manner (this includes most of the drivers in the truckload segment) find they must work the maximum amount of hours allowable (and then some) to maintain their position in the lower middle class. Armed with such a strong economic incentive, it is easy to understand why so many drivers continue to falsify their logbooks and work beyond the limits of safety.

If the new HOS rule is coupled with pay by-the-hour for all work performed and full protection under the FLSA, drivers will see their paychecks increase, their working conditions greatly improve and the American public will find the highways a much safer place.

Enforcing the HOS while preventing drivers from bilking their companies will require that technology (black boxes) be employed. Although much of the industry argues vehemently against such technology being mandated, they are at the same time rapidly outfitting their trucks with tracking devices and onboard recording devices (OBRs).

The new HOS rule is a workable one. Not only will it help prevent carriers from using overwork as their main competitive edge, but it also goes a little way toward removing truck drivers from their rolling sweatshops and allowing them to enjoy a modicum of the fruits of their labor. Hopefully, the new rule will accomplish this while energetically and forcefully addressing its prime objective – safety. To work so hard at formulating a rule like the new HOS and then continue to base compliance on driver-maintained paper logbooks is tantamount to polishing an apple and then storing it in a manure pile.

These changes will not come cheap. Although much of any increased cost will be born by increased efficiency of both transport companies and shippers, some will have to be passed on in the form of increased freight rates with the consumer paying a share. The payback to consumers in terms of increased highway safety will be great. The motoring public is currently paying in blood and sorrow for maintaining the status quo. How much are safer roads worth?

As I write this, good men and women are leaving the trucking industry in droves. The take-home pay of the American trucker, plummeting since 1980, continues its downward plunge. Too many persons are dying in truck related highway accidents.

It is my most sincere hope that the federal government will somehow find the fortitude to put this once noble industry back on target. Left to its own totally unregulated devices, trucking, as it is known today, will self-destruct in a few short years. Market forces are, even now, forming a new creation in the bowels of the current unrest. The American public will not like this new creation. I believe they should fear it. I do.

Guy Bourrie has been hauling on the highways for 20 years. He lives in Washington, Maine, and can be reached at [email protected].