Delivering packages has long been a treacherous job during heat waves, with summer temperatures especially dangerous for delivery drivers. Now there is new concern that federal protections against hot delivery trucks could be stripped by President Donald Trump's nominee to head the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
David Keeling, a former executive at delivery powerhouses UPS and Amazon, has been tapped by Trump to run OSHA. If confirmed, many delivery drivers are wary of what it could mean for the trucks' sweltering conditions.
Why are delivery trucks so dangerous in hot weather?
All delivery trucks can get hot in soaring temperatures, though Amazon has said its vehicles are air-conditioned. The majority of UPS trucks, on the other hand, do not have air conditioning. Temperatures "inside the trucks, both the cab and especially the cargo space where drivers need to go to fetch and drop off packages, can regularly get well over 120 degrees [Fahrenheit]," said CNN.
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Under a 2023 labor contract with the Teamsters union, UPS "committed to deliver at least 28,000 new or replacement sprinter vans and package cars with in-cab air conditioning," said the supply chain news outlet FreightWaves, and pledged that all trucks purchased after Jan. 1, 2024, would have air conditioning. But the Teamsters "estimates that UPS has delivered only 10% of the required air-conditioned vehicles."
How could Trump's OSHA nominee exacerbate this?
Keeling was a health and safety executive at both UPS and Amazon and is the man "some workers blame for the inaction" of heat safety initiatives, said The New York Times. There are currently no nationwide standards for delivery truck safety, but Keeling would be "taking helm at the agency just as it considers the first federal rule designed to protect as many as 36 million workers from extreme heat."
This rule, drafted by the former Biden administration, is "aimed at requiring access to water, shade, breaks and training," said The Guardian. But even as some labor unions are pushing to get the rule passed, delivery corporations "have pushed to gut the rules, and there are concerns among safety advocates and some workers that Keeling could help them do so."
Delivery drivers who worked at UPS during Keeling's tenure "say they struggled to get the company to take measures to address dangerous heat conditions," said the Times. During Keeling's three years at UPS, OSHA records "show that about 50 UPS workers were 'seriously injured' by heat exposure and required hospitalization," said The New Republic. And Keeling's time at Amazon "coincided with heightened criticism over worker deaths and injuries under extreme heat," said the Times, though Amazon claims to have received only three heat-related OSHA citations since 2019.
Beyond Keeling, current executives representing both UPS and Amazon have "lobbied against federal heat rules," said the Times. OSHA's heat safety standard "should be performance-oriented" rather than indiscriminate, because "our drivers and package handlers are world-class industrial athletes," UPS' Global Head of Health and Safety Cormac Gilligan wrote to the agency in a letter.
It seems drivers are concerned that the scorching heat will continue if Keeling is confirmed at OSHA. Said Seth Pacic, a UPS delivery driver in Dallas, Texas, to The Guardian: Any "meaningful policy to combat heat injuries will be put on hold while he holds the position."
