Dangerous Trucking

A veteran trucker who was badly beaten and left for dead by the side of the Yellowhead Highway says his hauling days are over.

Alex Fraser underwent reconstructive surgery at Royal Inland Hospital Tuesday to repair a damaged eye socket and three broken bones in his cheek — injuries he received while being a Good Samaritan to a stranded vehicle's occupants.

"I look like an ex-boxer," said Fraser from his hospital bed.

The 67-year-old was attacked late Friday just north of Blue River.

He was driving home to Vernon after delivering a load of flour in Edmonton when he noticed a car parked on the shoulder, its headlights facing him and its hood up.

Fraser slowed his truck and saw at least two men near the stranded vehicle.

"One fellow stood out from the lights and was waving his arms," recalled Fraser. "So I figured, 'OK, they've got problems; they need help.'"

He walked to the front of his rig to offer his assistance and heard a man's voice shout, "You truckers are all alike!"

Fraser was then hit on the back of the head and knocked out by what he believes was a third attacker who surprised him from behind. He doesn't remember what happened next, but someone beat him while he was unconscious.

When he came to, the attackers were gone and he was covered in blood and too weak to stand.

Fraser crawled to the steps of his truck and fell unconscious again, waking just long enough to get into the sleeper compartment where he blacked out for a third time.

He awoke near daybreak Saturday.

"I didn't know where I was," he said. "The truck was still running. I figured, 'I can't stay here.' I couldn't see out of my right eye — could hardly see anything at all — but I managed to drive 34 kilometers into Blue River."

The injured man pulled into the Husky station in Blue River, opened the door of his cab and fell to the ground. Those nearby rushed to his aid and called 911.

This tragic event is another example of the great people that make the long haul everyday. Without blinking Fraser was there to help people. Please be cautious drivers it is dangerous trucking out there.

Valemount RCMP are investigating the attack.

© Copyright (c) The Province

Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/Trucking+days+over+badly+beaten+Good+Samaritan+driver/3595131/story.html#ixzz10wPiMq2B

WAGES WILL AFFECT RECRUITMENT

 “Anne Williamson’s study shows that drivers on long haul are working an average of 68 hours a week while a almost a third are breaking all driving laws and doing more than 72 hours a week,” TWU National Secretary Tony Sheldon says.

“We also have only 25 per cent of drivers paid of waiting times, and almost 60 per cent of drivers surveyed are not paid for loading or unloading. This pressure adds up and that is why we are seeing 60 per cent of drivers admit to ‘nodding off’ at the wheel over the last 12 months.”

While the study is not due for release until later this year, the TWU is using it to reiterate its call for a new remuneration structure for the trucking industry.

“Truck drivers have no guarantee of full-cost recovery as it is. We need a system of safe rates across the country, where drivers can get all costs back for rising charges and fluctuating fuel prices, otherwise we are going to see rising economic pressure cause further unsafe practices,” Sheldon says.
Sheldon says trucking operators must improve the wages and conditions of drivers or risk recruitment problems as the freight task doubles over the next decade. He says the industry has an ageing workforce on its hands.

“As these people retire, companies do need to look at recruitment for the future and the up-training of younger drivers – but it is hard to attract people to the job if there is little financial rewards,” Sheldon says.

“Lifestyle and family life is also adversely affected.”

Sheldon says the industry will struggle to attract young people if driving causes family pressures through poor pay.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard was due to release a paper in July from the Safe Rates Advisory Group outlining recommendations to reform pay rates.

The National Transport Commission in 2008 recommended government intervention in the marketplace on the basis truck drivers lacked the ability to negotiate a sustainable rate. It also criticised incentive payments such as the cents-per-kilometre rate.

Once released, the paper will be open to six weeks of discussion to give the trucking industry the opportunity to respond to the recommendations.

The authors of a 2008 study on pay rates, Professor Michael Quinlan and Lance Wright QC, criticised those who deny a connection between low pay and poor safety outcomes.

They say critics provide “little if any research or credible evidence to discount or provide alternative explanations to research indicating that such connection exists”.

Trucker forced to leave dock for questioning company’s bathroom policy

A simple request to use the bathroom at a food packaging plant recently led to one trucker being asked to drop his trailer at the dock – and leave the premises.

Erwin Page of Owen, WI, told Land Line that he arrived around 4 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 16, at the Ring Container Technologies food packaging facility in St. Joseph, MO. He backed into the dock and went to bed for a few hours. Around 8:30 a.m., he said he went inside the facility and asked an office employee if he could use the bathroom.

Page said that’s “when everything went bad.”

“I was told that drivers weren’t allowed inside to use the facilities, but I explained that there weren’t any Port-a-Potties or anything outside for drivers to use either,” he said. “I was told to just go back outside and pee behind my trailer by the dock, like everybody else does.”

Eventually, Page said he was allowed to use the restroom in the office after he asked to speak to the higher-ups about the company’s policy. However, not long after the incident, and after he contacted his dispatcher about what happened, Page received a phone call from his dispatcher that the facility had called and said he was “no longer welcome” at Ring’s facility.

“I called my dispatcher immediately and let her know there could be a problem and explained what had happened – that I politely asked to use the facilities and was told no at first,” he said. “I didn’t get irate or threaten anyone or anything like that, but I did want to ask the chain of command why they had this policy.”

Another driver had to pick up Page’s trailer and deliver it to him at a nearby truck stop.

While Page said he doesn’t expect shippers and receivers to provide lavish accommodations, he said it would be nice to at least “have something.”

