While some problems are universal in LTL (less-than-truckload) trucking, such as mandatory overtime, seniority violations, no lunch or break times, and straight time pay for overtime work, this year’s busy season has brought a wave of more intense problems for certain companies and terminals both union and non-union. At our terminal, the most profitable of roughly 250 terminals in a non-union company, workers have been working extra hours to handle the record volume of business.

Conditions have been getting so bad that many without knowledge of any other solutions have decided to quit. During the last two weeks of September three new drivers quit. And on Friday, September 30^th, I walked off the job.

That weekend I met with two co-workers. We came up with a strategy for my return to the company and subsequent grievance handling. On Monday morning I did not go into work. A supervisor called me and asked me what was wrong. I told him I was quitting, and he asked me to reconsider. He called me five minutes after I got off the phone with him and told me the terminal manager was upset and wanted to speak with me. I told him that I would meet with him in person the next day.

All day on Monday several co-workers called me to either congratulate me or find out what was going on. Late Monday night, I received a phone call from a co-worker who told me that he heard that the terminal manager was going to give me whatever I wanted to get me to come back. Some of my co-workers discussed with each other at work on Monday and gave me instructions on how to handle my meeting with the boss. I put together a list of about 15 problems that the boss needed to solve before I would return to work. Some of these included disrespectful behavior from supervisors, violation of seniority rights, mandatory overtime, inconsistent scheduling, no breaks, no lunches, shortages of equipment (both trucks and forklifts), no pay for pre-trip inspections, and no overtime pay for overtime work.

This last problem may need some elaboration. In LTL trucking, there are two types of drivers: P&D (pickup and delivery) drivers and Line Haul drivers. P&D drivers work during the day and are paid hourly for both dock work (loading and unloading trailers) and driving time. Line haul drivers work over night are paid hourly for dock work and by mileage for driving time. When traveling from one terminal to another, both P&D and line haul drivers are paid by the mile. The mileage rate is always the same whether driving during the first eight hours of work or after eight, which means you are getting the same rate of pay in both straight time and overtime.

Because the terminal has been so busy lately, many P&D drivers have been forced to make line haul trips following their P&D runs. This is effectively paying the drivers less than time and a half for overtime work. And for some reason, the US Department of Labor does not consider this illegal.

I met with the terminal manager on Tuesday morning for about two hours. When I was finished, he promised that if I returned to work, he would take care of all my problems except for one. He said he cannot pay us time and a half for making a line haul run. Instead he promised that I would never have to do a line haul run again. But this does not excuse the fact that the line haul mileage rate is a scam and all our employees still have to accept it.

All the other grievances he agreed to take care of. And those are the ones that bother everyone, not just some. I was skeptical that he would fix these problems, but two days latter I already began to see results.

I was informed by a dock worker that the dockworkers were going to be allowed to work as many hours as they would like. In our company, there are no full time dock workers. They are only allowed to work 25 hours per week. If they go over that, they are disciplined. Many dock workers try to squeeze in as many hours as they can because the job pays so well. I told the terminal manager in order to lighten the long hours the drivers are doing, the terminal should keep the dock workers on longer. He agreed but said that it was “against the company philosophy” to have full time dockworkers. I told him to violate the company philosophy temporarily to handle the busy season. And two days later, it became official. A dock worker approached me with the good news. They would be able to work as many hours as they would like and they would even be paid time and a half for any work done over eight hours.

The other big victory was the five new forklifts. I told the terminal manager that if we had more forklifts to unload the trailers, we would not have to unload the trailers by hand, and the operation would finish quicker. As a result, the line haul drivers would not be late leaving our terminal and there would be less mandatory overtime for those who do not want overtime. Three days after I returned to work, there were five new forklifts on the dock. Worker morale during the unloading and loading process that night was at a level I have not witnessed in my 18 months at the company. Nobody looked miserable.

The boss also sent two managers to be retrained in their supervising responsibilities. This was the result of my complaint that the supervisors talk to the drivers like children and needed to respect us or many would leave.

I could go into detail about the other victories but it is not necessary here. The point here is that there is a shortage of drivers in America. Trucking companies, whether they admit to it or not, are desperate for qualified tractor-trailer drivers. This gives the drivers a strategic negotiating position over the working conditions. The problem, it seems, is that many drivers do not realize that they have a considerable amount of power over the bosses of the trucking industry. What my story proves is that right now the company will literally violate its own philosophies for one stinking driver. Imagine what they would do if 2 of us acted together, or 3, or 15, or the whole terminal, or the whole company, or the whole industry?