Helping Troops to Keep on Trucking

Thursday, 18 February 2010 15:51

Soldiers in the National Guard Reserves who have been deployed should not have to fight to keep their civilian posts back home, wrote a retired military official in a January 2010 post in Freight Public Policy Blog.

"As if the stress of a combat zone is not enough, some Guard and Reserve members also suffer financial hardships due to their service," wrote Lt. Col. David L. "Duke" Ellington (ret.) "This happens when their military pay while on deployment is less than that which they were making in their private industry job. Worse yet, even though federal law mandates that an employer must provide re-employment at a similar level and pay to returning employees, some Guard and Reserve members come back, find their employers have abandoned them, and have to fight to get their job back -- a travesty that was brought to light by the TV news magazine '60 Minutes.'"

Even so, some trucking companies and trucking advocacy organizations are working to ease the transition between the rigors of military service and a civilian career. A personnel supervisor for Con-way Freight's service center in Indianapolis, Ellington said his company believes it is its obligation to show reservist soldiers the support and respect that is their due. "At any one time we may have as many as 100 employees on active deployment, " he wrote. "While on leave for deployment, the families of these service men and women continue to receive company medical benefits. In the case where the deployed-employee's military pay is less than their Con-way pay, the company makes up the difference."

For its part, the American Trucking Association (ATA) has announced it is working with the Army Reserve to help recruit and retain reservists who have truck driving skills, and to assist those truck drivers who are leaving the military to find jobs with trucking companies. Ellington said Con-way's reservist employees who have been deployed and returned have access to the company's health plan to help them cope with the stress involved in deployment and in transitioning to life stateside. In addition, he wrote, "the job they had when they went on deployment is there for them when they come home."