Truck drivers are overtired, overworked and underpaid

Belzer, Michael · 2018 · Crossref

DOI: 10.64628/aai.h3ecrrpck

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Summary

This report, issued by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) in January 2018, addresses the safety and economic impacts of driver detention in the commercial motor vehicle (CMV) industry. Mandated by the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act of 2015 (FAST Act), the audit aimed to assess available data on loading and unloading delays and evaluate the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) plan for collecting such data. The study was motivated by concerns that excessive wait times at shipper and receiver facilities contribute to driver fatigue, unsafe driving behaviors, and significant financial losses for drivers and carriers. The OIG conducted its assessment by reviewing government and industry studies, interviewing industry stakeholders, and analyzing existing datasets. Due to the lack of accurate industrywide data on detention, the researchers used statistical methods to estimate safety impacts using 2013 dwell time data from an FMCSA-sponsored study and crash data from FMCSA’s Motor Carrier Management Information System. To estimate economic impacts, the OIG utilized data from an FMCSA simulation model combined with the 2013 study data. The analysis focused on the truckload sector, defining detention as time spent at a facility beyond legitimate loading and unloading tasks, often proxied by dwell time exceeding two hours. The findings indicate that accurate, representative data on driver detention do not currently exist, as most stakeholders only track time exceeding contractual limits rather than actual wait times. Despite these data limitations, the OIG estimated that a 15-minute increase in average dwell time increases the expected crash rate by 6.2 percent, which could result in approximately 6,509 additional crashes annually in the CMV cargo sector. Economically, detention is associated with annual earnings reductions of $1.1 billion to $1.3 billion for for-hire truckload drivers and net income reductions of $250.6 million to $302.9 million for motor carriers. The report also found that FMCSA’s planned method for data collection—relying on voluntary, unverified online submissions—would not yield reliable or representative data, thereby limiting further analysis of detention’s impacts. The significance of this report lies in its quantification of the substantial safety risks and financial costs associated with driver detention, highlighting a critical gap in regulatory oversight. The OIG concluded that FMCSA’s current approach fails to meet the FAST Act’s intent to rigorously analyze detention effects. Consequently, the OIG recommended that FMCSA improve its future plans for data collection to ensure the accuracy and representativeness of the information gathered. FMCSA concurred with this recommendation, acknowledging the need for better data infrastructure to address the market efficiency and safety problems posed by driver detention.

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• truck driver fatigue