The history of the trucking industry is long...and short. I will not bore you with its humble beginnings that date back to the 1700s or go on and on about how it flourished in World Wars I and II.
No - let's begin this little history less in 1980 when the trucking industry - like everything that Ronald Reagan touched morphed due to deregulation. Before 1980 there were perhaps 17,000 truckers across the country but within a decade this figure had more than doubled. In addition, the number of carriers exploded from only 100 in 1980 to 5000 by 1990 - a growth of five hundred percent in a single decade.
So what did deregulation actually mean for the trucking industry? Simply - it opened up competition and got the government out of the day to day operations.
It allowed for greater competition and the trucking industry as a whole flourished.
However, now the pendulum has swung the other way. The almost laissez faire attitude of the government created an anything goes environment in the trucking industry - and it showed. Injury and fatality accidents increased and the number of trucking companies that sat in the defendant's seat during court cases skyrocketed. There was a total lack of accountability.
The hands-off attitude is being replaced with greater oversight in recent years and the state and federal safety expectations have put trucking companies on notice - meanwhile the rest of US are one notice to drive defensively around big rigs.
Greg Baumgartner is a Texas 18 wheeler accident lawyer and the founder of the Baumgartner law firm, which is dedicated to helping injury victims seek civil justice. For a free no obligation consultation with a big rig wreck lawyer call the Baumgartner firm.
