Self-Driving Trucks Could Hurt Drivers, Teamsters Tell U.S. Senators

A U.S. Senate committee weighed whether legislation dealing with the future of self-driving cars should also pave the way for self-driving trucks, a question that cuts to the heart of how automation could affect millions of working drivers.

The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee held a hearing on automated vehicles focused on the future of self-driving commercial trucks and the roughly 3.5 million commercial truck drivers nationwide.

"Workers Are Not Left Behind"

"Self-driving vehicles have the potential to change the transportation industry as we know it. That can be for the better or for the worse depending on the actions that this committee, workers and others take," said Ken Hall, general secretary-treasurer of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. "It is incumbent upon the members of this committee that workers are not left behind in this process."

Some lawmakers, including Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), suggested it may be too early to allow widespread testing of autonomous commercial trucks. Others said autonomous trucks could greatly reduce traffic fatalities and improve safety.

Deborah A.P. Hersman, then president and CEO of the National Safety Council and a former chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, urged the committee to advance safety technology on all motor vehicles, calling the prospect of self-driving commercial vehicles potentially "game-changing."

The Industry's View: Drivers Still Needed

Chris Spear, president and CEO of the American Trucking Associations, downplayed fears of imminent driver displacement, saying fully autonomous commercial trucks could be decades away.

He envisioned a near future in which trucks are automated in ways that still require drivers to monitor them and take over when necessary. Both Spear and Hall agreed drivers would also be needed to guard against the technology being hacked, turning trucks into weapons, and to defend against cyber-attacks.

"The bottom line is that the trucking industry is vitally interested in automated vehicle technologies and the safety and efficiency promise they hold," Spear said in his prepared testimony.

The Labor And Privacy Concerns

Hall said that before adding autonomous trucks to legislation encouraging development, the committee needs to consider all the pitfalls, including employment, privacy and safety.

"Unchecked, this new technology could open our citizens up to having their privacy breached and personal data sold," he said. "Issues such as worker harassment and tracking would be intertwined with existing collective bargaining agreements and workplace policies. And millions of Americans could have their paychecks decreased because half of their job has now been automated away."

Troy Clarke, then chairman, president and CEO of truck-maker Navistar, argued that autonomous trucks are coming one way or another. He said he personally believes "drivers will become more like airline pilots, even more highly trained and skilled," and imagined one driver monitoring a platoon of nearby trucks.

Peters pushed back: that scenario, he noted, sounds like several drivers from those other trucks would have lost their jobs. Before that happens, he said, lawmakers need to consider what can and should be done to protect those workers' jobs and wages.

A Possible Middle Ground

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) asked whether it might be acceptable to limit development to vehicles that require driver assistance. Both Spear, who said fully autonomous vehicles are not in the foreseeable future, and Hall said it could be, though Hall added that safety standards must be developed alongside.

"It is essential that American workers are not treated as guinea pigs for unproven technologies that could put their lives at risk," Hall said.

The debate captures the central tension of trucking automation: real safety and efficiency gains on one side, real consequences for millions of drivers on the other.

Source: USA Today