Why have I been talking about truckers getting their own authority?  (Parts 1, 2, and 3 of this series can be found by clicking on the numbers above..)

Because too many drivers are finding it difficult to make a living.  So, it is critical they take control over their own destiny.

And, if a trucker is unlucky enough to think that he (most truckers are he) could make a living driving rigs hauling containers from the Port of Los Angeles or Long Beach? Hooey!   Those folks are in for a heap of trouble.

You see, there are a slew of firms that importing products into the US.  And, those products pretty much all arrive by ship.  Which means those importing firms (Target, Costco, Hewlett-Packard, among others) hire trucking firms- with the stated goal to pay the least amount possible to get the products to their warehouses.  So, that means the trucking firm with the lowest bid price to move the items from the ship to their warehouses or to a rail yard (where a train will carry the container on the rest of its journey) gets the nod.

The problem that exists at these two ports dates back about a decade (2008).  When California decided that the rigs that line up to haul containers from the ports had to clean up their act.  They could no longer use dirty fuels.  That meant new rigs (about 16000 of them) had to be purchased.  $ 2.5 billion worth of new trucks.

Before this change, drivers could buy a used rig for dirt cheap and drive it until it fell apart.  But, these old trucks belched out air pollutants, got poor diesel mileage, etc.  And, those rigs were sitting (that means, with their engines running, so they were ready tomove at a moment’s notice) at the port for hours, waiting for the designated container to be dropped onto their trailers.

Thie mandated change meant some (disreputable) trucking firms were going to find a way to sock it to the truck driver.  All while claiming they were helping them.  Almost every one of the some 800 firms operating in the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach adopted these new programs.

What did they offer?  The trucking firms involved the drivers in  “lease-to-own” programs.   In the ideal world, that meant a new rig would be purchased (using the trucking firms’ money).  And, that trucking firm would immediately offer that purchased rig to a driver.  Who now thought he  was king of the heap.

The drivers think they are getting a “mortgage” on the truck- but that’s far from the truth. Instead they are being provided sub-leases- owing some $ 100K to the trucking firm. Yes, it’s true that most of these drivers couldn’t afford a new rig on their own.  But, it would have been a great program if the truck was “mortgaged”.  Instead, the sub-leases disallow the drivers from driving their rigs for anyone BUT the firm who is leasing it to them.

Couple that with the fact that the lease rate is somewhat steep- and if the driver gets sick, goes on vacation- or if the rig breaks down, the driver can’t ante up the full amount due on the lease.  Because the trucking firms also charge the drivers outrageous insurance rates, impose parking fees if the rig is left on the trucking firm site- plus there are  fuel purchases, etc.  So, it’s not simply the truck lease that does the drivers in.

The issue is that once the driver falls behind in his payments, the trucking firm yanks the truck.  And immediately offers that rig to someone else.  The new guy gets the same deal- but now he has a used truck.  Of course, the original driver is out all the money he anted up over the weeks, months, or years that he thought he was purchasing the rig; in actuality, he is left with nothing. So, instead of being entrepreneurs, these drivers find out that they are simply indentured servants (read slaves- like the South handled their Black farmers after the Civil War.).

I am not describing isolated cases.  At least 1200 drivers have filed court cases or registered complaints with the Department of Industrial Relations (CA) against the trucking firms. The trucking firms try to claim the drivers are independent contractors- but the courts have held in favor of the drivers almost uniformly.  Meaning that minimum wage laws apply to the drivers.  Not that minimum wage is all that good- but it generally is way more than the drivers actually earn under this scheme.

Part of the problem is that, as I said in the earlier portions of this sseries, local hauling pays less than long haul freight.  The truckers earn  less per mile than they would if they were traveling the interstates (and they drive fewer miles).  And, because lots of little trips have to be made to cover their costs, many of these trucking firms force the driver to doctor his records (it’s called lying; a federal crime to boot) saying he only drove 8 to 11 hours [these records are called hours of service (HOS) logs].  Federal law stipulates the drivers are limited to 11 hours of driving at a clip, and must get 10 hours of rest after driving].  The Fed feels these driving schedules preclude the chance that a driver will have an accident and kill someone.

But, these trucking firms are forcing their indentured servants to drive their rigs for twice that amount- every day.  Or, the drivers find the rig is pulled from under them.

Time for that operating authority.