In an area of the country that many interstate truckers come to know well, drivers are becoming displeased as they see worker’s compensation cases providing little assistance to those among them who are injured on the job. Iowa, a busy trucking pass even by the standards of the well-traveled Midwest, has seen a rash of problems with drivers learning that their companies’ worker’s compensation plans are insufficient to the task of protecting them or even, in some cases, non-existent. Many drivers simply took it for granted that trucking companies of their stature would undoubtedly have worker’s compensation coverage. State law required that companies either buy worker’s comp insurance or self-insure. Yet, when the time came that some of them were injured, they faced the harsh reality that their employers had done neither.
What makes the case of relevance to drivers nationwide is the incidence of such pervasive default on worker’s comp in what is considered a hotbed of the nation’s trucking industry. More than 300 Iowa businesses have been subject to complaint for deficiency in worker’s comp coverage. Wise drivers and employees of shipping companies will take it as a signal of the importance of confirming their company’s standing policies to ensure that in the unfortunate event of injury, their company can provide them with more than condolences.