The two biggest contributors to the worsening work conditions of truck drivers are bad working conditions and low salaries. The long hours demanded of truck drivers are making most feel that their efforts are not valued.
Many long-haulers are given fourteen working hours and out of that they drive for 11 of them. Most do not have the weekends off, vacation time, nor paid sick leave. And the small things add up, like being told which route to pass, which stations to buy gas at, and the areas and time they can take a nap. These are common complaints of shipping and transportation drivers in recent years.
From the looks of it, only lawmakers can offer hope for solutions to what the drivers are suffering from. Unfortunately, lawmakers have been turning a deaf ear to this and instead have focused on features like tracking devices and surveillance so that owners can keep an eye on their drivers and trucks. Instead, the industry should be putting effort towards improving working conditions and bettering abilities for quality sleep. Further proposed solutions in our industry shouldn’t be tightening things further, but should be solving deteriorating work to improve the trucking industry. Solutions should involve a win-win situation between owners and drivers where they get to enjoy more benefits while improving productivity. What do you think?