[Mishmash] Economic Slavery on the Highways

[Peg]

During what I call my "lost" days, when I wandered aimlessly around the
country, I did a great deal of traveling with truck drivers. In fact, 99
percent of my travels were spent in a truck. Back then, it was rare to see a
woman driving one of these big trucks. These men were decent and hardworking
people who spent hours and hours behind the wheel covering miles and miles
on deadlines. Being female, not once was I accosted or feared for my safety
or well being. I never went hungry even though I had no money. They took as
good a care of me as they would if I had been their own daughter.  even
though I had I envied, and still do, their opportunity to see more of this
country than many people have. However, I do not envy the hardships they
face, the long hours, lack of sleep, the comfort of their own bed, not to
mention the sometimes horrible traffic they must navigate.  




-----Original Message-----
From: mishmash-bounces at mishmash.net [mailto:mishmash-bounces at mishmash.net]
On Behalf Of Fred Atkinson
Sent: Wednesday, June 14, 2006 9:57 PM
To: Mishmash
Subject: [Mishmash] Economic Slavery on the Highways


    I'd like to share some ideas about some of the people who make this
country great.  They are often the most unappreciated people in the world.

    We take them so much for granted despite all that they do.  Everyone
seems to think that the goods on the shelf at your store just appear there
magically.  The materials to build your home, school, or workplace were not
always there.  The fuel that makes your car run does not just appear at the
pump.  And there are many other material goods we rely on to maintain our
standard of living.

    There are thousands of good Americans that transport these materials to
us.  They aren't heralded and they get no fanfare.  Man live a lifestyle of
separation from their families and work an incredible number of hours.  It
is their plight I wish to discuss.

    When the economy went sour at the end of 2001, I spoke with a recruiter
for a national trucking company, she arranged for me to travel to Memphis,
Tennessee and attend a three week school that would help me get a Class A
commercial driver's license with all the required endorsements and the
training required for the company to hire me as an over the road truck
driver.  The cost of attending the truck school was over five thousand
dollars and I was expected to be responsible for the cost myself.  I was not
compensated in any way for the time I spent in school.

    I went to truck driving school with a lot of people from different parts
of the country and different backgrounds.  After we completed our first week
in school, we passed our written exams to get our learner's permits and our
medical certificates, which were required to operate the big eighteen
wheelers.

    The next week was range training.  We learned all manner of backing.
Backing was not like backing a car.  It required a whole different twist. To
back a truck to the right one must turn the wheel to the left until the
truck jacks to the right.  Then you turn the wheel to the right to follow
the trailer and keep it on the right path.  Even backing in a straight line
was difficult.  But we learned our required backing skills during the second
week and went on for the road training.

    We drove all over western Tennessee, eastern Arkansas, and northern
Mississippi.  To the end of the third week we completed our training and
passed our road tests.  When we returned to school the following week, we
were taken to the DMV to get our Class A commercial driver's licenses and
late we were assigned to a driver who would train us while we were actually
transporting goods all over the country.  We were paid only fifty dollars
per day while we trained regardless of the miles driven.  Since a driver
often drives between four and five hundred miles per shift, that amounts to
as little as ten cents per mile or less.

    These three weeks of driver training was done with no compensation and a
legal requirement that you repay the company for the training.  Of course,
they pro-rated the cost over two years and made the payments for your as
long as you worked for them.  But if you found it necessary to leave, you
were on the hook for the pro-rated part of the money you owe.  This makes it
difficult to leave if you are unhappy with the working situation.

    After I completed the training with my instructor, I began to learn
things I never knew.  I knew that truck drivers were typically away from
home for months at a time.  I never knew that they are not covered by the
wage and hour laws (overtime?  What is that?).  Truck drivers don't get
overtime even though they constantly work in excess of sixty hours per week.
They get paid for the miles they drive and (on occasion) for loading or
unloading a truck, not for the time they work.

    Many responsibilities that truck drivers perform are without any
compensation.  The Department of Transportation requires that they perform a
complete and thorough pre-trip safety inspection each day, which takes
fifteen minutes of their time.  They receive no compensation for their time
to perform this.  When they weigh and balance a truck to make sure the load
is legal on the highway, they receive no compensation for that, either.

    When they hitch or unhitch a trailer, they receive no compensation for
that task.  When a shipper or receiver makes them stand around and wait for
their load to be loaded or unloaded from a trailer, the driver receives no
compensation for the time he is there idle while the shipper or receiver
focuses on other things (unless he is paid for loading or unloading, which
isn't often).

