New rules drive Japanese trucking sector to the brink

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.

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.

The title should be Japan Inc logistic industry finally realized the needs of humane working condition in Japan and try to improve them.

Previously, there was no effective limit and many drivers worked around the clock to expand their meagre take-home pay.

Late stage exploitative capitalism brought it to the brink, automation will drive it over the edge.

what, all the middlemen in the supply chain are exempt from paying more?

90% goods transported by truck? With Japan's extensive rail system, how is this possible?

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.

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.

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.

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.

With Japan's extensive rail system, how is this possible?

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.

@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!

"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%."

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.

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.

Rail, anyone? This IS japan.

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...

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.

Tough. That freight should be moved by rail anyway.

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.

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.

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.

Pay a fair wage and don't base your business model on unpaid overtime!

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.

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.

Rail, anyone? This IS japan.

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.

headline should be something like end of slavery of truck drivers in Japan or something like that...

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.

Exactly! Nobody questions these middlemen getting rich in between.

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?

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.

Even with rail, goods have to be delivered from rail hubs to their endpoints. This means trucks. It also means building a lot of infrastructure for rail transfer yards.

Rail also runs the risk in a major earthquake of leaving areas with no way to get relief goods. Trucks are more likely to find alternate routes, whereas heavily damaged rail lines simply have to wait to be repaired.

Japan also has the problem that rail lines are owned by passenger rail companies. When a passenger train and freight train conflict in Japan, the freight train has to wait until the line is open. This is opposite America where lines are owned by freight companies, and thus passenger trains have to wait for freight trains to pass.

To be efficient in Japan, freight companies would need to lay their own lines, which is hugely expensive in money and land.

For all that Japan has invested in a mostly centralized passenger rail system, most of Japan’s economy is built around distributed systems—lots of smaller companies that spread around the wealth. Truck shipping fits with this. Rail would be controlled by one company that lays the lines. Truckers are spread across hundreds of small companies.

90% goods transported by truck? With Japan's extensive rail system, how is this possible?

In the UK many years ago the government said, that all goods trucks above the weight of 7.5 tonnes required a tachograph,

Those are 60-70 year old tech. In the US at least the trucks have to use electronic recording devices. Those have been around since the early 1990s. Tachs in the US are long gone museum pieces.

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.

Only someone who has never worked in trucking would write something like that :/

One does not have to have years of hands on behind the wheel experience to understand that sleep deprivation and irregular hours, not following a circadian rhythm create the conditions for crashes and shortens one's life.

Btw, you find much more restrictive hours of service regulations for commercial aviation for what I hope are obvious reasons. In the US drivers cannot drive after having driven more than 10 hours in a 14 hour period, must be given ten uninterrupted hours off duty and cannot drive if they have worked (driving and non driving work) more than 70 hours in a rolling eight day period.

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.

I feel like offering tax incentives for logistics companies using tolls would help drastically improve costs for these companies who are looking to pay their employees a fair wage. The customer pays the fees but the trucking company would still need to invoice this along with consumption tax. Less fees for customers means truckers wouldn't need to offer silly services like unloading for free or no extra fees for wait time.

This will also reduce the costs for us consumers in the end. We are already reaping the benefits of government subsidies by lowering the cost of petrol, whether we are a driver or not. Instead of trying to pass things on to us consumers first, maybe we should address how many middle man there are and how we can make the logistics business more efficient, because the truckers are doing their jobs and they deserve a fair wage. Consumers are already taxed to the brink, so we need for the government to implement policies that can ultimately prevent us from having to pay more since they can't seem to raise our wages in a stagnant economy with artificial growth.

Time to trim the fat. It's unfortunate but a lot of the wounds are self-inflicted and there are too many unprofitable practices and an industry that has too many bit players. This reminds me of Japan during the bubble when it seemed like there was a construction company on every corner. I did a lot of part-time work while still in the military for big and small firms alike. There were too many inefficient supply companies in the chain, run by the shacho's brother, etc, and that had to change. When the bubble went away, many companies went the way of the dodo, downsized considerably, merged or adopted better fiscal policies to deal with the changing times. Seems like that's what is needed here along with a new infusion of innovative solutions.

"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.

1000 km with a single driver of a big truck from Oita to Tokyo will take around 15 hours - but highways are narrow and often crowded even during night, often some traffic jams near the larger cities, many construction sites as roads have to be repaired, traffic accidents....a truck driver cannot arrive always on time.

Often it will take longer, considering weather conditions...rain, snow....nobody can tell me that after driving a truck for such long hours you are not getting tired, even sleepy.

That's dangerous, no safe driving anymore. It is not wrong to create laws to prevent truck drivers to drive excessive hours.

Small truck companies should work together and create a network along the main-routes, so the driver could be changed half way. Some long distance bus companies are doing this or the bus will leave with two drivers.

Also railway/subway companies are changing the train operator after working for a certain number of hours.

Whilst they may be restricting the working hours, the drivers are making up for it by speeding and tailgating along the highways and main roads of Japan. The police do nothing about it, except tell you to call them if you are being tailgated! And of course, you can't use your phone in the car when driving!

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.

They should have introduced at the same time regulations to make it better paid hard slog

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.

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One of my most surreal experiences in Japan, on a deserted highway at 4am, was watching a large truck begin to drift off the road.

Only my frantic honking woke the truck driver up to drive another day

Desert TortoiseToday  10:42 am JST

In the UK many years ago the government said, that all goods trucks above the weight of 7.5 tonnes required a tachograph,

Those are 60-70 year old tech. In the US at least the trucks have to use electronic recording devices. Those have been around since the early 1990s. Tachs in the US are long gone museum pieces.

It’s just a digital tacho now. Does the same job. Just in digital form. The military were exempt tacho’s. Shame really!!!!

For pure road safety there should be rules and their problem to not increase rates and work together is their problem. Taxi companies seem to have no trouble charging amazingly high rates for rides. Truckers need to do better.

Uemura has to rest after driving fish all night to Tokyo

... before driving his empty truck all the way back to Kyushu.

These small trucking companies are cartels with very clear demarcation lines. Uemura's boss at Portline would never consider loading different fish at Tsukiji (e.g. from Hokkaido) to bring back to Oita because, "That's not my job."

The industry is in dire need of rationalisation. These rules may just be the right catalyst.