In an explosive report, an investigative journalist spells out how lease-to-own programs are turning truckers into servants without the power to say no to deplorable working conditions.
Reporter Brett Murphy and other USA Today journalists spent a year investigating and writing Rigged: Forced Into Debt, Worked Past Exhaustion, Left With Nothing. In this video, Murphy appears on the PBS News Hour to discuss his shocking findings about how the trucking industry treats its drivers.
From Murphy’s report:
“Trucking companies force drivers to work against their will – up to 20 hours a day – by threatening to take their trucks and keep the money they paid toward buying them. Bosses create a culture of fear by firing drivers, suspending them without pay or reassigning them the lowest-paying routes … Drivers at many companies say they had no choice but to break federal safety laws that limit truckers to 11 hours on the road each day. Drivers at Pacific 9 Transportation testified that their managers dispatched truckers up to 20 hours a day, then wouldn’t pay them until drivers falsified inspection reports that track hours.“