Good old boys in crisis: Truck drivers and shifting occupational identity in the Louisiana oilpatch

Abstract

While federal deregulation of the trucking industry had little impact upon the truck drivers serving the Acadian oilpatch, recent legislation deregulating intrastate transportation yielded vast changes in the structure of the occupation. In the past, success as a trucker in the oilpatch depended upon an individual's entrepreneurial drive, as well as the social and familial networks upon which that individual could rely. Intrastate deregulation allowed several truck companies to dominate the industry; these companies grew via a complex series of alliances between transportation companies, service companies, and large oil concerns. These alliances disrupted the process by which individuals transformed social capital into economic capital. The foremost impact of these changes is a rapid drop in trucker's income---many now exist on the brink of insolvency. At the same time, the period of crisis has opened the sector to previously inconceivable options, including forays toward unionization, as well as the entry of women, blacks, and outsiders into the labor pool.