Fujio Uemura has to rest after driving fish all night to Tokyo, under new rules that trucking firms and experts say are crippling Japan's logistics sector and risk pushing up prices for consumers.
The regulations are aimed at easing the stress of the badly paid hard slog of trucking, and making it more attractive to young people in ageing Japan, where some 90 percent of goods are transported by road.
"Before, I'd drive as long as I could before taking a break," said Uemura after his 1,000-kilometer journey from Oita in southern Japan with his load of fresh fillets.
"Long hours don't bother me. It's my job," the slim 59-year-old told AFP after leaping athletically down from the cab of his refrigerated 10-ton vehicle.
Since April, truck drivers' annual overtime has been capped at 960 hours, or 80 hours per month on average, alongside new rules including on break stops.
Previously, there was no effective limit and many drivers worked around the clock to expand their meagre take-home pay.
But it can be a lonely and unhealthy life, with long, irregular hours on the road contributing to high rates of heart disease and strokes.
Despite its importance to the world's fourth-biggest economy, the trucking industry occupies a weak position in Japan's economic hierarchy.
Truck drivers generally work 20 percent longer than the average worker but earn around 10 percent less, or around 4.5 million yen per year. Almost one in five works 60 hours a week or more.
Most of Japan's roughly 63,000 trucking businesses are small players with 10 or fewer vehicles, and even before the new rules most struggled.
They survived by cutting prices or offering free loading and unloading, often by hand. Drivers frequently wait for hours at no extra cost to customers.
But the new rules are the final straw, said Haruhiko Hoshino, a senior official at the Japan Trucking Association.
"Reducing drivers' work hours means turning down jobs. Turning down jobs means that items will not be delivered," Hoshino told AFP.
Without meaningful reforms Japan by 2030 will lack the capacity to move as much as 34 percent of its domestic cargo, according to a study often cited by the government.
"The government is tackling this issue with all of its strength," transport minister Tetsuo Saito said last month, calling it an "urgent issue".
The effects were already visible with reports of airports struggling to secure enough aviation fuel earlier this year and fruit and vegetables arriving late.
Firms have teamed up to share lorries, an unthinkable step before the new rules, while dairy companies are looking at standardizing containers.
The government's answer to what has been dubbed the "2024 Problem" is for companies to cut trucking firms some slack and not to insist on discounts and freebies.
But ultimately the answer is for users and ordinary consumers to pay higher prices, said Hiroaki Oshima, professor at Ryutsu Keizai University.
This could be a headache for Japan's new Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba after elections on October 27.
His predecessor Fumio Kishida suffered from poor popularity in part because of inflation squeezing incomes.
"In the end, who, right now, should pay for their fair share? I believe it's the society, it's those who send and receive cargos, it's consumers," said Oshima, who is also a senior advisor at NX Logistics Research Institute and Consulting.
Uemura used to spend mornings collecting fish products at various places in his home region and brought them to Tokyo on his own.
Now his employer Portline Service sends separate drivers for the pick-ups before Uemura drives off for Tokyo in the afternoon.
Portline's boss Katsuya Doi said this costs him an additional 1.3 million yen or more every month.
"We are the victims. It should not be just us or our clients who have to bear the cost," he told AFP.
Doi is working with rival firms to share assignments, negotiate fee increases and host public seminars to encourage consumer awareness.
Nonetheless, Uemura's 35-year-old son is taking to the wheel after quitting shipbuilding.
"I told him that this is not a job that lets you sleep a lot," Uemura said with a chuckle. "You earn more with your hard work."
© 2024 AFP
28 Comments
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sakurasuki
The title should be Japan Inc logistic industry finally realized the needs of humane working condition in Japan and try to improve them.
dagon
Late stage exploitative capitalism brought it to the brink, automation will drive it over the edge.
Peter Neil
what, all the middlemen in the supply chain are exempt from paying more?
Mike_Oxlong
90% goods transported by truck? With Japan's extensive rail system, how is this possible?
Brian Wheway
In the UK many years ago the government said, that all goods trucks above the weight of 7.5 tonnes required a tachograph, these devices were fitted to every truck , each driver used a special paper disc every day to record the trucks speed , distance, and rest , it records every movement, and the transport co were jumping up and down saying that they would all go bankrupt because they could not get from a to b in a short time, just like the Japanese transport co are, unfortunately you'll just have to get use to the changes! Hopefully trucks will have tachos fitted so that you don't force drivers to work ridiculous amounts of overtime, are prices of goods in the shop going to go up? I would say so. Are truck drivers constantly tired? Yes, I was! I've seen some horrendous accidents over the years, most were caused by drivers falling asleep at the wheel. I don't know if Japanese trucks have speed limiters fitted to cap there speed, if not the Japanese government might take notice, as some companies might make drivers go quicker to catch-up with lost time.
Joe
The Trucking association’s argument is bunk.
The industry is rife with inefficient bit players that lack the scope necessary for the minimum efficiency size. They should be merged into larger enterprises that can utilize economies of scale.
And if your business cannot exist except through exploitative labor tactics, then your business should not exist.
