Interpreting the risks of AIDS: A case study of long-distance truck drivers

This is a study of long-distance truck drivers - their perceptions of working conditions, social networks, and health and sexual practices. Its purpose is to place AIDS in the work and life context of truckers in order to establish the meaning of 'risk' of AIDS. The research also aims to contribute to practical, multilateral action by all players in order to address the problems drivers in the industry face, one of which is AIDS. The findings are based on a study of 213 long-distance truck drivers passing through the midlands of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, during ten days in April 1995. Drivers are in trucking to feed themselves and their families. The sophisticated road network, the need to earn money and the poor rates of pay create a work routine which puts them under continuous pressure to drive. Their work routine is exhausting, lonely, isolating and boring. It is also dangerous and hard. These conditions of employment take a toll on drivers' health and emotional well-being. Despite or because of the intensity of their work routine they look for opportunities to unwind. For many this includes buying drink and sex, the few recreational activities which are readily available, immediately gratifying and congruent with the demands of a job which leaves truckers 'dreaming of home'. Buying sex is tantamount to a condition of work. Objectively, the core of drivers who acknowledge having unprotected sex with multiple partners - between a third and half of all drivers - can be considered to be at high risk. Their susceptibility to AIDS may be greater if additional sexual and health factors are taken into consideration. Subjectively, drivers do not relate the risks of AIDS to their own practices or their 'knowledge' that having multiple partners increases the danger. Their fears are greatest where they have been tested for HIV, or they know or have heard of someone who has died of AIDS. The fluidity of the boundaries of risk, for them and the women they interact with on the road and at home, presents a huge personal and personnel crisis in an industry which is notable for the lack of support it provides to drivers. The risk of AIDS has to be acted on, but it cannot be treated in isolation from other problems of health and working conditions which have a bearing on the well-being of truckers.