    And the driver is never guaranteed to get a shipment to move.  There
were a number of times where I sat at a truck stop in a strange city with no
load.  Our company compensated us forty dollars per day if they had no load
for us.  Imagine that, only forty dollars for a single day of your life (and
not all drivers even get that) away from your family, community, and
friends.  And the per mile rates for new drivers are very low.  One I was
asked to pick up a trailer, weigh it to make sure it was legally balanced,
and transport it to the nearest company terminal for reassignment to another
driver.  For my several hours of work, I received approximately twelve
dollars for my efforts.  It amounted to less than minimum wage.

    Truck drivers get no respect.  Once when I was at a truckstop near the
Canadian border in Maine, a driver told me that his CB handle was 'Caucasian
scumbag'.  He said that he chose that handle because of what his father
(also a truck driver) told him.  Truck driving is an honorable profession,
but you will never get any respect.  Sadly, I found myself agreeing with
him.  A few examples follow.

    Once I made a delivery at a warehouse.  After 'bumping the dock' (an
expression used that means you have parked the trailer at the loading dock
so it can be loaded or unloaded), I found a door marked 'driver's entrance'.
When I stepped inside the door, I found myself standing inside of a cage
(subhuman treatment).

    I once made a pickup at a major customer.  As my hours were almost used
up when I made the pickup, I parked the truck outside the front gate in an
area where truckers were allowed to park and get the required time in the
sleeper before they were allowed to drive again.  When I walked back to the
gate requesting to use the restroom, they refused saying that driver's
weren't allowed to use the restrooms in the facility.  I had to go and
relieve myself in the middle of an open field because there was no other
place provided for the drivers.

    People often feel anger towards truck drivers because of the manner in
which they drive on the open highways.  I did not engage in such driving and
I did not approve of those who did.  But think of what it cost me.  Slowing
down reduced the amount of money I made.  Remember that many of the lesser
experienced drivers are not all that well paid (contrary to the stories
about how well truck drivers are paid).  When you are paid by the mile at
such a rate as twenty-seven cents a mile and only allowed to drive for a
limited number of hours, making more money requires that you floor it.  When
a driver is caught in a traffic jam, he is sitting there burning his driving
hours and getting no compensation for it.  He cannot drive extra hours to
make up for it or the Department of Transportation will fine him when they
audit his driving logbook.  To that end, some drivers falsify their logbook
to drive more miles.  This means that they are driving over the number of
hours it is safe for a person's body to be alert enough to handle an
eighty-thousand pound multi-vehicle truck and creates an additional hazard.

    Truck drivers would like to see that changed, but it's difficult.  'Over
the road' drivers are away from home for months at a time.  Because of that
they don't get to vote.  Politicians look at those statistics and they
realize that spending time helping truck drivers does not yield them
additional votes.  This does not motivate the politicians to make things any
easier for them.  Once, a driver told me that he had tried to get an
absentee ballot.  He was asked where he'd be on election day.  He told them
he had no way of knowing because he was sent to different places often on
only a few hours notice.  Because he couldn't tell them where he'd be on
election day, they denied him an absentee ballot.

    As long as we continue to pay our over the road drivers 'by the mile'
instead of by the hour and pay them for the things truck drivers do for no
compensation every day, the way many truck drivers operate their vehicles is
not going to change.  There is significant legislative reform needed but no
political incentive to perform it.  And many of these good people continue
to suffer while making a living to support their families (with whom they
are able to spend very little time with).  The next time you enjoy your
breakfast, buy nice new clothes at the store, fill up your tank with
gasoline, or partake of any number of other countless things, you should
remember that truck drivers brought those materials to you.

    Imagine if the trucks stopped rolling for a week.  We'd experience gas
shortages, food shortages, and have to learn to do without many things.

    When a driver is involved in a traffic accident, it isn't whether or not
he is at fault that matters.  You may have run into him but the question is
could he have done something to prevent it from happening?  Even if he was
not at fault in the accident, it often is still reported on his driving
record as 'preventable' (which stacks against him when his driving record is
reviewed for insurance or for possible employment with a different trucking
company).  Imagine that, you caused the accident but they hold it against
the truck driver anyway.  He is responsible for managing *your* driving
safety habits.

    These dramatically under appreciated people live a lifestyle that I
don't understand how they continue to live day in and day out year after
year.  Essentially they are slaves to our system and we continue to take
advantage of them paying many of them low wages and working them at a
schedule that would cause most of us to experience complete exhaustion.

    My hat is off to them and I think about them from time to time.  God
bless our truck drivers.


_______________________________________________
Mishmash mailing list
Mishmash at mishmash.net
http://mishmash.net/mailman/listinfo/mishmash_mishmash.net