Data Driven: Truckers, Technology, and the New Workplace Surveillance

240 Pages·2022·8.805 MB·English

by  Karen Levy

DATA DRIVEN

Data Driven
Truckers,
Technology,
and the New
Workplace
Surveillance
Karen Levy
PRINCE TON UNIVERSITY PRESS
PRINCE TON AND OXFORD
Copyright © 2023 by Karen Levy
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Levy, Karen, 1981– author.
Title: Data driven : truckers, technology, and the new workplace
surveillance / Karen Levy.
Description: Princeton : Princeton University Press, [2023] | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022021218 (print) | LCCN 2022021219 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780691175300 (hardback ; alk. paper) | ISBN 9780691241012 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Trucking—United States—Management. | Supervision of
employees—United States. | Truck drivers—United States. | Electronic monitoring
in the workplace—United States. | Electronic surveillance—United States. |
BISAC: SOCIAL SCIENCE / Privacy & Surveillance (see also POLITICAL
SCIENCE / Privacy & Surveillance) | TRANSPORTATION / Automotive / Trucks
Classification: LCC HE5623 .L48 2023 (print) | LCC HE5623 (ebook) |
DDC 388.3/240973—dc23/eng/20220624
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022021218
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022021219
British Library Cataloging- in- Publication Data is available
Editorial: Meagan Levinson and Jacqueline Delaney
Production Editorial: Nathan Carr
Jacket/Cover Design: Karl Spurzem
Production: Erin Suydam
Publicity: Kate Hensley and Kathryn Stevens
Copyeditor: Michele Rosen
This book has been composed in Adobe Text and Gotham
Printed on acid- free paper. ∞
Printed in the United States of Amer i ca
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
CONTENTS
1 Introduction 1
2 If the Wheel Ain’t Turnin’, You Ain’t Earnin’: Trucker Politics,
Economics, and Culture 16
3 Tired Truckers and the Rise of Electronic Surveillance 35
4 The Business of Trucker Surveillance 52
5 Computers in the Coop 7 7
6 Beating the Box: How Truckers Resist Being Monitored 92
7 RoboTruckers: The Double Threat of AI for Low- Wage Work 119
8 Technology, Enforcement, and Apparent Order 152
Appendix A: Studying Surveillance 159
Appendix B: Notes on the Organi zation of the Trucking Industry 1 69
Acknowl edgments 171
Notes 175
Bibliography 201
Index 221
v

DATA DRIVEN

1
Introduction
Ours is a progressively technical civilization [. . .] It is a civilization
committed to the quest for continuously improved means to carelessly
examined ends.
ROBERT K. MERTON1
In 2018, a column in Land Line, a popu lar trade magazine for truck drivers,
posed a hy po thet i cal question: “What if the Transformers had ELDs?”2
“ELDs” h ere refers to electronic logging devices: digital systems that capture
data about truckers’ activities, particularly their work hours, intended to
keep them from driving for more time than federal regulations allow. When
truckers meet the time limits, they are supposed to stop and rest— sometimes
for as long as thirty-f our hours— before they can legally drive again.
The columnist, Tyson Fisher, imagines a satirical Michael Bay screen-
play in which a squad of Transformers is being summoned by the President
himself to prevent a team of Decepticons from infiltrating Earth. Despite
the urgency and horror of the situation, the Transformers must sheepishly
inform the President that the team cannot help. An excerpt:
Optimus Prime and the other Autobots look around the room at
each other in panic. A sense of helplessness is felt, heard, and seen
throughout the control room.
optimus prime: Ummmmm . . . Mr. President, we’re past our hours
of ser vice. We physically can’t move.
1
2 CHAPTER 1
FIGURE 1.1. A cartoon imagining the Transformers constrained by electronic monitoring.
Credit: Mo Paul and Land Line Magazine.
president (in utter shock): What the hell do you mean??? We’re all
going to die!
optimus prime: It’s been over a year since we were needed. Since
then, Congress passed the ELD mandate. We begged for an
exemption but never got it [. . .]. There’s no wiggle room here.
We’re para lyzed for another 10 hours.
president: Mother of God. What have we done?!?! 3
The screenplay does not have a happy ending: the Decepticons destroy
the planet and the entire human population, while the Transformers—
hamstrung by digital monitoring and shortsighted regulations— stand by,
unable to save the day.
In December 2017, about six months before the Land Line column was
published, the federal government had implemented a requirement that all
truckers buy, install, and use electronic logging devices—t he “ELD man-
date” to which the column refers. These devices are intended to address one