The issue of compulsion is a complex one - any number of us have gotten ourselves into a set of lifestyle choices that demand a certain income level. Additional dimensions like ego and self-image come into play, and can be more compelling than any external physical threat. Like lobsters in a pot whose temperature is being raised slowly, it's often hard to tell when you start being cooked. Often, it does end up having a major health crisis to get us to re-examine life's priorities and the consequences of behaviors. The fortunate ones survive the crisis and learn from it to remove themselves from the toxic work environments. The rest end up dead.

As to truckers working crazy hours - a trucker was recently convicted of culpable manslaughter for killing 7 kids when he fell asleep at the wheel and creamed a car stopped for a school bus. You can talk all you want about personal responsibility (and he'll have 7 years in prison to think about it), but his dispatcher and manager should be in the cell next door for their part in creating the environment and a lack of supervision that led to his killing those kids.

The sad part is that "leaders" often don't have a clue as to how toxic the work environment they're creating is. There is a often a very fine line between 'challenging your team to excellence' and killing them with stress. And all too often in large corporations, the body count piles up, in obvious and not-so-obvious ways. And with no repercussions to those truly responsible.

 

Having been a dispatcher for over 10 years, I can tell you that his dispatcher CAN be held liable and brought up on criminal charges if it is charged and determined that they required, encouraged, or even knowingly allowed the driver to operate illegally.

 

As a driver you have to know your limits. I pull over and go to sleep when I get sleepy. I'm not going to kill myself or someone over a load. If the company knows what they are doing they will give you plenty of time to get there. If they tell you get it there or else, then they should be held resposible.