Truck-Lite, a supplier of truck safety lighting equipment, has issued a statement urging shippers and receivers to make accommodations for drivers this winter, offering “at least basic amenities.”
The company pointed to a combination of frigid weather and strict enforcement of anti-idling laws in many jurisdictions. Experts say 23 states have some regulations now on how long trucks can idle.
For example, in New York City, truckers cannot idle a parked rig for more than 3 minutes. The only exception is when the temperature drops below 25 degrees – meaning many truckers taking required rest in their sleeper berths will have no source of heat when the temperature is below freezing.
Truck-Lite offers drivers a climate-controlled lounge at its central distribution facility in McElhattan, PA, containing a restroom, a soda machine, easy chairs and a desk – as well as free coffee. The lounge, which has room for 10 drivers, has been in use since 1998.
Truck-Lite designed the lounge after surveying drivers who picked-up or delivered at the facility, basing the lounge on their answers.
In the survey responses, the truck drivers told stories of being forced to wait outside in the cold or in fenced-in areas next to the docks with no heat or amenities. Some companies would not let drivers use toilets.
“It costs only a few dollars to construct and equip a room, and the benefits in service and goodwill far outweigh the costs,” Bob Ives, the company’s vice president of marketing, said. “You can’t be a leading supplier if you don’t consider drivers’ conditions. We try to maintain our drivers’ facility as the best in the industry.”
The reaction among drivers who pick up from or deliver to Truck-Lite has been good.
“Truck-Lite is one of the few companies I know that’s taken steps to help the drivers,” Tim Russell of Sunbury, PA, a driver for PJAX Freight Systems, said. “At other places, you are always in the way. You wait on the dock where everyone is tripping over each other. Sometimes five or six drivers show up all at once.
“This place is nice, very nice, it’s really comfortable,” Russell said. “Right down the street, they make you stay in a steel cage.”
