Truck driver shortage, other troubles could push up prices for consumers

All I can say is I never seem to have these problems and describe some ways I avoid them. The bottom line is Abe did not take the load. Just sayin', stress is a killer so why get dramatic? Just sleep if you have to. And yeah, being healthy makes a difference.

 

This practically describes my first day of every trip perfectly. Wake up at house at 5:30 AM have coffee, load late afternoon, drive night time to delivery, and why not?wait for load, reload afternoon, perfect scenario for me! Of coarse I don't consider the truck my home!

When I fished crab, we worked when the boat was on crab, now I drive truck and work when there is a load (much easier job btw)!

 

Anyone can get used to a routine and your obviously getting the sleep you need to be safe at what you do at home, but when your body shuts down, your dead or somebody else is going to be dead and a carrier will screw you if something bad happens, don't think they wont.
Trucking isnt in the land of Ice cream, Cake and Lolly pops by no means. And these types of practices are just one of many reasons why no one wants to get in this industry.
We all as drivers over the last 30 years or so have allowed these carriers to crap all over us and we did it to ourselves by letting them get away with it. I think this Abe guy did the right thing and I think with technology today you should never talk to dispatch either on the phone or in person without recording everything for these types of acts.
Until carriers are exposed for what they are and how they conduct business, this industry is doomed. There are allot of issues that make up the big picture as to why folks are quiting, why the turnover rate is so high, why almost 75% of all student don't stay over a year and why no one want in this industry. And as far as leaving for another carrier, whats that going to prove in many cases?
This problem is systemically throughout the whole industry. Yea some are better than others maybe, but drivers are a commodity and as an old saying goes " The only difference between one carrier to another is, is that some pay a little more to put up with the BS than the other, because all of them have more than their equal parts of it "
I've been over the road a long time, I'm still young enough to possibly see another 10 to 15 years, but until driver quit cowing down to these corrupt sorry practices and the money and benefits are in place for what it take to keep drivers, I believe we are at a bubble that is finally start to surface and the only way it'll sink downward is for carriers to start doing right by employees and give a little less about their fortune and wall streets.
Lets face it folks, we are paid penny's on the dollar to them. Some carriers if you went back 27 years and figured what the average rate per mile to the average pay was per mile it would most likely piss you off to know the average raise only to be a half a cent a mile average.
This isn't just me talking $&*^! This is all my oppinion as to why this industry is spiraling out of control all based on the thread topic.

 

I dug up an article in popular mechanics magazine, it was the May of 1970 issue. For the whole story google that and you can read the whole piece.

But I want to share to those a little bit of what trucking used to be compared to today.

In 1970, a driver drove around half the miles we do today, some drove around 60,000 to 80,000 a year on a great year, but back to this article.

1970
-----
60,000 miles avg a year
1.333 a mile avg. GPM
.640 cpm Carriers %
.193 cpm avg. expenses for everything!! EVERYTHING!! I MEAN EVERYTHING!!
.500 cpm to the driver for 30,000 a year IN 1970!
30,000 a year avg. in 1970

Today
------
120,000 miles avg. 2X that of 1970
1.280 cpm avg. with FSC
.850 cpm avg. expenses
.430 cpm to the driver on avg. 51,600

.500-.43= .070 less or 14% less.
If you make under .430 the % could go according to what you make per mile as high as 29% less than in 1970.

So you work 2X as hard as in 1970, some drivers may even work harder.

Your somewhere between 10% to as high as 30% underpaid compared to some in 1970.

I was 5 Years old in 1970, my dad had 6 truck during my time of growing up. I drove with him, following him and would pick loads up for drivers at 18 years old, Intrastate in 1984,( Teenagers were different back then, I don't trust them to drive a car across the street today hardly)
thing were tuff back then and only have gotten worse.

Its a great story to read, compare it to today and for those out there that keep saying " Hey that's just Truckin! " Keep up the good work, allot of carriers are depending on you to be that dumb!!

30,000 dollars in 1970 had the buying power of 182,590 dollars today when you compare it to the cost of living back then, all according to the Federal Bureau of Labor and Statistics. Don't take my word! Look it up!

51,600 today after taxes and a 68% increase in the cost of living.

Thats why no one wants in the trucking industry. We don't have a driver shortage problem, we have a driver pay problem.

 

methinks the problem (with truckers) is over-regulation by pencil pushers in DC

we allow the government to turn our freedoms as a truck driver, into an office on wheels where we punch a clock to start and stop and we are stuck at our desks overnight, and then start again in the morning

as far as the rates go, the more folks who quit, the better for those of us who stay

 

I think the drivers like Abe who are working alongside the desk jockeys who are regulating and picking the industry apart are the main problem now! Work ethics of a new generation are "spiraling out of control"!
Even the forestry industry is going to hell. Little punks sitting around in air conditioned cabs wiping the sweat from theyre brows while they manipulate a joy stick all day long, lmao. Glad I won't have to watch this bs for to many more years!

 

Well I see to some degree the gov. regulation is tight. We sure don't need no more that's for sure, but shippers and rec's need to tighten up as well. If we could lose some of that wasted time which can lead up to as high as 30+ hours a week of non-pay time, that would be one step in the right direction. But someone who's paid by the hour can care less about those who aren't and we all suffer for that one.

Yea your right, the more that quit, the better itll get, but dont be surprised though if it gets worse with all of our new American citizens that'll work for .180 cents a mile. Thanks Obama!

 

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/02/usa-trucks-driver-shortage-idUSL2N0RO18P20141002

　

http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19970302&slug=2526509

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/04/28/trucking-used-to-be-a-ticket-to-the-middle-class-now-its-just-another-low-wage-job/