米トラック運転手の「重荷」　供給網混乱で悪化

【サマービルＡＦＰ＝時事】米ジョージア州アトランタでトラック４台の小規模運送会社を経営するデシ・ウェイドさん（５０）は、自分でも１８輪トレーラーを運転する。（写真はトラック運送会社を経営し、自らもトレーラーを運転するデシ・ウェイドさん。米ジョージア州アトランタの整備工場にて）
　忙しい一日の終わりに夕食を取るため、トラック向けのサービスステーションに入った。駐車場の空きは一つだけ。数分後になんとか駐車できた。この業界ではよくあることだ。
　市場規模が年間１２兆ドル（約１３８０兆円）の米トラック運送業界で、駐車場不足は数ある問題の一つにすぎない。しかし、品不足や価格高騰の陰に隠れているものの、年末年始の供給網の混乱を象徴している問題だ。
　業界大手の一部は、混乱は全国的な運転手不足が原因だと指摘する。しかし、劣悪な労働環境、不当に安い報酬、誤った管理に運転手は不満を抱いていると、ウェイドさんは主張する。
　「運転手不足ではない。不足しているのはこの仕事をしたいと思わせるモチベーションだ」「賃金と仕事内容を魅力的で割に合うものにしなければならない」と語った。
　駐車場不足とガソリン価格の高騰に加え、ストレスの多い渋滞や偏った食生活に耐えなければいけない。
　最大の問題はおそらく「拘束時間」だ。港や倉庫の周辺で待機する時間を指し、賃金が発生しないことが多い。新型コロナウイルスの流行で供給網が混乱している影響で、最近は「拘束時間」が長くなっているという。
　ウェイドさんはトレーラーの運転について「家族や家から長期間離れなければならない、精神的にも肉体的にも大変な仕事だ」と話した。
　ＡＦＰの取材チームは昨年１２月、３州を移動するウェイドさんに２日間密着した。
　米国では昨年１１月、１兆２０００億ドル（約１３８兆円）のインフラ投資法が成立した。同法には、業務用運転免許の取得年齢の引き下げや女性や元受刑者の運転手としての雇用促進、「拘束時間」に関する調査を行うことなどが盛り込まれている。

■「人生を変えられる仕事」
　だが、ウェイドさんは懐疑的だ。法律は駐車場不足に言及していないと指摘する。「がっかりした」「安全運転のため、休憩が必要なのに」
　また、同法には１８～２０歳の若者最大３０００人を州をまたいだ運送業の運転手として雇用する試験的なプログラムも盛り込まれており、運送業者の間で物議を醸している。
　この年齢では、直面する問題全てに対処できるほど精神的に成熟していない人もいるため非常に危険な可能性もあると、ウェイドさんは懸念を示した。
　ウェイドさんは元米兵で、アフガニスタンでは消防責任者を務めた。しかし２０１１年、軍の請負業者から１０万ドル（現在のレートで約１１００万円）の賄賂を受け取ったとして逮捕され、１年８月服役した。
　出所後はジョージア州に戻り、トラック運転手になる前は電気技師として働いた。２０１４年に会社を設立し、翌年に最初のトラックを購入した。
　今では年収が１０万ドルを超える。運送業は「人生をやり直したいと思ったら、本当に人生を変えることができる仕事だ」と語る。
　ウェイドさんはあと５年ほど運転を続ける予定だ。自分の子どもにも運送業界で働いてもらいたいと思っているが、運転手になるなら「出口戦略」が重要だと説く。
　運転手は「高リスク、高リターン」で「一生やれる仕事ではない」からだと語った。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】

〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/01/04-11:56）

It had been a challenging day on the road and Desi Wade was ready for dinner. But as he pulled into a truck stop, Wade encountered a familiar frustration in the overstressed industry.
The parking lot was jammed with other 18-wheelers, leaving just one narrow spot that the 50-year-old secured after several minutes of maneuvering.
Scant parking is only one of the sore points in US trucking, which moves more than $12 trillion worth of freight each year and has become the latest embodiment of the supply chain problems in a holiday season overshadowed by limited product availability and rising prices.
Some trucking industry leaders cite a national shortage of drivers as causing the troubles, but Wade says drivers' top concerns are difficult working environments, inadequate pay and logistics mismanagement.
There's not a driver shortage, there's just no motivation to do it, said Wade, who owns a small fleet of trucks based in Atlanta. You've really got to make the wages and job appealing and profitable.
On top of scarce parking and volatile fuel prices, drivers have to contend with stressful traffic conditions and meager food options that make healthy eating impossible on the road.
The biggest issue is probably detention time, jargon for the mostly unpaid hours truckers burn waiting around at ports and warehouses -- which they say has grown especially bad as Covid-19 convulsed supply chains.
It's a mentally and physically challenging profession that takes you away from your family, your home for long periods of time, Wade said. So what motivates someone to do that?
Wade spent a recent day at a distribution center waiting for cargo to be loaded onto his truck. He ended up leaving with only $150 of the $1,200 he expected, and the cargo was moved back into the warehouse.
- Daily obstacles -
A former Army firefighter, Wade -- who traveled with an AFP reporting team over two days through three southeastern states -- radiates positivity from his fire engine red tractor.
He is in his element coaching junior drivers, bantering with warehouse administrators and hosting fellow truckers on virtual meetings from his smartphone headset. He grins when describing trips with his kids and grandchildren aboard the 18-wheeler.
This journey began inauspiciously, with Wade arriving early in the morning only to discover his truck unable to leave.
His 37,000-pound load had sunk into mud, and the resulting $450 tow job put Wade in a financial hole and left him scrambling for a replacement cargo after a scheduled pickup time became impossible.
Other little things went wrong. At mid-morning, Wade was forced to phone a higher-up when a junior driver got the runaround at a warehouse. The following day, traffic was slowed by a motorcade for President Joe Biden's visit to South Carolina.
You have some snags, but it's life, said Wade. You've got to make it happen.
- 'Underwhelming' response -
The trip, nine days before Christmas, coincided with moves by the Biden administration to accelerate commercial driver licensing, recruit more women and formerly incarcerated people as drivers and undertake a study of detention time.
Wade was skeptical, noting the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill Congress passed this year did not address parking.
It's underwhelming, he said. For us to operate safely, we've got to have our rest.
The infrastructure package also established a pilot program, controversial within trucking, to hire up to 3,000 drivers between the ages of 18 and 20 to carry interstate loads.
But someone that age might not have mental maturity to deal with all the things they're going to encounter, Wade said. I think it could really be dangerous.
He has been looking to hire another driver for his four-truck company, but said he must compete in a tight labor market with companies like DoorDash and Lyft.
- Exit strategy -
Wade's views reflect his takeaways from his military career, which came to a screeching halt after a speedy rise to a leadership role in the Pentagon's firefighting operations in Afghanistan.
In 2011, Wade was arrested for taking nearly $100,000 in bribes from a military contractor and ultimately served 20 months in prison.
Everything was so fast moving, I was chasing money and didn't really have any stability, said Wade, whose marriage was also falling apart at the time. I had to take a minute, pause, really evaluate what's important in life.
After serving his time, Wade returned to Georgia, initially working as an electrician before turning to trucking. He bought his first truck in 2015 after forming his company a year earlier.
He now earns a six-figure salary, and described trucking as a profession in which you really can turn your life around under a second chance.
Wade plans to drive for another five years, while building a cooperative with other truck drivers. He would like his kids to work in transportation, but advises an exit strategy if they drive.
Driving is high risk, high reward, Wade said. You don't want to stay behind the wheel forever.