Fox news:Trucker shortage

Discussion in 'Truckers News' started by 201, Aug 23, 2014.

  1. texasmorrell

    texasmorrell Medium Load Member

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    It's hilarious that not one of the problems the guy mentioned in the video was the low pay. As soon as she asked him why there was a driver shortage I kind of smiled because I knew he was going to give a bunch of crap answers and not one of them was going to be because of the low pay. Sure enough he didn't even mention it. But he does not drive a truck himself. He profits from the work of others and the less he pays the more he makes.
     
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  3. AppalachianTrucker

    AppalachianTrucker Heavy Load Member

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    That's the trick, the pay.
    Most people would say, wow, 45 or 50 grand is pretty good money.
    For a newer driver, 45 or 50 grand gross isn't bad, but just saying that figure flies right past the bigger, uglier, more honest picture. It's hard to paint a picture that creates much sympathy for a driver who makes north of $50,000 per year. Or is it?

    $50,000 for a year of 70-hour weeks is $13 bucks an hour for starters.
    It's a 70-hour week (maybe more) and it doesn't stop there. Driver is hardly ever home.
    It's irregular eating and sleeping patterns and being away from home maybe for weeks (personal and social cost), the daily liability & risk, and the whole rest of the hair ball that drivers get to swallow on a daily basis.

    You break it down to dollars per hour and that brewery or desk job looks better and better.

    Interesting how that second article gave the average age of the LTL truckers -- some of the best paid and best jobs in the industry if you believe what you read here (!) -- as 55 years old. Hmmm.
     
  4. 6 Speed

    6 Speed Heavy Load Member

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    Lots of truth in this statement. I would only add that companies had no problem absorbing sky rocketing fuel cost, yet refuse to allow trucking wages to keep up with inflation.
     
  5. Pahrump

    Pahrump Medium Load Member

    Back in 1973 a friend bought a truck and leased to CRST,,back then he got $1/mile.

    OTR drivers made $40K a year,of course back then carriers were not self insured and few if any companies would hire an OTR driver under 25 and most wanted 2-5 years min experience,,Wages for OTR were very good because drivers were away from home a lot and generally 30 and older,,
    Wages are too low and the long hours compared to skilled jobs (they are all gone).
    I would like to see a survey done to see how many rookie drivers hired in the last 5 years are still driving,,
    No one as far as I know has done a study to find out why drivers switch companies or why the quit.
     
  6. 6 Speed

    6 Speed Heavy Load Member

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    Boss says log it at 60 mph, when anyone with a minimal grasp of reality knows the trip takes an average of 45 mph because trucks can't accelerate from zero to sixty instantly, run for five hours, then decelerate from sixty to zero instantly. Yet, DOT is fine with that kind of logging. That's LEGAL. Wink-wink, driver!
    All for between 10 and 12 bucks an hour on a 70 hour week (if you run legal, wink-wink).


    It cracks me up when these guys say they can run 60 mph average in a governed truck.LOL.I run 5 mph over the limit which means I run 75 mph on I 75 or I 95 normally and I usually average around 55 mph which is #### good.
     
    Last edited: Aug 23, 2014
  7. G/MAN

    G/MAN Road Train Member

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    I don't know where you got your information about driver pay in the early 70's, but those numbers are way off. Drivers were making about $300 or so per week. That was good money back then, but nowhere close to $40,000. When I started around 1970, otr drivers were starting at about $0.10/mile and teams $0.14/mile. Some may have paid more, but not much. I don't know any company drivers who made $40,000 back then.
     
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  8. poppapump1332

    poppapump1332 Road Train Member

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    Im not far behind couple more years and ill be getting out tired of all these new rules and rates the same as when i started driving in 94.I got into trucking cause of the freedom and now thats being taken away so ill step aside and let the foreigners and rookies who dont know any better take over and drive the 60 mph trucks with elogs and cameras looking at you.
     
  9. Scott101

    Scott101 Medium Load Member

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    [QUOTE="semi" retired;4202650]Hey scott, ok, you make good points, I only go on observations of situations I'm not used to seeing, and there may be perfectly good reasons why a product isn't on a shelf, but you can't say, my observation couldn't be true. [/QUOTE]

    Yep, actually the first thing I said is it could be true.


