First, heart goes out to the victims of a couple of deadly crashes involving tractor trailers. The truckers at fault, for both but the white sheeted wastes of skin took the names and the fact that these men were not white, as an excuse to start tossing around their racial slurs and seemingly trying, very hard, to make this about country of origin and immigration. Okey dokey….
No. This is and will never be about race or immigration. This is about a lack of oversight by the assorted Ministries/Departments of Transport, licensing and the companies tossing drivers out on the road with no viable training, no real supervision as long as that load is picked up/delivered and the cash flows into their bank accounts.
I’ve been involved, within and also married to the industry for over 40 years and has there been a change? Ya think? There is a driver shortage. No “reg’lar” Canadian or American wants this as a career. I wouldn’t want any of my kids driving for a living. The industry treatment of drivers is horrendous. The level of COMPETENT dispatchers is virtually non-existent.
Here are a couple of statements by pencil pushers, one of whom was a C.F.O:
“Drivers are a necessary liability.” He has since retired but his opinion is entrenched. I beg to differ, it isn’t the drivers who are necessary liabilities – it is the keyboard punchers and number crunchers who are necessary liabilities. Without truckers, there is no company. Without a, wildly, overpaid C.F.O, the company can still function.
The other is:
“Truckers are stupid Neanderthals.” This comment from was a dispatcher and makes me laugh, to this day. Neanderthals that pay your salary and without whom, you would be unemployed.
How many dispatchers have actually attained any sort of certification to do the job safely, effectively? I have. It was a grueling course and caused more than 1 migraine but if certification was mandatory? You would see far less accidents and actually an increase to the company bottom-line. The course includes utilizing equipment logistically, optimizing profit while maintaining good HR policy and safety. At no time was “clearing the screen” ever discussed. (Clearing the screen, refers to having all loads off a pick-up/delivery list, regardless of whether or not these actions can be done safely or at all.)
Drivers encouraged to work beyond their hours…albeit, this is becoming increasingly difficult with the E.L.D. systems but those systems, like any other, relies on oversight. The odds of a “doctored” E.L.D. being discovered is so low, it is ridiculous. Highway officials don’t have the technological training to detect a “hacked” system.
Old School truckers are retiring and few are choosing it as a career. It is destroys the body, breaks up families and kills drivers long before their time.
“The average life expectancy of a truck driver is approximately 61 years, which is significantly lower than the national average life expectancy of about 78 years. This disparity is attributed to various health risks and lifestyle factors associated with the trucking profession, such as obesity, sleep apnea, and exposure to diesel exhaust. Additionally, studies indicate that truck drivers face a higher mortality rate compared to the general population, with specific health issues like heart disease and lung cancer being common.”
With the lack of a professionally trained driver pool, rather than hire responsibly, trucking companies are grabbing whomever walks through their doors. If anyone denies this? They lie. The driver shortage is real. The initiative to encourage retention, attract new drivers, is non-existent. Instead, drivers are still being treated like “necessary liabilities”, overworked, underpaid and perhaps even more relevant is that total lack of respect from the pencil pushers. Another comment made to me by a pencil pusher, back in the day?
“Drivers are a dime a dozen.”
That’s the mentality that has created the retention disaster being faced by trucking companies. Professional drivers are, absolutely not, a dime a dozen; you know who are a dime a dozen? Pencil pushers.
Customers don’t give a rat’s ass if a driver is competent or not, if a company is responsible or not. Customers want the load delivered and will rely on load brokers, with no real skin in the game, to that end. There’s a lot of blame to go around but that blame does not lie on any particular culture. It is industry wide.
Were the two drivers, from the fatal accidents, at fault? Absolutely. The U-Turn on the interstate? Go to jail, go directly to jail, do not pass go. In Québec, the driver was accessing a highway, rear-ended a 4-wheeler, killed 1 and sent the other 3 people to hospital; he took off. A hit and run. He’s been caught. Jail buddy, directly to jail.
Now, what about their employers/load brokers or the government? Fault/guilt needs to be spread evenly.
Just an anecdote – I know of 3 fatal accidents, personally, each one of those drivers were as white a frog’s belly. And if I hear one more racial slur, regarding trucking and immigration, I’m going to slap a bitch.
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