Michael H. Belzer

Michael H. Belzer, Ph.D., is an internationally recognized expert on the trucking industry, especially the institutional and economic impact of deregulation. He is an associate professor, in the economics department at Wayne State University. He is the author of Sweatshops on Wheels: Winners and Losers in Trucking Deregulation (Oxford University Press, 2000). Along with Gregory M. Saltzman, he coauthored Truck Driver Occupational Safety and Health: 2003 Conference Report and Selective Literature Review, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, 2007. He has written many peer-reviewed articles on trucking industry economics, labor, occupational safety and health, infrastructure, and operational issues. Dr. Belzer has initiated a strategic economic development plan to transform Southeast Michigan into a global freight transportation hub.

For eight years, he was a long-haul tank truck driver and a member of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which had a direct impact on his studies, writings and career.

His major opus was critically well received. Low pay, bad working conditions and unsafe conditions have been a direct result of deregulation. "[This book] argues that trucking embodies the dark side of the new economy." "Conditions are so poor and the pay system so unfair that long-haul companies compete with the fast-food industry for workers. Most long-haul carriers experience 100% annual driver turnover. As the Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote: "The cabs of 18-wheelers have become the sweatshops of the new millennium, with some truckers toiling up to 95 hours per week for what amounts to barely more than the minimum wage. [This book] is eye-opening in its appraisal of what the trucking industry has become."

Dr. Belzer is associate director of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's Trucking Industry Program—one of more than twenty Sloan Industry Centers—focusing on trucking industry operations, regulation, industrial organization, and industrial relations. In that capacity, he directs its Trucking Industry Benchmarking Program. Additionally, he is chairman of the Transportation Research Board Committee on Trucking Industry Research; a member of the Freight Systems Executive Board; and a member of the Committee on Freight Economics and Regulation as well as a member of the Truck and Bus Safety Committee.

In 1993, Dr. Belzer received his Ph.D. from Cornell University. His thesis, "Collective Bargaining in the Trucking Industry: The Effects of Institutional and Economic Restructuring," focused on the transformational dynamic of changed regulation and institutional structure on industrial relations in the trucking industry. His research interests include all facets of trucking industry organization and operations, labor-management relations, employment policy, and safety.

He is currently studying the relationship between truck driver earnings and safety, as well as issues related to their hours of work.

He is also involved in studies of regulation and industrial organization and industrial relations in China, and has served as a visiting professor at various Chinese universities.

• Belzer, Michael H. (August 24, 2000). Sweatshops on Wheels: Winners and Losers in Trucking Deregulation (Hardcover). USA: Oxford University Press. pp. 272 pages. ISBN 0-19-512886-9.  ISBN 978-0-19-512886-4.

Research reports

• "Pay and Safety Report, September 2002"
• "The Jobs Tunnel: The Economic Impact of Adequate Border-Crossing Infrastructure" (Nov. 2003).

Selected scholarly publications

• "Pay Incentives and Truck Driver Safety: Case Study." With co-authors Daniel A. Rodriguez and Felipe Targa. Abstract published in Compendium of Papers CD-ROM of the 82nd Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, January 12–16, 2003, Washington, DC.
• "Effects of Truck Driver Wages and Working Conditions on Highway Safety: Case Study." With Daniel Rodríguez, Marta Rocha, and Asad J. Khattak. Abstract published in Compendium of Papers CD-ROM of the 82nd Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, January 12–16, 2003, Washington, DC.
• "Effects of Truck Driver Wages and Working Conditions on Highway Safety: Case Study." With Daniel Rodríguez, Marta Rocha, and Asad J. Khattak. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, no. 1833 (Freight Policy, Economics, and Logistics; Truck Transportation), pp. 95–102. 2003.
• "The Case for Strengthened Motor Carrier Hours of Service Regulations" (with Gregory M. Saltzman). Transportation Journal, Volume 41, No. 4 Summer 2002, pp. 51–71.
• "Trucking: Collective Bargaining Takes a Rocky Road." in Collective Bargaining: Current Developments and Future Challenges, edited by Paul F. Clark, John T. Delaney, and Ann C. Frost. Champaign, IL: Industrial Relations Research Association 2002, pp. 311–342
• "Technological Innovation and the Trucking Industry: Information Revolution and the Effect on the Work Process." Journal of Labor Research, Volume 23, No. 3; Summer 2002, pp. 375–396.
• "Truck Driver Security Issues: The New World of Secure Surface Transportation." Perspectives on Work: The Magazine of the IRRA, Vol. 6, No. 1; June 2002, pp. 13–15.
• "Worker Representation in the Truckload Sector: What Do Truckers Want?" in the Proceedings of the 53rd Annual Meeting of the Industrial Relations Research Association, January 5–7, 2001, New Orleans, Louisiana.
• "Deregulation and Decentralization: The Impact on Employment Relations." Twenty First Century Labor Studies International Academic Conference," Chinese Culture University. Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China. October 12–13, 2000, pp. 1-45.
• "Government Oversight and Union Democracy: Lessons from the Teamsters Experience" (with Richard Hurd). Journal of Labor Research, Volume XX, Number 3, Summer 1999.
• "Labor Market Regulation: Balancing the Benefits and Costs of Competition" (with Dale Belman). In Government Regulation of the Employment Relationship, Bruce Kaufman, ed. Madison, Wisconsin: Industrial Relations Research Association. 1997.
• "Collective Bargaining in the Trucking Industry: Do the Teamsters Still Count?" Industrial and Labor Relations Review 48:4 (July 1995).
• "Labor Law Reform: Taking a Lesson from the Trucking Industry." Proceedings of the Forty-Seventh Annual Meeting of the Industrial Relations Research Association. Washington, DC. January 6–8, 1995. Madison, Wisconsin: Industrial Relations Research Association. 1995.
• "The Motor Carrier Industry: Truckers and Teamsters Under Siege." In Contemporary Collective Bargaining in the Private Sector, edited by Paula B. Voos. Madison, Wisconsin: Industrial Relations Research Association. 1994.
• "Paying the Toll: Economic Deregulation of the Trucking Industry." Washington, D.C.: Economic Policy Institute. 1994.