Sailors of the Concrete Sea: A Portrait of Truck Drivers' Work and Lives

Sailors of the Concrete Sea summarizes the data collected from 573 interviews with truck drivers conducted by the Sloan Foundation Trucking Industry Program in 1997 and 1998. This data, unique in its depth and scope, provides a finely textured picture of the work and work life of over-the-road truck drivers in the United States. Presented with supporting data, the book provides information on widely ranging topics, including drivers' hours of service regulations, and views of their jobs. The driver survey is a unique source of data on drivers, both in the range of subjects covered in the survey and in the reliability of the information. The survey questionnaire instrument included more than 250 questions. While some of these questions were designed to facilitate comparison between the Driver Survey and national labor market surveys such as the Current Population Survey, most were designed to explore the characteristics of truck drivers' work. As such, they provide a rich portrait of drivers' work and lives.