    [QUOTE="semi" retired;4202650]
    I don't have a lot of facts, and I think 625 drivers per state could be a significant number, and 3.5 million could be a number that incorporates drivers from all fields of work, and not just say OTR. OTR seems to be the biggest concern right now[/QUOTE]

    I don't know how they are counting it. But both articles/videos linked in this thread had ties to the ATA. The ATA website says we are roughly 25,000 drivers short in an industry with over 3 million drivers. That is less then a 1% shortage.

    http://www.truckline.com/News_and_Information_Reports_Driver_Shortage.aspx

    [QUOTE="semi" retired;4202650]
    and like I say, CL is all I can go by and at least 3/4 of the jobs on CL are OTR. Everybody wants a local gig, and I don't think there's a shortage for that. Just from my short time here, the biggest problem I see is newer OTR drivers complaining and quitting. I rarely hear of a local driver that's unhappy. I know you come from Cal. where you are used to a lot of people, and 625 may not sound like a lot, but it could be a couple of thousand from 1 state and 3 from another. I don't know how long you've trucked, but coming from my background, and 35+ years, I can draw a conclusion how different it is now, and how it was years ago, and from what I see, it's not good.[/QUOTE]

    It's hard to gauge by CL ads. For one, the listings are free so some companies are just going to spam the crap out of it. USX posted something like 4 ads in my local CL. I am 550 miles from their closest terminal!

    Look at this ridiculousness on Aug 22/23: http://mendocino.craigslist.org/search/trp?query=+ I just can't even consider that a sincere recruiting effort.

    I live in a pretty large county with a relatively sparse population. I am on highway 101 over a hundred miles north of San Francisco. 85 miles from an Interstate. So forget 625. The number is 1. 1 Percent short according to the people who claim the sky is falling. That is practically even-steven. What would they prefer, a surplus of drivers? How would that be good for drivers? Good for companies maybe, but not drivers.

    I got my CDL in 92'. So you definitely have a few years on me, but I'm pretty sure I am at least close to being an old timer... And like I said, I have been following trucking since I was 9. One of my earliest memories of the industry was the prediction of a driver shortage. That was almost 40 years ago!!

    So if it is here, bout time! We do seem to be seeing a move that looks like it will push driver wages up. I don't understand why you feel this is not good?
     
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  10. 201

    201 Road Train Member

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    Hi Scott, the reason I feel it's not good, is due to present economic conditions, and the shortage of jobs, these companies are still getting people to drive their trucks at lower wages, because for many people, they are out of options, and trucking is "the only game in town", so to speak. Until that scenario plays itself out, more jobs come back to the US, which they are, slowly, there's no reason to pay more. The cpm has crept up at a snails pace. A short time ago, I asked one recruiter what he would start me out at, not because I was interested in his job, but frustrated, and wanted to find out for myself, he said, with my experience, he could start me at .32 cpm. When I told him , that's what companies were paying 20 years ago, and how could he justify paying that, there was a pause, and he said, well, times are tough now and people need jobs. I said, I think it's terrible that this is how you are filling your trucks, with people that are out of options, he then hung up .
     
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  11. broodmom

    broodmom Light Load Member

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    [QUOTE="semi" retired;4202384]Hi broodmom, 1st, I don't want in any way to admonish your son, it's great, but sadly, this is who the trucking industry is appealing to, people that are out of options and go into trucking as a "last resort". I wish your son the best, but quite frankly, and history has shown, these people, like your son, think it's great when they first start, money is coming in, big smiles, but after a while, when the "newness" wears off, and the get screwed around with, stuck in a truck stop, far from home, when the family is getting together, or want a family of their own, or heaven forbid, get in an accident due to their inexperience, they quit trucking and move on., and the cycle repeats itself.[/QUOTE]

    Hey, he's young and unattached, and he's an independent thinker, in a good way. We all grow uip, and never know exactly what or where we'll be in years to come. Maybe this will be his life's calling or maybe he'll go on to something else. Like ANY job, some people go and some stay. Hubby has been with same company for 37 years. I, OTOH, have job-hopped every few years. I'm just glad he can earn an honest living and at least now, enjoy doing it. His trainer hasn't thrown him out of the cab yet, and he's at a decent company. He'll learn life skills along the way as well as job skills. That's all we can ask for right now.

    And it wasn't quite his last resort. He had two years of college in and could have gone on for four more years to become the anthropologist he was leaning toward but it would have cost him $100,000 more and he wasn't interested in desk-boiund jobs that pay better. Trucking is the first thing that caught his eye among the alternatives. Like we told him, he's young and can always save up to pay for college if he changes his mind later.
     
    Last edited: Aug 24, 2014
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