VALUED WORKFORCE • UNDERSTANDING THE HANDS THAT FEED US
truck driver
The trucking industry is heavily regulated, and rules about how many hours truckers can be on
the road per week have resulted in companies hiring more drivers to ship the same amount of
cargo, often at lower wages. Some companies encourage drivers to quietly violate federal rules
on the amount of hours they drive each week. Violating these rules earns drivers and shipping
companies more money, but as one driver states in a 2014 Business Insider article, “When you’re
non-compliant as a driver you run the risk of fatigue and the risk of hurting other people [...] And
as a driver it’s my license on the line.” According to the article, the driver “said he was asked by
multiple trucking companies to falsify his logs, but he refused to. 6 ”Making matters harder for
drivers, bills have been proposed that would remove limits on how many hours they can work
and how large their trailers can be.
Organizations such as the Teamsters (a union that represents truck drivers) and the Advocates
for Highway and Auto Safety have pressured lawmakers to oppose such bills, which they say
might endanger both truckers and other drivers on the road.
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