Driver Safety

1377 Words3 Pages

The Distribution and Logistics Industry holds one of the most important roles within the world economy, as goods and services are needed across the globe. This movement of goods and services drives competition among businesses and organizations. This can create a dynamic environment as truckers are pressured for faster delivery times at lower rates, with the overall concept of a high quality of customer service. This concept can be dangerous as truckers are traveling long distances with little time off just to satisfy the competition and earn a profit. The government occasionally steps into this dynamic environment to regulate and provide safety measures to ensure driver safety, although organizations and drivers may believe that the government …show more content…

Shippers are already faced with an issue of a limited number of drivers due to the high demand and stress involved with driving long distances for long travel times. Mike Norder, who is a member of the Schneider National Carrier Company, describes that “to ensure that we have drivers that are enduring a very difficult job, we must pay our drivers fairly to hold a high retention rate” (Schulz, 2003). A prime reasoning behind this driver shortage is due to the limited hours that drivers can travel. As a result it limits their pay per the number of deliveries. Drivers are paid by the load and not the hours that they drive, so it becomes an ethical issue within the industry when drivers are being restricted on the number of deliveries they can complete based on how fast they can execute these deliveries. In addition to the low pay and increased regulations, the lack of respect towards drivers and lengthy time away from home gives more reasons for drivers to leave the industry and seek out new jobs (Schulz 2003). This shortage of drivers builds a great issue within the industry that keeps the world economy moving and with all the variables, including the HOS regulations, solutions and programs are needed to attract and retain …show more content…

One organization, The Illinois Trucking Association, has created a campaign called “Trucking Moves America Forward” in order to build awareness of the hardworking employees that keep goods and services moving in America (Trucking, 2013). The focus of this campaign is not to discourage people from the industry by listing the issues that drivers and organizations are struggling with, but to highlight how the industry remains a strong staple to our economy that can work through the issues to move the industry forward in a positive direction. This campaign provides organizations momentum to pull away from the downsides of the HOS regulations. The campaign also allows the idea of being a part of a visible industry to be the attraction that will retain drivers and reverse the shortage of drivers that left as a result of government presence (Trucking, 2013). With the overwhelming majority of employees in the Distribution and Logistics Industry being impacted by the HOS regulations, to leave and relocate for another job is not a viable and appropriate response that will benefit one of the largest industries. The adversity to look past while making compromise within the ethical concern of HOS will be the staple view that the trucking campaign and other innovative

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