The job of a truck driver has undergone an obvious transformation over the past few decades. And truckers are far from pleased by the change.
While in 1980 the average American trucker was pulling in a salary equivalent to $110,00, today truckers bring home a mere $40,000 a year on average. Even worse, truck drivers now work longer hours, harder days and maintain less job security.
Sociologist Steve Viscelli published an article in the Atlantic that describes the economic decline of the truck driving profession. At one time, long-haul trucking was one of the most envied blue-collared jobs in the U.S. Yet, now the profession has been dubbed by one economist, a “sweatshop on wheels.”
Viscelli explains that the profession changed radically in the 1970’s when Jimmy Carter deregulated the industry. Competition among truckers was on the rise and wages fell. Simultaneously, once renowned unions also began to decline.
The article highlights one particular problem that may explain the trucker downfall: the rise of independent contracting in place of formal employment. In this arrangement, truckers take on the risks and costs associated with the job, while the companies decline to pay for benefits.
Some employers seem to mislead their new drivers by advertising empowerment, and promising more control over when and where the trucker will drive. But reality hits when the trucker realizes he is responsible for almost all costs. Some contracts even bind the trucker to their leased vehicle into a forced labor until it is paid off.
The trucking profession is more difficult than meets the eye. Truckers endure long hours, many unaccounted for. They also must spend significant time away from home, or any other kind of human contact for that matter, constantly traveling in a solitary life.
This sociologist experienced his research first-hand when he took a job as a long-haul truck driver, just to better understand what the job was like.
He discovered that it was harder than it looks:
“Trucks are, for lack of a better word, cool… They can and should be terrifying to the untrained.”
He furtherd:
“The work is remarkably tangible. Drivers pick up 40,000 lbs of something people have over here and drive it to where people need it over there. They are working when the sun comes up and when it goes down, having covered hundreds of miles in the meantime. There are no bosses, and no office politics—it’s like being a modern-day cowboy. And what a view from the office window.”
Although trucking has its appeal, the low pay and long hours may constitute for the shortage of qualified U.S. truckers.
The American Truckers Association believes this can be turned around by increasing driver pay, allowing drivers more time at home as well as improving the drivers’ treatment by all companies.