An estimated 300 to 400 port truck drivers walked off the job this week, complaining that conditions make their trucks unsafe.
“It’s very dangerous for the public,” explained truck driver Demeke Meconnen. “it’s very dangerous for me. But I have to provide food for my family.”
There are many complex issues in play, including drivers who claim they are forced to carry overweight loads. If a shipper can put more cargo in a container and move it for the same price, they make more money. Drivers say it happens all the time.
In front of lawmakers this week, the head of one shipping company said it wasn’t a problem.
But truck inspections conducted the day after that testimony tell a different story. The KING 5 Investigators requested port inspection records from the Washington State Patrol and Seattle Police. They show of 15 trucks inspected that day; four drivers were written tickets and three received warnings for being overweight.
In Olympia, lawmakers introduced bills that would shift more responsibility to the companies that subcontract the drivers — legislation that came in response to a KING 5 investigation that revealed serious safety problems with more than half of container haulers inspected.