Wages, working conditions and living conditions are central to ensuring decent work and safe operations in road transport. The 2019 ILO Guidelines on the promotion of decent work and road safety highlight that these factors are closely interconnected and directly influence both worker wellbeing and road safety outcomes.
In practice, structural features of the sector—such as fragmented supply chains, cost pressures and non-standard employment arrangements—can create challenges in ensuring fair and stable remuneration, reasonable working hours and adequate rest. Drivers may face income insecurity, long periods away from home and limited access to safe rest facilities, all of which can impact health, safety and quality of life.
Working and living conditions, including access to sanitation, secure parking and rest areas, are particularly important given the mobile nature of the sector. Where these are insufficient, risks can arise that affect both physical and mental wellbeing.
Addressing these issues is therefore essential to improving safety, sustainability and resilience across road transport supply chains.
The way wages are calculated can create significant human rights and safety risks. Pay systems based on distance travelled, number of loads delivered or trips, time spent may fail to account for waiting time, loading and unloading, border delays, traffic congestion or mandatory rest periods. Where pay is directly linked to output rather than time worked, drivers may feel pressured to exceed legal driving hours, skip rest breaks or engage in unsafe practices to earn a living wage.
Drivers will work until they achieve a wage they can survive on. For those engaged in NSFE, this can result in unsafe driver practices due to being forced to work faster, for longer hours, without breaks, without adequate training or equipment, when ill or injured, in heavy traffic, during bad weather or even during extreme weather events. The 2019 ILO Guidelines on the promotion of decent work and road safety in the transport sector state that, “pressure from supply chain entities can be an underlying cause of transport workers adopting riskier and unsafe driving practices”. Research shows that a 1% increase in driver pay reduces accidents by between 1 and 3%.
These risks can be amplified in subcontracted or cross-border operations, where payment arrangements vary across jurisdictions and are difficult for client companies to monitor. Piece-rate or performance-based pay models can also obscure underpayment, as workers’ total earnings may appear adequate while effective hourly rates fall below legal or collectively agreed standards.
The structure of renumeration in road transport can further conceal labour rights violations. In some contexts, wages are supplemented or replaced by daily allowances, per diems, bonuses or reimbursements for working costs such as fuel, accommodation, or equipment. Where such payments are used to inflate apparent earnings or substitute for wages, they may undermine minimum wage compliance, reduce social security contributions, and limit access to benefits such as pensions, sick pay, and unemployment protection.
Pay
Irregular payment of wages, delayed payments, and the withholding of pay are persistent risks in road transport supply chains. Workers may experience late or unpredictable wage payments due to cash-flow pressures within subcontracting chains, disputes over completed work, or unilateral deductions for fuel, vehicle damage, or administrative costs. In some cases, final wages may be withheld when workers leave employment, particularly in situations involving drivers in NSFE. Such practices create acute financial hardship, increase workers’ dependence on employers or intermediaries, and deter workers from raising concerns or reporting abuses.
Living conditions
The working and living conditions of long-haul truck drivers represent a severe and overlooked human rights crisis in global supply chains. Due to inadequate renumeration and a lack of proper roadside infrastructure, many subcontracted drivers are forced to live in their truck cabins for weeks or months at a time, frequently without access to clean water, climate control, or basic sanitation facilities. This is can be exacerbated at client-controlled loading sites where drivers are denied access to on-site toilets and rest facilities, forcing them into degrading hygiene practices to maintain delivery schedules. Furthermore, deductions for fuel, insurance, and maintenance can lead to "negative wages," where a driver effectively owes the company money for a week’s work—a primary indicator of debt bondage that traps the drivers in a cycle of structural exploitation.
The access to safe and clean drinking water is frequently compromised by a lack of accessible roadside infrastructure and the often restrictive policies of customer sites. When client companies or warehouse or port operators deny drivers access to on-site water and sanitation, they directly contribute to intentional dehydration, a dangerous practice where drivers limit fluid intake to avoid the need for non-existent or unsafe restrooms. This practice may lead to severe physical and cognitive impairments, including reduced concentration, slower reaction times, and brain fog comparable to driving under the influence of alcohol. Beyond the risk of road accidents, chronic dehydration causes long-term health damage such as kidney stones, urinary tract infections, and permanent renal dysfunction.
Workforce challenges
Human rights risks posed to drivers can stem from the nature of their recruitment.
Many drivers are illegally asked to pay charges for recruitment and/or become indebted to the employer or recruitment agency in order to begin employment. This can be the first indication of human trafficking and/or forced labour. According to the ILO’s ‘General principles and operational guidelines for fair recruitment and definition of recruitment fees and related costs’, no recruitment fees or related costs should be charged to, or otherwise be borne by workers or jobseekers. In spite of these protective measures, cross-border drivers can pay high recruitment fees, be confronted with unexpected payments upon arrival in their country of work, and can be misled about their terms and conditions.
The recruitment of young workers into the trucking industry presents specific human rights risks that warrant careful attention within due diligence processes. Young workers are disproportionately recruited into the sector through temporary, agency or trainee arrangements, sometimes with limited transparency about pay, working hours or conditions. In some contexts, recruitment practices may involve misleading information about earnings or job security, or place financial pressure on young workers through training fees, licence costs or equipment charges. These factors can increase vulnerability to debt, dependency, and acceptance of unsafe or unlawful working conditions, particularly where young workers lack experience or knowledge of their rights.
Young workers are also more likely to face gaps in training, supervision, and saftety and health protections, especially in fragmented or subcontracted transport operations. Pressure to meet delivery schedules, combined with fear of losing work or future opportunities, can discourage young drivers from raising concerns or refusing unsafe work. Where access to trade union representation is weak or absent, these risks may remain hidden from client companies and difficult to address through standard compliance mechanisms. For companies, ineffective oversight of recruitment practices can therefore contribute to elevated safety risks, legal exposure, and reputational harm, underscoring why companies and supply chain actors must engage inthe importance of worker-centred due diligence that includes recruitment pathways as well as conditions of work.