Sweatshops on Wheels

In 1977 the US government began to loosen regulations on the tightly controlled trucking industry, expecting that increased competition would drive down companies’ shipping costs. In this provocative new book Michael H. Belzer takes a close look at trucking deregulation, discussing its effects on the industry in particular and the unintended consequences of deregulation in general. He makes the case that government still has a role to play in ameliorating the hardship caused by competition while retaining its benefits.

Author Biography

Michael H. Belzer, a nationally-known expert on the trucking industry, is Associate Professor of Industrial Relations and Director of the Graduate Program in Industrial Relations at at Wayne State University and an assistant research scientist at the University of Michigan Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations. He is currently conducting two major government-funded research programs on truck safety. Prior to earning his Ph.D. at Cornell’s
School of Industrial and Labor Relations, he spent eight years as a Teamster driving a tank truck over-the-road.