Stopping: The Pickle Park

Scholars have argued that same-sex desire was historically widespread in the USA, and has only recently been hidden and linked to gay identity. I argue that in working-class work settings, same-sex desire has continued uninterrupted, and that these settings are a nexus of queer liberation and possibility. Truck stops are such a setting where pleasure and risk are unhinged from geographic and familial limits.

Rolling: Sailboat Races

Since the 1970s, deregulation has increased the number of rules under which trucking operates. Instead of regulating freight, the Federal Motor Carriers Service Association (FMCSA) regulates individual truckers, micromanaging their working hours, their sleep, their speed, and their health. These regulations proceed under the guise of public safety but are actually motivated by corporate profit.

Starting: Whoop ’N’ Ride

People usually turn to trucking when their other options run out because the training is brief and it’s easy to get hired. However, recruiters are dishonest and turnover rates are extremely high. For marginalized workers, the chance to work alone outweighs the low pay and inadequate training, but job termination is common.

Introduction

Trucking has changed dramatically since the 1970s, with increased regulations and reduced pay. Queer people, women, and racial minorities have entered the industry during these years. How are these changes related, and what are their larger consequences?

Conclusion

Trucking shapes the life, identity, and sexual styles of truckers. Driverless trucking will soon change trucking culture and transform the lives of millions of people.

Stopping: Jesus Take the Wheel

Trucking is one of the most dangerous jobs, and truckers also see many fatalities while working. At the same time, few have health insurance, most can’t schedule mental health care, and mental illness is stigmatized in their culture anyway. Thus, they live with trauma, and regulations compound, rather than mitigate, this situation.

Stopping: What’s Your Twenty?

Blue-collar work and bureaucracy have disabling effects, and queer truckers have limited access to medical care. Trucking and its regulatory structures harm truckers’ bodies and then blame and stigmatize them for its effects.

Rolling: Draggin’ Ass

Truckers take pride in surviving the challenges and exhaustion of trucking work. The job and its culture are dangerous and risky, with rape a frequent occurrence and loneliness a given. Persisting through this is a source of working-class identity.

Rolling: Grabbing Gears

Truckers identify with their vehicle and its motion, and they often connect this to their sexual, gender, or racial embodiment, as well as to their American identity. These logics fuel their continued labour under discriminatory and challenging working conditions.

Stopping: Getting Loaded

The places where truckers deliver their loads and get new ones are isolated and often dangerous. Since truckers are just moving through, they sometimes escape these dangers, but sometimes they are unable to. The experiences of queer, trans, and black truckers differ, but all have heightened vulnerability.