Wal-mart's truckers face a 16 hour work day (1 Viewer)

[Lee ps]

Wal-Mart Wants Truckers to Have 16-Hour Workdays

By LESLIE MILLER, AP


WASHINGTON (March 9) - Wal-Mart and other retailers are lobbying Congress to extend the workday for truckers to 16 hours, something labor unions and safety advocates say would make roadways more dangerous for all drivers.

Rep. John Boozman, an Arkansas Republican whose district includes Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s headquarters in Bentonville, is sponsoring a bill that would allow a 16-hour workday as long as the trucker took an unpaid two-hour break. The proposal is expected to be offered as an amendment during debate over the highway spending bill on Wednesday.

"Truckers are pushing harder than ever to make their runs within the mandated timeframe,'' Boozman said. "Optional rest breaks will reduce driver layovers and improve both safety and efficiency.''

Current rules limit drivers' workdays to 14 hours, with only 11 consecutive hours of driving allowed, union leaders and safety advocates say. That gives truckers three hours to eat, rest or load and unload their trucks.

Can you believe that? Wal-mart is capitalism run amok.

I haven't been here long enough to be trusted posting links, so you will have to put the the link that follows back together.

aolsvc.news.aol.com/business/article.adp?id=20050309105609990001&ncid=NWS00010000000001

 

[CharlesD]

We're not supposed to post entire articles on HTF, just a relevant paragraph or two and the link to the article. IN fact I would appreciate it if you would post a link as I would like to share this article in other forums where the subject matter would be more appropriate than here.

 

[Lee ps]

I found it on the rotating triplet of AOL news, top of the front page. The article itself was from AP. I'll see if I can find a link for it, although the content is compact as is.

And if there are other forums, I would be interested.
I posted it earlier on a musician forum and the members began to attack each other. Adults, adults, I'll never understand them.

The prospect of having truck drivers on the road who only had six hours of sleep is unnerving, to put it mildly

 

[CharlesD]

I agree 100% and find this proposal disturbing for many reasons.

 

[Edwin-S]

If his amendment passes, I hope Boozeman and his Hel-Mart executive cronies are the first to be crushed under the wheels of an out-of-control 18 wheeler driven by a driver who hasn't taken his optional break during his sixteen hour day.

 

[Philip_G]

I somehow just don't see it getting passed, seeing how it affects the teamsters.

 

[Lynda-Marie]

The proposal is ludicrous.

Sleep deprivation can slow reaction times dangerously, as much as or worse than that of someone who has been drinking.

I agree with Edwin. If something this crazy and dangerous gets passed, I hope the executives and the good Representative are the first ones crushed by a truck driven by an extremely tired driver.

If the workload is that great, why don't they just hire more drivers? Or does that make too much sense? Sure, they'd have to deal with payroll for more drivers, and benefits and the like, but surely that's cheaper than litigation, not only from the union, the drivers themselves, public safety groups, anyone who might be in an accident with an exhausted trucker...

 

[Philip_G]

It's much worse than reaction times. They have studied this, they took some truckers that just got done driving for the day and put them in a simulator and made them drive some more. The biggest change was in their risk assessment.. they'd make unsafe passes that they'd normally never make for example.

 

[LewB]

Wonder if they considered the higher insurance rates that would follow an upswing in Wal-Mart truck accidents?
I'll bet they did, and figured they'd make more money with the new rules even if they had to pay higher trucking costs. As Joe Pesci said in Casino: "the dollars, it's always the dollars".
Assuming that the Wal-Mart trucks are actually owned and operated by Wal-Mart. Any one know if Wal-Mart actually owns the trucks with their name on them ?

 

[Jeff Adkins]

I used to drive between Indianapolis and Tampa several times a year, which is just about 15 hours. After about the 12th or 13th hour I have noticed my reaction times and overall senses have deteriorated. I can't imagine doing that several times per week. This is a major safety issue in my opinion.

I stopped shopping at Wal-Mart long ago because of the way they treat their employees. Many of my friends oppose their practices as well but still continue to shop there.

Jeff

 

[Philip_G]

rumor has it they already take out a life insurance policy on their employees to benefit the company.

 

[Jay H]

I have driven to the ADKs/Catskills in NY state a couple of times in the wee hours of the morning, say between 2am and 5am and about 50% of the trucks I see doing up/down the thruway are Walmart trucks! They're everywhere, it's a plague. I just wonder how many of them are sleepy?

Add another vote to the "I don't think this is a good idea" crowd.

Jay

 

[Matt Souza]

rant follows:

This hits close to home for me. A MAJOR part of our business is dependant on trucking logistics, and this is just a pet peeve, but you guys have NO idea what it actually going on behind this legislation. Please read the folloing from the D.O.T. http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/Home_Files/hos/brochure.htm

Drivers can not drive more than 11 hours. Wal-Mart applies to this also. Our drivers can not "work" more than 14 hours. This is what Wal-Mart wants change. This is a BIG deal in the logistics game. If a driver is held at a vendor while being loaded/unloaded for 3 hours, even if he is napping in his truck, those count against his HOS (hours of service). America demands to have faster/cheaper service, but then they complain when the businesses they demand this from are forced to raise rates because of the regulations they want in place.

I'd bet you a paycheck that the accidents per mile driven ratio is multiples lower for the trucking industry than the general public.

Please get the facts before making statements about what a company is doing.

/end rant

matt

 

[Chris]

I don't know if WM does this, but I know a lot of places that do this that cater in artistic skills. They put LI policies on their top artisans/technicians/etc. so that if they pass away, the company will be able to buy their way out of unfinished projects.

 

[Eric Peterson]

Wow! Yet another reason to loathe Wal-Mart and not give them my money. Of course, it's not like I needed another reason.

 

[Robert_Gaither]

What shocks me is how many people hate Walmart, their actions, and their sellout of America yet still shop there. I avoid doing business with them as much as possible.

 

[CharlesD]

I have not set foot in a Wal-Mart since I learnt how they actively help "American" companies outsource jobs to China.

 

[James_Kiang]

In the interest of fairness....

(bold emphasis placed by me)

It is not just Wal-Mart that is behind this proposed legislation. Now, my pointing this out does not mean I don't have problems with it.

 

[Lee ps]

There's no doubt that other retailers have an interest in this too. If they had nothing to gain, why employ lobbyists?

I wouldn't want the job. The potential is 'up at 0600, drive until 1400, take 2 unpaid hours off to eat, shower, shave, whatever, back on the road at 1600 until 2400 (midnight) and up again at 0600.

Somewhere in all of that are the maintenance of the driver and his truck. If he gets a break because he's detained for some reason that's good for him. Maybe he'll eat twice that day.

 

[Malcolm R]

Because there aren't a lot of us who are rich enough to buy everything at Neiman Marcus.