Gord Magill, author of End of the Road: Inside the War on Trucking, on how deregulation has failed truckers and everyone else.

Everyone who has traveled the highways and byways of America and found themselves behind an 18-wheeler has seen these signs adorning the rear ends of trailers:

Let Us Put YOU in the Driver’s Seat!
Highest Cents Per Mile in the Industry
Want More Home Time? Join Our Team!

Supposedly, these ads are products of an acute driver shortage. But strangely, they’ve beckoned nonstop for more than 30 years. Even more strangely, there is, in fact, an oversupply of truck drivers in the United States. The problem for trucking companies is retaining drivers, but doing something about this problem costs them more than ignoring it and using government funds to paper it over. As it is, the rest of us pay the price—in fragile supply chains, unsafe roads, worse jobs, and a lower wage floor throughout the economy. These are the combined consequences of the government’s failed policy of deregulation and the industry’s cynical practice of churning through new drivers produced by questionable schools rather than training and compensating workers properly.

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