When truck drivers hit the roads before the 2008 election to protest an increase in Road User Charges, perhaps they should have been protesting about their pay and how they are being driven into the ground.
The Sunday Star Times reports today that truck drivers are driving up to 100 hours a week, scrimping on maintenance, not taking breaks and speeding – all to try to earn a living as owner drivers in an intensely competitive industry.
I know some of these drivers. They borrow to buy the big rig, put their name on the side and are all set to go into their own small business.
Trouble is, as owner-drivers, they have little or no bargaining power. If the company decides to slash their contract price, the only recourse they have is to the Courts – requiring expensive lawyers and thousands of dollars the drivers don’t have.
I met some of the drivers mentioned in the SST. They work for large well-known iconic companies and they are at the end of their tether, so have decided to speak out.
They told us that driving 100 hours, seven days a week is common, how they put bald tyres scraping on the rims onto the inside of the truck because they can’t afford replacement tyres, how some of them found themselves asleep at the wheel, and how one had a crash on the way home from work because he was so knackered.
We heard how the company had unilaterally cut $700 a week from their pay, and there was almost nothing they could do about it without spending thousands of dollars they don’t have on lawyers and court action.
In Australia, after several enquiries, clear links have been established between the pay of truck drivers and safety and the government is moving to establish a “safe rates” system, where there is minimum pay for truckers and better bargaining power across Australia.
In New Zealand, we’ve implemented just about every type of safety law and rule you can imagine to improve truck safety since 1999, when there was a Select Committee enquiry into serious safety concerns in the trucking industry. Steven Joyce seems to have run out of ideas, except to permit heavier and longer trucks.
However, with one person a week dying in truck related crashes in New Zealand, the government needs to think more about this issue.
National boasts about being the friends of small business. Well, here’s some small business owners who have so few rights they are breaking the law and putting themselves and other road users at risk to make a living.
Rebecca,
Talking bulk crude from wellsite to production station, prior to that bulk milk from farm to production station, will you let me off now? so we can get onto more serious business, like attempting to motivate people to join forces and stand up and improve things?
Really got to go
cheers
Iain
Iain it was you that chose to contend my statement was incorrect – all you had to do was state what kind of freight you were talking about. It was a non issue.
In terms of solutions – yes feel free to offer your expertise and provide some.
How do you propose to reverse the 100% increase in ACC levies for owner/drivers in 2007?
How do you propose to reverse the increases in Road Users in 2008 and 2009
How do you propose that companies pay owner/drivers no less than the minimum wage
How do you propose that people can always afford to get their COFs, pay for their registrations, pay for any repairs and the replacement of any tyres?
I don’t have the answers as fortunately for us, our company and our branch in particular is one that is fair and reasonable.
Rebecca
There is no room for two profit margins, one for the company and one for the owner driver. Someone has to miss out and guess who it usually is? Now you can see why the owner drivers are expected to flout the law to make a living.
The owner driver survives partly on depreciation recovered, unspent maintenance provision and whatever profit he can squeeze out on a good day.
The problem is that owner drivers should put the money aside to maintain the truck and buy a new one when it has reached the end of its useful life.
The company will argue they pay the owner driver a km rate sufficient to survive and thrive. In an ideal world they might but if the truck is parked up waiting for a load there is no income.
The reality is the risk is almost all with the owner driver as to whether the company is going to provide enough kms or not to earn a profit. Very few companies I know of will guarantee a km minimum.
Rebecca,
Re: Darien’s article and the story in the SS Times, Darien makes the following points:
- drivers borrow substantial money to purchase runs;
- their contracts give them little or no bargaining power. If the company decides to slash their incomes their only recourse is through the courts, costing tens of thousands of dollars they dont have;
- she met with a number of drivers and heard their direct truths;
- all relayed stories of slashed incomes driving to exhaustion, insufficient money for maintenance, near miss or actual accidents, financial stress, relational stress, and above all the constant threat of termination if they dared to raise fundamental issues of health & safety or real income negotiations;
- the company is an iconic NZ name.
