Battling Blind Spots: Hours of Service Regulations and Contentious Mobilities in the BC-Based Long Haul Trucking Industry

Abstract

This article explores arenas of contention in which long haul truckers’ workplace mobilities are enmeshed. I critically analyze the grounded implications of Hours of Service (HoS) regulations, a primary regulatory mechanism for addressing the dangers posed by truck driver fatigue. I argue that HoS regulations enforce a neoliberal individualization of responsibility that fails to account for industry power dynamics or truckers’ lived experiences of labour mobility. These dynamics add to concerns about the potential exploitation of migrant truck drivers, including through the Temporary Foreign Worker Program. Inasmuch as they fail to address the classed, gendered and racialized dynamics of trucking mobilities, HoS regulations are implicated in perpetuating hierarchies of power in the industry. As such, they are inadequate and – in contextually specific ways – counterproductive to promoting employment equity or overall public safety. These issues are particularly evident in the contentious politics of blame concerning heavy truck-involved collisions.