Taxpayers Wasting $18M on Truck Drivers

A report by the inspector general shows Chicago taxpayers are wasting millions of dollars a year on truck drivers

The city is wasting $18 million a year on truck drivers whose job includes sitting around, according to a new report.

The report by Inspector General Joe Ferguson found that about 200 motor truck drivers who are responsible for taking crews to work sites sit in vehicles and wait for crews to finish the job, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. And they get paid to do it.

Motor truck drivers are paid $33.85 an hour, meaning they earn about $90,000 a year including benefits.

This group doesn't make up the majority of drivers, though.

Most of the city's 1,800 drivers are used in an efficient way, Ferguson said, because they plow snow, sweep streets and drive garbage trucks.

Ferguson says the simple solution would be to have crews drive themselves, but collective bargaining agreements prevent eliminating the position, according to the Sun-Times.

Ferguson also recommends the agreements should be amended and include a new clause that allows for renegotiation.

A spokesman for Teamsters Local 700, which represents the motor truck drivers, said the city can't go without the 200 drivers.

During an arbitration hearing this week, the city testified that it is 180 drivers short.

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