I speak with authority about that meeting and advise;
1. every point by Darien is 100% accurate representation of the truths expressed by the drivers;
2. every driver has invested over $150k into his business and could lose it on a company whim;
3. every driver came forward at great personal risk to themselves;
4. those drivers represent over 70 years of experience with that company;
5. your husband wasnt present and neither was he the subject of the article;
6. the practises of that company lead directly to breaches of NZ Road Transport regs and H & S regs, severe road safety risk and an extremely dangerous working environment.
I understand you are to meet with her. Im not interested in political colouring, Im interested in a common ground agreement, perhaps it should be that “any driver contracted or otherwise, should be entitled and empowered under NZ law to be paid enough to be able to drive safely, legally and to earn enough for a decent living and a reasonable return on his investment”, does that sound fair to you?
Regards,
Brehan
I would also point out that not only does providing 19th century working conditions help allow trucking to be profitable but the trucking industry gets massive subsidies from both rate and taxpayers…
The key to understanding this is the rule of “the power of four” meaning that as a vehicles weight increases the damage it causes corresponds with it’s weight multiplied by the fourth power put simply a vehicle double the weight causes 16 times the damage…
How are our roads funded..? Well State Highways are funded by the National Land Transport Fund (NLTP) out of fuel taxes, Road User Charges (RUCs) and vehicle licencing… All road users put into this fund, except trucks only make up 4% of vehicles and use State Highways much more than the rest of us, RUCs largely cover this greater use (and damage) but not quite, these private trucking companies profit from our taxes… The far higher damage caused by trucks means much thicker and more expensive roads are required to be built, these higher construction costs are again subsidised by the other road users…
When we look at local roads the situation is even worse, 50% of these roads are paid by the NLTP the remaining 50% is a direct subsidy from rate payers, to construct and maintain local roads, which trucking companies do not put into, yet they get to use the local roads and again the local roads have to be built many times thicker (and more expensively) to deal with their weights and the exponential damage caused…
All at the expensive of rail and shipping companies (the former the government owns) which are more environmentally friendly, free up road space and have more employee friendly practices…
Has anyone ever thought that the trucking industry might be glutted? Allan Dick, editor of Driver Magazine, has some surprising thoughts on the trucking issue (3rd paragraph down).
Brehan while I absolutely agree with your view that “any driver contracted or otherwise, should be entitled and empowered under NZ law to be paid enough to be able to drive safely, legally and to earn enough for a decent living and a reasonable return on his investment” I do disagree that Darien’s post and the article was misrepresentative of the facts in terms of not being specific enough.
As you no doubt know there are huge differences in transport companies ranging from tiny fleets to nationwide & global.
But nobody should feel they are forced to work 80 hours for $9 per hour – the hourly rate being more the issue than the hours as let’s face it, there are loads of occupations that require very long hours including our respected MPs.
Deepred: probably no more so than other industries like taxis etc. Joys of deregulation I guess…
Jeremy M Harris: most in the transport industry would disagree and say that they have been paying more than their fair share for years, even before the increases. There are plenty of articles on this issue….
Rebecca great that we agree on the baseline.I outlined above the facts Darien addressed in the context of the article, also that they were a true representation of the meeting.I cannot see how she has misrepresented anyone.we have to agree to disagree . Brehan
Ack, forgot to post the link to Allan Dick’s commentary. (http://www.grownups.co.nz/read/lifestyle/entertainment/allan-dick-blog-june-two)
Yes we will! So question is how do we change things? Provided the guys I know want to and can make the time to meet with Darien, airing of the problems is a start, but perhaps we need to look further – nationwide? This industry involves thousands of men & women, families and children…
Really Rebecca, multi-millionaire trucking company owners are saying they are paying too much tax and contributing too much to infrastructure costs..?
Colour me shocked…
Rebecca your question ‘how do we change things’ is onto it.The men women children and families above might be a microcosm or they might be representative of a far wider problem .They are however real and endangered.please meet Darien with an open mind with or without drivers.
Jeremy MH – I’m talking about the contractors WORKING for the multi-millionaire company owners!!!!
Brehan meeting with Darien on my own will achieve nothing as I am not a driver; if drivers want their issues addressed then they need to come forward. All I can do is give them a prod.
A lot of people are also complacent. I am hoping that with the offer of Darien coming to meet them along with the Transport Forum CEO Tony Friedlander (he has apparently indicated interest) that most will be keen to make the effort.
My aim is for drivers to state their issues and come up with ideas that the government can work with.
