Six days on the road Will I make it home safely tonight? Examining attitudes toward commercial transportation regulation and safety Elyria Kemp Department of Marketing & Logistics, University of New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA Steven W. Kopp Department of Marketing, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA, and Eramus Kemp Kemp Transportation Systems, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA Abstract Purpose – This research aims to examine the stressors that professional truck drivers experience and the impact these stressors may have on road safety. Design/methodology/approach – Both quantitative and qualitative data gathered from 435 professional drivers measured attitudes and behaviors related to safety and compliance. Interviews with professional truck drivers provided an assessment of the stressors that they experience. The insights offered from these individuals were then integrated into a conceptual model. The model was tested via data collected through surveys administered to drivers using structural equation modeling. Findings – Results from the interviews, as well as the results from the survey administered to professional drivers, suggest that truck drivers experience severe time pressures. Such time pressures create stress which can lead to physical fatigue and emotional exhaustion. Further, both of these debilitating conditions are related to negative attitudes about safety compliance and the current CSA regulation. Additionally, negative attitudes about safety compliance standards are positively related to violation of hours of service regulations. Originality/value – Findings call into question the effectiveness of the new regulation with regard to commercial transportation as well as possibly suggesting that drivers of automobiles might play a role in helping to ameliorate vehicular crash rates. Keywords Road safety, Emotional exhaustion, Transportation regulation, Transportation safety, Transportation, Transport industry, Health and safety Paper type Research paper We just don’t feel like people respect truckers. This is a tough job and if it weren’t for us there would be no food or products on the shelves. Plus, there are all kinds of crazy drivers on the road – particularly four-wheelers – cars (Bandit, a driver interviewed for this study). Commercial trucks transport nearly 70 percent of all freight in the USA and over 13 million large trucks travel the nation’s highways (Taylor et al., 2010; Randall et al., 2010; FMCSA, 2011). Beyond the value added in terms of variety and accessibility of products, few consumers simultaneously consider the intrinsic costs involved when large trucks share their highways. Because of the number of trucks on the road, as well as the numbers of hours and miles that they travel, large trucks account for a disproportionate share of highway The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/0957-4093.htm Received 16 August 2012 Revised 28 October 2012 26 February 2013 5 March 2013 Accepted 6 March 2013 The International Journal of Logistics Management Vol. 24 No. 2, 2013 pp. 210-229 r Emerald Group Publishing Limited 0957-4093 DOI 10.1108/IJLM-08-2012-0080 210 IJLM 24,2