Book Review: End of the Road: Inside the War on Truckers by Gord Magill

Few people are as qualified to speak about the plight of the American trucker as Gord Magill. As a professional lifelong driver, his resumé reads like a tour of the English-speaking world — from the frozen ice roads of the Great White North, to the desolate tracks of the Outback, to the endless miles of the U.S. highway system. Over more than two decades, he’s driven them all.

Many people who talk about trucking have never driven a truck. They may know the industry well — owners, insurance adjusters, brokers, shippers — but they have not done the job. And it is refreshing to hear about the industry from a driver.

The End of the Road poses an important question: Who speaks for truckers? Across nearly 300 pages, Magill searches for that answer while cataloging the many indignities and injustices facing drivers.

That catalog is expansive: the erosion of professional training and mentorship; mandates that have made equipment more expensive and less reliable; the destruction of trucking culture through consolidation and surveillance; and the pernicious myth of the “driver shortage.”

Magill shows how that lie has been used to lobby Washington to put undertrained and unqualified drivers on the road — and how the predictable consequences are now being used to justify replacing drivers altogether with what he calls “Truckzilla,” the autonomous truck.

Throughout the book, Magill points to the work of trade professionals and grassroots groups that have recently begun to mobilize. They’ve taken their concerns to Washington, using social media as their primary tool, and have started the difficult work of raising awareness. That effort is admirable — and necessary — but it is a beginning, not a solution. It doesn’t fully answer the central question. Who speaks for truckers? Too often, it seems, everyone except the truckers themselves.

The better question may not be who does speak for truckers, but who should. The answer is obvious: truckers. Magill is an effective spokesperson, too. But speaking out is only the first step. The harder part is how that momentum turns into real solutions. As Magill demonstrates, no matter the regulatory framework, corporate interests will find ways to exploit the trucking industry.

The independent drivers and small operators Magill identifies with are collateral damage in a much larger fight. The New Deal era prioritized labor over corporate interests, but that began to change with the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947. In the decades since, corporations have waged a sustained campaign to weaken organized labor — and the Teamsters have been a primary target.

Magill is not a union man, but his account reflects a consistent truth: strong unions raise standards for everyone who works for a living. When unions are weakened, nonunion workers suffer even more. Deregulation — which he describes as the opening salvo in the war on truckers — is the culprit for most of today’s problems and is considered as the most effective union-busting effort in American history. Its success, Magill writes, depended on dismantling the Teamsters’ power.

For any reforms to come from Magill’s work, and from others raising these issues, truckers will need to organize.

If that happens, End of the Road may not read as a eulogy for a once-proud profession. It could instead stand as a record of the moment when working drivers decided enough was enough.

Rating: End of the Road: Inside the War on Truckers is a Worthy Cause.

Rating Scale
Lost Cause: 1/5
Probable Cause: 2/5
Common Cause: 3/5
Worthy Cause: 4/5
Just Cause: 5/5