Between 2020-2022, the South Korean Safe Rates System improved the lives of truck drivers. Research commissioned by the ITF shows Safe Rates made the roads safer for everyone. The overloading of trucks fell by 61%. Speeding fell by 39%. Drivers worked 17.3 less hours a month and fatigue dropped by 25.76%. The Korean Safe Rates system was setting an example for countries around the world, contributing to positive moves towards similar systems in countries like Australia, Japan and Kenya.
If the system had been allowed to continued, Safe Rates would have saved countless lives in Korea. But the authoritarian government of President Yoon Suk Yeol abolished it at the end of 2022. Since then the roads are more dangerous for everyone while Korean truck drivers and their families suffer.
Road transport workers in the gig economy are also suffering from low and unpredictable pay, pressures to violate traffic laws and high occurrences of occupational accident and death.
The impeachment of Yoon Suk Yeol and election of Democratic Party presidential candidate on 3 June means Korea has a chance to make things right. The government must protect the rights of road transport workers and save lives on the road.
Tell President Lee and the National Assembly to re-introduce and expand the Safe Rates System.
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PETITION:
Now is the time! Reintroduce and expand the Safe Rates system
The ITF and its affiliates are calling on the Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party and the Korean National Assembly to immediately reintroduce and expand the Korean Safe Rates System.
Korean Safe Rates is a world-leading system, which implements ILO principles on decent work and road safety and has been a model for other countries to follow. Data shows that the Korean Safe Rates System made Korean roads safer by reducing speeding, overloading, monthly working time and driver fatigue.
Since the end of the Safe Rates system driver pay has dropped forcing truck drivers to drive longer, speed and overload to make ends meet, putting their lives and the lives of other road users at risk. We see the same problem in app-based delivery, where low and unstable pay and pressure from apps has made the sector rife with occupational accidents and deaths.
We call on the Korean government, Democratic Party and National Assembly members to act now to re-instate the Safe Rates system and expand it to cover all truck drivers, and introduce a similar system for app-based food delivery.
