A study evaluating the prevalence of crimes against truck drivers in the United States said harassment against truck drivers is prevalent, particularly against women and minority truck drivers.
The Crime Prevention for Truckers Study for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration released its finding in November. The report said perpetrators are often other drivers, and women and non-minority males are likely to have more encounters of threats and harassment.
“Being called undesirable names (59% of women, 52% of minority males and 51% of non-minority males) and receiving threatening words (38% of women, 40% of minority males and 44% of non-minority males) are the most common forms of harassment,” the study said. “Relative to men (8% of minority and 14% non-minority), women truck drivers (33%) are exposed to more sexual harassment.”
The study found “statistically significant differences’ in a couple harassment categories.
“Women truck drivers were found to be two to four times more likely to report being touched without permission compared to non-minority men,” the study said. “Minority women were up to nine times more likely to report being physically harmed compared to non-minority men. Similarly, non-minority women are two to six times as likely than non-minority men to be touched without permission.”
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg said the study was important and consistent with what truckers have said, according to a Dec. 12 post on Twitter.
“No one should be, or feel, unsafe as they carry out their job, and we're working to confront these longstanding issues,” Buttigieg said on Twitter.
Truck drivers surveyed through the study offered several suggestions for preventing harassment against truckers, such as “enhancing safety at existing trucking facilities, providing additional parking facilities, allowing firearm carrying in the trucking industry, improving communication within the trucking industry, providing personal safety training to truck drivers and developing educational material to increase awareness.”
