According to data from the Federal Motor Carriers Safety Administration (FMCSA) as of Friday, truckers have filed nearly 500 coercion complaints against employers and shippers since the beginning of 2022. Freight Waves was the first to report on the data.
The publication found that the number of coercion complaints that have been filed in the past 14 weeks is on pace to almost double the number of complaints that have been filed in any individual year since the system was adopted in 2016.
Truckers can file coercion complaints against employers for a variety of reasons, including being told to drive beyond the hours of service limit or perform a task that would violate hazardous materials regulations. According to the FMCSA, the Coercion Rule takes effect when an employer "threatens to withhold work from, take employment action against, or punish a driver for refusing" to perform a task that would violate regulations.
According to current FMCSA regulations, a trucker cannot drive more than 11 hours per day or work more than 14 consecutive hours. However, supply-chain delays in the United States have made it increasingly difficult for drivers to stay under the 14-hour limit. Insider previously reported that truckers at the nation's busiest ports had to wait up to eight hours to pick up goods — a delay that caused truckers to miss delivery windows and work two days on a load that could have been completed in less than one day.
In recent months, the plight of US truckers has gained national attention. Earlier this year, US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg claimed that pay-per-mile policies have reduced truckers' earnings, putting undue pressure on drivers to compensate for long wait times in order to meet delivery deadlines.
President Joe Biden announced a 90-day plan last week to help loosen up the supply chain and improve conditions for truckers, who transport 70% of the nation's goods. The announcement came after the American Trucking Association reported last year that the industry was facing a labor shortage of more than 80,000 truckers. Experts and truckers have pushed back against the idea of a trucker shortage, claiming that the problem is one of poor treatment.
"One of the reasons [for the trucker shortage] that doesn't get enough attention is management's treatment of drivers — specifically demands put on some of them to continue driving when they're too tired to drive safely," US Representative Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) said last week during a hearing on the National Transportation Safety Board's (NTSB) 2023 budget.
Malinowski stated that driver fatigue has been identified as a factor in 20% of the accidents investigated by the NTSB.