I'm just a wannabee here doing my research and lurking trying to find out if this is really for me. Everything sounds great for the most part, however I do find something a bit disheartening. If we have such a driver shortage across the nation, than why are there so many layoffs happening ??? Are these company specific reasons or is it an industry issue ??
Thanks guys.

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The Economy is on the brink of a major recession. Freight volumes are down considerably as compared to previous years. The cost of oil products and especially diesel fuel have increased drastically. Companies are closing and o/o's are selling their trucks and driving for companies. The fact is there IS NO DRIVER SHORTAGE. This is propaganda and hype. There is no freight sitting on a dock waiting for a truck to come and pick it up. If anything there are drivers waiting in truck stops waiting for loads.
Many companies have trucks that are sitting empty due to poor wages and business practices. The best paying companies do not have an issue with driver retention.
In an attempt to keep wages down we have the mexican trucks approved to come into the USA (under NAFTA). and there is a foreign worker program that allows foreign nationals to come and drive U S trucks as long as all the proper papers and documents are signed (and fees paid).

There never has been a driver shortage. Although there has always been a shortage of companies willing to treat a driver like a human being.

Students typically make 25-40% less than an experienced driver their first year out. 10-20% their second year out. Then they start getting paid what everyone else gets, but the miles drop off.

Why pay a 10 year driver .44 a mile to pull a load 1000 miles. When you can pay a recent grad .26 a mile for the same run.

The safety requirements have gotten so strict with the insurance companies. A "new" driver is most likely to be unable to get a job anywhere after his first 12 months with a company that relies heavily on the "new" graduate drivers. Simple "incidents" will be on his DAC. He is subject to a higher rate of accidents. And the "new" driver is pushed to perform. Many are willing to be pushed as well.

Therefore there MUST be constant a "new" graduating class to take up the slack, caused by the very companies that scream the loudest about a shortage..

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Team Players.....
It's hard for me to play professional team sports. On a minor league salary.

i have heard this also and from what i understand it is gonna happen over the next few years. i don't see it. i think they are talking about some of the older drivers that are fixing to retire.

Never has been a shortage of drivers..........................................
If there was a shortage of drivers then companies would treat there drivers with much more respect then what they currently do... They could care less about the drivers in this industry, becuase they know they can have that driver position filled tomorrow... look threw this forum and you will see how people are treated in this industry.... The last company I worked for had a waiting list to work for them... to me almost 2 years to get on there... Why? becuase they treated people well and paid decent...
To bad the company went out of business but again this is the goal of "large" corporations is to weed out all the good smaller companies and the O/O.....

The real picture?
Corporate greed.......................................
They want cheaper labor.........
They want everybody to believe that there is such a demand for truck drivers.... So, they can fill the industry with Mexican and other foreigners willing to work for much less.....

Proof?
Look into it a little......
J.B, Swift, Schneider, Werner, CFI, Celadon and many many more have been buying up Mexican trucking companies for more then 6 years now in anticipation of this NAFTA thing allowing Mexican truckers to come into this country......
All those companies and more have lobbyist pushing this crap threw by filling Congress and other politicians pockets (I can't prove that but you bet they are... the lobbyist part is true thought)

Schneider has been flying people from the middle east over here to drive there trucks becuase they will work for less..... they been doing this for years... once their worker permit is up they fly them back then bring them back over here once their mandatory time is up....



ITS ABOUT THE $$$$$ WHY THEY SAY THERE IS A SHORTAGE........

Holy Crap....

Now...what happens when one of these Mexican drivers Gets into an accident because they can't read signs....or aren't as compitant as American Drivers?

Won't those same companies get crap sued out of them?

Or...do they just don't care....?

I dont' think there is a shortage of drivers as much as it is a shortage of "QUALITY DRIVERS" Most of you know much better than I do about the amount of idiots out on our roads everyday.

As far as these big corps. being afraid of lawsuits over the mexican drivers causing accidents, they probobly look at it the same way the big company's that the EPA cracked down on about poluting the enviroment by laying big fines on them.

"Its cheaper to pay the fine than to fix the problem"

They think "well we will take our chances on cheap labor and if we have to settle out of court on a couple of lawsuites it still beats paying an american worker.." to do the job

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"Don't look at the whole staircase, just take the first step"

i thought that everybody knew that the driver shortage was a farce. truckerjo has it right, if there were a shortage, there wouldn't be the horror stories on this forum. drivers would be treated fairly and paid what they are worth.

You know it is really strange to see how similar trucking is to nursing. I was going to school to be a nurse before deciding to truck with hubby. In nursing they keep saying there is a shortage, but in fact the problem is that most hospitals treat their staff like crap and that is why they can't keep nurses. That and there are 1-2 year long wait lists to get into nursing school. Liscensed nurses out there are deciding to leave nursing all together because of the hours they are expected to work and the low pay. If hospitals would treat everyone better and not worry about saving a buck there wouldn't be a shortage.

Sounds like truckers are going through the exact same thing. Oh and same thing about foreign workers. The keep bringing in foregin nurses, especially from African countries. Some of the nurses that work for the staffing company that I have been working for, I just can't understand a word they say.

Sassy, the same thing is true for education! There's all this crap about a so-called "teacher shortage" when in reality there is plenty of enthusiastic new blood to replace the experienced and talented tired blood burned out by adminstrators/parents/students. At the college level, much of the instruction is done by part-timers who are paid pitifully low hourly wages considering the time they spent getting their degrees. And yet, those part-timers are forced to beg for additional coursework to teach because the administrators are constantly advertising and hiring new instructors. These part-time instructors get more respect from their wining students than they do from their employers...any like nursing, the interpersonal contact is routine and constant through the day.