“I don’t think it’s very sanitary to ask drivers to pee behind their trailers by the dock,” he said. “Talk about contamination issues – that’s a big one.”

Paul G. Miller, director of quality improvement for Ring Container Technologies in Oakland, TN, provided Land Line a statement on Thursday, Sept. 23, about their corporate policy regarding drivers.

“It is our written policy that truck operators are restricted to the immediate area of the door through which they enter and that provides access to the trailer dock exterior,” according to Miller’s statement. “All other entryways are locked and secured. Truck operators are permitted to enter through an unlocked door; however, the area is secured with an inner, fenced separator. There is a signaling device that is used to notify plant personnel that a truck operator has entered.”

Miller added that it isn’t Ring’s policy to instruct truck operators to “relieve themselves out by their truck” and in an urgent situation will allow drivers to use the restrooms inside.

However, according to Miller’s statement, “operators who persist in this practice will not be permitted access to the facility.”

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association recently provided comments to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in the Federal Register about the implementation of the Sanitary Food Transportation Act of 2005. The act requires the agency to implement regulations that mandate sanitary practices for shippers, receivers, carriers and others involved in food transportation to help eliminate or reduce the likelihood of contamination or adulteration of food products.

Ring’s Miller said his company and the food packaging manufacturing industry at large is “not regulated by the FDA, the Department of Homeland Security or the USDA.”

“The implementation of (good manufacturing practices), food safety, food security and food defense practices is done on a wholly voluntary basis, upon good business practices and customers’ expectations.”

OOIDA’s Director of Regulatory Affairs Joe Rajkovacz told Land Line on Friday, Sept. 24, that Ring’s policy toward drivers who haul their freight just isn’t humane.

“Ring’s defense of a policy that dehumanizes drivers is that nobody regulates them,” he said.

Three-fourths of drivers who responded to a survey by the OOIDA Foundation indicated that the lack of access to facilities or unsanitary conditions is a real concern for them.

For Page, he said it was an ordeal he won’t soon forget.

“Nobody wants us around, but they want us to haul their freight,” he said. “It’s like drivers being treated like dogs.”

– By Clarissa Kell-Holland, staff writer Land Line Magazine

Real Appreciation

Once a year we pause in our busy lives to take notice of and show our appreciation for the everyday heroes who move our freight, the 3.4 million professional truck drivers who deliver the goods. Everyone knows how important trucks are to our daily lives and to our nation’s economy. If you carry it or push it, live in it, lay on it, or look at it on your wall; if you throw it or catch it or feed it to your dog; if it mows your grass, entertains your family, tells you stories or mops your floor — a truck brought it.

And each of those trucks, making deliveries large and small to factory, home or mall, has a driver. A driver piloted that big truck across mountains and plains, nursed it along in mysterious freeway backups and wrestled it through city congestion that turns lesser people into babbling fools.

American Trucking Associations recognized the vital role drivers play in our industry and our economy. Bill Graves, ATA president and chief executive officer, wrote in Transport Topics that nearly 70% of all U.S. freight tonnage moves in trucks and that more than 80% of our nation’s communities are served exclusively by trucks. He pointed out that “virtually every consumer good that we enjoy — from food to clothing, to much-needed medicine — is delivered by a professional truck driver.”  These professionals are doing a tough, dangerous job safely. A few weeks ago, the U.S. Department of Transportation released statistics that show trucking is the safest it’s been since DOT started keeping records in 1975, with a 20% drop in fatalities involving a large truck.

With these drivers working on highways that are more and more crowded, more and more outdated and inadequate in so many ways, the downward trend in fatal accidents “is a testament to the skills and commitment to safety demonstrated by our nation’s professional truck drivers.”

Lets take a look at the median expected salary for a typical Truck Driver - Heavy in the United States. This basic market pricing report was prepared using our Certified Compensation Professionals' analysis of survey data collected from thousands of HR departments at employers of all sizes, industries and geographies. (Source: HR Reported data as of September 2010) http://www1.salary.com/Truck-Driver-salary.html

Benefit                          Median Amount              % of Total

Base Salary                  $37,877                      68.1%

Bonuses                       $290                            0.5%

Social Security             $2,920                         5.2%

401k / 403b                 $1,450                         2.6%

Disability                      $382                            0.7%

Healthcare                    $6,103                         11.0%

Pension                        $1,908                         3.4%

Time Off                       $4,697                         8.4%

Total                           $55,628                      100%

In recent polls, truck drivers indicated that the main factor in choosing a company to work for was high pay. Not even weekly home time topped salary as the best reason truckers chose to drive for a particular company. Consider the psychological factors:

Pay/Self-concept factor

The more money I earn the better I feel about myself. How I feel about myself is greatly influenced by how much I earned in the week. When my earnings are low for the week I feel disappointed in myself. I would be much more worried about the future if I wasn’t earning money now. The pay I earn makes me feel more secure about things. I worry less about life when I am earning money.

Pay/social factor

I think people respect me more if I earn more that most other people. I like earning more money because it helps gain some respect from others. When I earn more my supervisor respects me more. For some reason, I seem to get along better with friends when I have earned more that week. The more I earn the more fun I can have with my friends after work.

Pay/necessities factor

Most of the money that I earn is spent on bills and necessities before I get it. The pay I earn is absolutely essential for my household. I could save my paycheck if I felt like it. Much of what I earn is spent on activates with friends.

We all do thing for our own self-interest. So, even though last week was officially National Truck Driver Appreciation Week, let’s be sure to appreciate drivers by paying them.