Rebecca you are in the position of being treated fairly and reasonably.Good for you.Darien has met with is speaking for and seeking awider view on the position of the marginalised the vulnerable.You agree on the baseline. why not use that as a start point with Darien, Friedlander or anyone else.Brehan
Well in all fairness Brehan I can only speak for how our company treats its staff including my husband.
In terms of those being forced between a rock and a hard place with seemingly no good alternatives then it is up to them to take issue and approach Darien and the likes of the Transport Forum.
I am concerned first and foremost with cumbersome government policy that translates into high costs for us.
Rogue companies will unfortunately have to be someone else’s battle.
Everyone : sorry I haven’t kept up with this yesterday and today. I’ve been swamped with emails from drivers and researchers – the issue seems to have touched a real nerve, so I’m keeping at it and arranging meetings – including with those who disagree. I am asking the Transport & IR Committee on Thursday to look at an inquiry on Thursday and I will update you after that.
@Godber – “Darien, where have you been? This has been the norm in the road transport industry for years.” Yep, I know and that’s why I tried to bring in minimum pay for contractors, which National voted down last year. My husband was a truck driver, so I know a little bit about the industry, and I promise you, I will be keeping on this now.
Darien – great news that you have been inundated! Irrespective of our differences on the issue your stance and the article looks like it has served its purpose and got people talking.
I have been in contact with the Transport Forum and they have indicated that Tony Friedlander would be keen on attending any meetings – perhaps you should also contact them so that the communication is streamlined.
While I am happy to do my part, if you are serious about this issue, perhaps the directive for such a meeting is best coming from you and Mr Friedlander? Just a thought.
Rebecca appreciate your honesty. Go well. Brehan
Only have a mo, in respect of solutions, you must first understand what my research has led me to believe is the common denominator in most every case of the poo flows down hill effect, I first need to ask that Labour supporters do a little research to assist me, as per link to grassroots Labour post below, I plead that you take the time to read it, as if you do I very much suspect that most will then be able to tell me and anyone else about the core thing that left unchanged, nothing else ever will.
http://grassroots.labour.org.nz/forum/topics/perhaps-the-greatest-three
cheers
Iain
I assure moderators, I am not trolling, I checked the link I included in last post, it has not worked as it should, thus due to time, gotta go to work, I am compelled to post the post here:
Regards Richard,
Given the events that have happened in the world since John A Lee’s book was published, how after the 1930’s depression caused by greed and corruption in the privately designed and controlled international financial sectors, the international Labour movements founding ideals of reforming the privately designed and controlled international monetary, banking and credit systems were on the verge of being put in place by every democratic government in the Western world, but ultimately they backed down and went for watered down regulations that would only slowed their dominance as much as putting a banana in front of a steam roller, hence nations have continued to suffer debt repayment crisis after crisis at the hands of what is at the core a commercial pyramid scam by mathematical formula that has once again brought about a syncronised global crisis that threatens all.
Many decent leaders in the world are once again talking monetary, banking and credit system reform, some nations that the press can’t vilify, because they are democratic allies, Iceland, Sth Korea, Ireland are taking the Banksters on in the international courts, but sadly just as last time around the bankers of applied their strong arm tactics and resistance is waning, thus the public of NZ need to be fully financially educated to the founding ideals of Labour that are even more needed today than ever for the same reasons, it must be done in quicktime so that NZ, who is respected in global social issues, can add its weight to keep the momentum in what will hopefully become the equivalent of a global class action against the perpertrators of what I believe will oneday be recognised as crimes against humanity.
For the Labour supporter who wants to fully understand the common denominator that afflicts the world, the one thing that if remains unchanged all else is nothing but rearranging the deck chairs, or debt chairs, on the Titanic, the band will continue to play to instill confidence in the doomed until it sinks below the water line, please read the tens years worth of evidence I have gathered from the very mouths of major players and attempted to put in the most understandable order that will allow you to get a handle on it in the shortest time. The link below starts with article same as above, but please toggle down and read the links below it in order, I then suspect you will then be able tell me what needs to change at the core of international order, in order, to improve the lot of the basically decent majority that inhabit the globe:
http://publiccreditorbust.blog.com/2010/04/16/perhaps-the-greatest-…