The Plight of Port Truck Drivers and How This Affects Your Safety

MARSHALL, Texas. Port truck drivers face unique challenges, work incredibly long hours, and may be so tired they could pose dangers to others on the road. According to USA Today, many port truck drivers finance their own trucks. When they get paid, they could end up putting a significant portion of their paycheck toward paying for their truck. The drivers often end up buried under punishing debt that ties them to their employers. Drivers might end up working for far lower wages than they otherwise would.

When truck drivers quit, if they haven’t paid off their debt on their trucks, the company can take the trucks back, thus keeping the money that the driver had paid to the company in the hopes that they would eventually own the truck. If a driver got too sick to keep working or too tired and needed a break, the companies threatened to take their trucks. This could create a situation where drivers might push themselves to work while they were fatigued or sick. Some drivers might have taken medication to keep themselves awake, thus putting others on the road at risk. Because drivers owned their own vehicles, victims of these truck accidents sometimes found themselves with nowhere to turn to seek damages. The truck drivers were too poor to pay damages and the truck company claimed it had no blame because the drivers weren’t technically “employees.”

In a recent lawsuit, USA Today reports that drivers were sometimes forced to work 20 hour shifts, in some cases, against their will. Truck drivers claimed that the companies forced them to break federal hours of service laws that limit how long a driver can legally be behind the wheel. In some cases, drivers were reportedly not paid until they falsified their reports.

To make matters worse, the trucking industry has paid lobbyists to ensure that when accidents happen, the impoverished truck drivers were more often than not asked to foot the bill. The truck company making the profit who was in a better position to pay would sometimes fail to step up. While California has ruled that truck drivers cannot be classified as independent contractors, the situation continues to cause immense suffering for truckers and their families and for the general public when truck drivers make mistakes and cause accidents.

Why did this situation arise? Prior to 2008, port drivers used older trucks that crated more pollution. Then, California changed the law, requiring truck companies to replace old trucks with a new fleet. Rather than paying for the fleet itself, the truck companies offered to lease the newly purchased trucks to drivers, thus passing on the costs to those who could least afford it. In some cases, drivers lost their trucks after paying the lease for years, in other cases drivers owed so much money to the companies for the trucks that they essentially worked for free.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the truck drivers sued the port trucking companies claiming they were improperly classified as independent contractors when they were employees. These cases could have immense implications for victims of truck accidents, because when the truck drivers are found to be employees by the courts, the companies could also face lawsuits from families whose loved ones have been hurt in truck crashes.

If you or a loved one was hurt in a truck accident and the truck company claimed that the driver was an independent contractor, you may have the right to fight back. The Cooper Law Firm are truck accident lawyers in Marshall, Texas who work with victims and families to hold big companies accountable when they try to skirt justice. Visit our firm at https://www.cooper-law-firm.com/ to learn more about your rights and how our truck accident lawyers can help protect them.

Cooper Law Firm
501 N Third St,
Longview, TX 75601
Telephone: (903) 297-0037