‘This used to be a great job’: US truckers driven down by long hours and low pay | US economy
Tim Clemons has driven nearly 3 million miles around the US in his 30 years as a truck driver. “This used to be a great job,” said Clemons. “I provide a valuable service to this country. It would be nice if we weren’t looked down upon like trash.”
While the industry says there is a national shortage of drivers and complains regulation is holding back hiring, Florida-based Clemons has another theory: working conditions have deteriorated since he started driving, he said. It’s more difficult to find parking, access to bathrooms. Dispatchers and brokers are pushing harder to deliver loads in a certain amount of time or else drivers face fines or deductions. Drivers earn less.
All these factors may explain why annual turnover at big trucking employers averaged 94% between 1995 and 2017. And that’s before Covid upended the supply chain and increased demand for drivers, and the pressures they face.
Most facilities Clemons…
