ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses emerging issues that affect the professional driver and could amplify current problems in the future. It suggests that the deterioration in drivers' work and work life originates from their declining ability to control their work environment that originates in the absence of a forum for collective discussion. One important change has been the deployment of on-board computers that observe drivers' operating practices by monitoring engine and driver performance. These computers can monitor average and instant speed, wheel time and idling practices along with other performance data. Driving decisions are increasingly dependent on on-board computers and hand held, wireless devices that provide the latest traffic and weather information. One of the more troubling developments of the last some years is that the over-the-road driver population that would benefit most from union representation, a truckload driver in the for-hire dry van segment, is the least likely to carry a union card.