The market will supply the necessary goods and services via supply and demand for transportation.
But this lie that prices cannot rise, efficiencies cannot be gained and labor must be exploitive is coming to an end.
Mr Kipling
If only the government could prevent the truck drivers from urinating into PET bottles and throwing them out of their cab windows to litter the roadside.
stormcrow
Sometimes very late at night (early morning . . . three-ish) when I take out the trash, the big trucks zip past me and I almost feel as though they're about to suck me in as they pass like a vacuum. The only other time I experience that is when a express bullet train goes by. Also, the accidents on my road when they happen, are really nasty. Doctors I know who've examined the remains told me the trucks were going at very high speeds because the corpses were basically like pancakes . . . sometimes with faint heartbeats.
JeffLee
Japan's rail network is dedicated to passengers, not freight. If it had an efficient and extensive freight rail network like the USA's, most the problems above would disappear.
Gaijinjland
@JeffLee
Agree. How many 100 car freight trains in Japan do you see like in the US? None. But then, passenger train services in the US are terrible and, at least in Japan, you don’t get the freight accidents leaking chemicals into communities as in the US!
wallace
"In 2017, only about 5% of all freight in Japan is carried by rail but nearly all of that, 99%, is carried by JR Freight. Trucks carry about 50% and ships about 44%."
ScottDRad
The delivery of goods is insanely cheap in Japan. Now I know how companies can afford to charge such small amounts because they are keeping their drivers poor. This is a simple method of raising wages for Japan's working poor and respecting the work they do.
Aly Rustom
The regulations are aimed at easing the stress of the badly paid hard slog of trucking, and making it more attractive to young people in ageing Japan, where some 90 percent of goods are transported by road.
Wanna make it more attractive for young people? Ok first, make the driving Ed and taking the test also free.
blackpassenger
Rail, anyone? This IS japan.
diobrando
Trucks have terrible drivers because they are under pressure for fast impossible delivery. I am ready to pay more if it permits to have safest road and better life quality for the drivers...
kibousha
So, we all want better work-life-balance for truck drivers, but they think the policies are bad for them because they can't work more hours. Instead of complaining about low pay, they complain that government interfere too much.
Japan or USA, somethings just don't change.
factchecker
Tough. That freight should be moved by rail anyway.
WoodyLee
The reason they are working too hard is because their basic salary is too low to start with.
A well planned scheme by the trucking industry, keep Salary LOW so drivers have to work longer hours to make ends meet and the company don't need to hire more drivers.
This is exactly how it works not just in the trucking industry but in many if not all sectors.
WoodyLee
The the new PM does not tackle the Low Minimum Wage head on and push it upwards to the G7 standards Japan will just keep on sliding downwards.
People are worked to death paying multiple useless taxes and insurance and on top that can't retire or live long enough to collect a long waited for LOW RETIREMENT.
ThonTaddeo
Peter has nailed it. It's always the consumer, the laborer, the producer who bears the burden while the middlemen insert themselves into the process and skim off fees. Not just trucking: credit cards, e-payments; real estate management; all kinds of things. There's never any discussion of these parasites lowering their fees.
Sanjinosebleed
Pay a fair wage and don't base your business model on unpaid overtime!
Marc Lowe
Something fishy when politicians who have never worked in logistics, trucking, or delivery are making rules like this. It's supposed to be the people who request the rules and laws; the politicians who pass them through; and the police or government agencies who enforce them. This banana republic has police and politicians creating their own laws and making the people suffer. No wonder they are now only the 4rh largest economy, as mentioned in this poignant article.
GBR48
This is going to ramp up retail inflation for consumers. It's also going to cut off quite a few rural suppliers from the big cities where they would normally send fresh produce. That might finish some rural communities off.
There are obvious solutions: freight shinkansens (cheap, fewer emissions), air (expensive, more emissions), ships, hiring foreign drivers (politically unlikely).
Expensive stuff will just go by air, other stuff will take longer. Available space will be used better. It's a good opportunity for private drivers to become ad hoc couriers via 'sharing economy' apps, but the government will soon crack down on that as they did with AirBnB. Some suppliers will have to move their stuff themselves.
Bluntly, everything is going to cost more. Quite a bit more. Some stuff will no longer be available. Some rural suppliers will lose their access to markets and close.
BeerDeliveryGuy
As others mentioned, 90% of railways in Japan are dedicated passenger rails.
The big oil, steel, and heavy machinery, etc, companies do have private rails, but they are only used to transport raw materials and finished products to and from from port and factory.
JR freight can only transport goods efficiently in the midnight hours, as passenger trains are priority.
Eastmann
headline should be something like end of slavery of truck drivers in Japan or something like that...
koiwaicoffee
Exactly! Nobody questions these middlemen getting rich in between.
iron man
headline should be that car users, also face and use the roads, as do bus drivers. Why not implement a license control system on the operators, I got a feeling that already exists on jpn taxi, semi taxi.... limo operators?
grund
Even after the overtime cap, 80 hours of overtime per month is still pretty nuts. With about 20 working days per month that means roughly 12 hours of driving/day. I wonder how many hours they used to drive.