Report - truck drivers
This is the final report of the first phase of a project which aims to enrich the understanding of factors underlying the health risks of long-distance trucking. The project explicitly departs from previous methodologies in (a) interviewing truck-drivers personally and at length rather than by postal questionnnaire (b) extending the analysis of health risks to the families of truck-drivers. It takes as the target of analysis the lifestyle of truck-driving as opposed to the job. Sixteen long-distance truck-drivers based in South Australia, and fourteen partners of truck-drivers were interviewed at length about their health, their families' health, conditions of work and perceptions of aspects of the lifestyle of long-distance truck-driving. The drivers were also asked to complete a Time Use Diary for two weeks, which detailed time spent on the various aspects of the job of long-distance truck-driving. The study suggests a nexus between schedules, rates of pay, competition for loads, sleep patterns, fatigue and drug-taking. Driving schedules, and the economic conditions underlying scheduling decisions, need further investigation and improvement. For the partners of truck-drivers, the lifestyle of long-distance truck-driving means a rhythm of isolation and disruption, and resembles the condition of single parenthood where there are children in the home. This aspect of the trucking industry has received too little attention in the past. 1 It is recommended that further research be carried out in relation to: . Determinants of scheduling . Rates of pay . Effect of the long-term absence of the driver father . Use of mobile 'phones to increase the quality of links with families . Influence of industrial practices (particularly the Just In Time principle) on trucking schedules . Driver `survival' in the trucking industry
Long distance trucking would almost seem to be the paradigm case in any examination of supply chains and their regulation. As Nossar et al point out (2004: 137) the recent past has seen an obvious move in many business organizations to outsource or subcontract various parts of the manufacturing or service delivery supply chain by use of temporary, fixed-term or leased workers and the self-employed and home-based workers. ...