It is a joy to be held up at home when truck problems occur. In fact it is in my opinion very good management to be able to schedule downtime for truck repair while taking a break from the daily and somewhat lonely lifestyle that is the very essence of the trucking industry. Yet, when the few days scheduled for maintenance and warranty updates on the truck turn into weeks, it is very difficult to patiently sit back and say to ones self, “Ah, thats no problem. At least I’m at home.”

As has been stated by many other drivers, to much downtime is very detrimental to the state of being for truck drivers. Many are the causes for too much downtime. And some of course are more negative than others. You have downtime due to lack of loads as Wayne mentions and you have your more serious issues that arise like Bill & Kathy experienced. But when it is due to defective design, the truck manufacturer has the responsibility to make certain the customer is happy. That begs the question of what is essential to make the consumer “happy”. If you are a company driver you simply accept the pay that your company contract states is the detention pay which can be anywhere from $50.00-$100.00 a day. That same detention pay is different for both the leased driver and equally different for the O/O which depends solely on the company leased to or the broker he/she is contracted with. It really should be a higher amount but as an independent driver things happen a bit differently. The company I am with has a review board that you have to go before so as to be paid any kind of compensation. If it is not feasible for you to be able to pick up an abandoned truck or one that is unseated (of course these latter are parked at company terminals).

Recent experience has lead me to be skeptical of an adequate recompense based on promises made by customers contracted with a trucking company. The practice is for the trucking company to act as a negotiator for the driver and they are not an adequate representative due to their capitalistic viewpoint coupled with the understandable need to satisfy the stockholders. So the current paradigm is such that the driver who in this case is the financial fly in the ointment is the easily dispensable commodity.

Though Unions have proven to be a more adequate representative for the driver in the past, and still have a good foothold in some aspects of the freight business, there are many factors that lead to the foreseeable demise of its involvement. Events happen that mark an organization as less effective in its power to effect change and as pertains to the Union these events include corruption and ties to organized crime as well as one of the most recent actions that in May 20 of 1999 forced NationsWay Transportation Services to close its doors instead of caving to Union demands concerning Pension agreements, costing roughly 3000 workers to lose their jobs.

Due to the very competitive nature and the differing paradigm that the trucking industry creates, there needs to be a new labor movement that would help to assure good wages for service rendered as well as an allotment for the driver taking that forced vacation not planned for. Possibly a professional negotiator whose stake in the negotiation is to be paid for benefiting both drivers and the trucking companies they driver for. And since most of the labor laws actually preclude drivers (the average driver makes anywhere from $2.00 and hour to $6.00 figures based on the actual time spent on the job yet not considered working) a working model of labor reform is needed.

Until such time as drivers are actually able to bond together in some form of alliance to agree on the formation of such a negotiating force or service, most of us will from time to time have to suffer this downtime curse that has forced the end of many a drivers career prematurely.
[GP:Spokane]