Last month, the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) published a report based off of their research into the ‘truck driver shortage.’ The researchers stated that BLS “does not find evidence” that the shortage exists. The American Trucking Association (ATA) has responded, saying that it does exist and accused the researchers of having “some basic misunderstandings.”
While the report (and our coverage of it) are more nuanced than this, it can essentially be boiled down to this: The trucking industry follows the basic laws of economics. If you increase driver pay, more workers will become truckers and more truckers will stay in the industry for longer.
In their response letter, the ATA disputes that claim, saying that the problem isn’t finding drivers, it’s finding ”qualified” drivers who meet “age requirements, CDL testing standards, strict drug and alcohol testing regimes and… clean driving records.”
But that response doesn’t address the high turnover and burnout rate among truckers. If carriers can find applicants to hire, but can’t keep them from leaving, complaints about “barriers to entry for new drivers” ring hollow.
One thing the ATA does not address in its response letter is the assertion in the report that large carriers may actually be creating and maintaining a driver shortage as a deliberate “cost-minimizing response.” That is, keeping wages low so that experienced drivers quit the industry, allowing carriers to hire less expensive rookie drivers.
If true, this would allow large carriers to undercut their competition with cheap freight rates. That would make it harder for carriers who pay their drivers well to compete, driving them out of business. The large carriers could then eat up that market share and replace the well-paid drivers with cheap rookies, again driving down average freight costs and starting the cycle all over again. This could theoretically lead to large carriers hauling a much greater percentage of freight, earning large carriers more money and allowing them more influence in the marketplace.
But despite the findings of the report, ATA’s leadership continues to assert that the driver shortage is real.
“At the end of the day, forget my research, forget the Department of Labor research,” ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello said to Transport Topics. “Go ask trucking companies and go ask for-hire truckload carriers if they can find enough drivers. If that’s true then why are all of these fleets complaining?”
Source: ATA, businessinsider, logisticsmgmt, truckersreport, bls
All I can say is WOW…is there any industry more crooked than trucking!
This job sucks and isn’t paid nearly enough $$$$ , otherwise people would be incentivised to work!!
The only “shortage” of drivers is experience & courtesy drivers. These mega companies are the blame. They are hiring “newbies” training them for a week or two and putting the new drivers out on their own or with another new driver that doesn’t know what he/she is doing.
They want to blame the eld on everything but it’s not the eld fault @ all. The eld is just a tool to help out. Plus the mega carriers wanted the eld even fought for it
Werner first came out with the eld back in the 1990’s to get themselves out of trouble with the federal government & other mega companies soon followed.
For what?? Bigger profits cause they know they can hire just anyone whatsoever at dirt cheap cpm (or at dirt cheap percentage rates which most companies doesn’t pay percentage so that they can ripoff the drivers even more)
The only solution to this is to go back to the old school way and start the real training again where the newbies went out with a trainer for a minimum of 2 months and then with another trainer for another 2/3 months and only one student per truck no more 2 students in a truck
It’s a PAY SHORTAGE … Plain and simple
I agree 100%. No money no work. Pay drivers for ALL their time including fueling, pretrips, loading and unloading times, etc etc, instead of just per mile and you’ll have a big paycheck difference. You are getting paid in big companies often than not minimum wage or less. Yes you do get on ocasiona 1000+ paycheck, but how many hours you dedicated to that paycheck? Most likely 168 hours, cause you never went home and have a REAL rest the whole week. Say you did 1500 that week, so 1500/168 = 8.92 an hour. A fast food employee gets the same amount per hour, if not more. You just get paid more cause you work an insane amount of hours. So why would someone want to be a truck slave for minimum wage? The government is completely right, it’s follow simple economic rules. The best drivers qualified with clean records and years of experience, will simply not work for pennies on the dollar. Offer good paychecks and your driver shortage will run dry.
You got that right companies paid more in the 80’s then now if you hot experience no one wants to pay for it and now I’m almost 60 in s/w pa. And there is no good paying jobs rates have drop so bad on loads yet things at the stores have going up 2 to 3 times no local companies offer insurance. Biden says on t.v. that the unions need to step up. And everybody needs to buy things made in u.s.a. not gonna happen has long has walnart,dollar general,family dollar are in business look in the stores all there stuff is from overseas our government sold us out years ago. There pissing down our back and telling us it’s raining they are the problem.
I don’t know or care if the shortage is real. I can tell you that more and more drivers I personally know are leaving this industry, and I am one of them preparing to leave. The constant aggravations and abuses this industry has is tiring and no longer worth it. From over regulation, DOT harassment, heavy overhead, I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. I have been in this business for a very, very long time and it isn’t what people are led to believe. The money you think you are going to make is all smoke and mirrors. Sure you can make 175,000 to 250,000, but after all expenses, and I mean A LOT, you are lucky to show a profit of 25,000 to 40,000. This is after you spent countless hours away from your family, missing out on your kids growing up, paying bills just to stay alive and in business, being couped up in a truck alone most of the time, etc. In this business, you actually pay to stay in business and there are times were the expenses monthly exceed the income. You can try it, but don’t say I didn’t warn you!
Exactly !! Regulations and harassment for very little pay makes this job a real loser for anyone with half a brain
Your so right!!!
This is the only business that you make 6 figures and your broke at the end of the year.no independent owner operators should be making under $3.00 per mile in this day and age with all the expense and regulation that we have.
Back in 2001, after almost a decade with Werner, I was near the top of their pay scale. I barely made a thousand miles a week, often picking up a load and going less than a hundred miles and waiting 2-3 days for another driver to take my load on, because dispatch told me I didn’t have the hours to make the run – even though I had plenty of hours. When the other driver showed up, he was usually making 10-12¢/mile less than me, and packed out on hours..!
ATA companies buy trucks in lots of 500-1,000. Many of these trucks sit in their yards, while they try to hire a warm body to fill them. Then they don’t really have the freight to run those trucks, and the drivers get frustrated they aren’t getting miles, and go on.
Now also remember, it was ATA companies that pushed ELDs, that pushed the national speed limit for trucks, that are pushing the idea of a “driver shortage”. Just sayin…
The ELD is the best thing to hit Trucking in years. Running compliant is the only way that our pay would be forced up. OOIDA told us this years ago, but truckers won’t listen.
ATA does not own trucks. They are an Organization like OOIDA, but they lobby for the major carriers on capital hill
You do know those mega carriers are leasing their trucks right? No company ever wants their truck to be sitting because it’s expense for them. The only way the company makes money is when their truck picks up and delivers a load. Having 500 truck sit in fenced lot don’t nothing.
The day you go to the store and find bare shelves because there was no one to deliver the goods will be the day there is an actual driver shortage, not the fake driver shortage claimed by liars.
EXACTLY CORRECT
Large carriers, it means big mtf who would like to have experienced drivers paid with shameless low wage! At the end of the day, go ask the drivers too, not only the trucking companies, Mr. Anti Truckers Association Chief Economist Bob Costello!
I started in 1988, I was started at $0.25 CPM. What is the rate today? To be home more, I left and when to work for a regional carrier. That carier “associated” to a large carrier( in the tanker industry) was paying $835.00 Creola, Al to Decatur, Al (Empty). Overnight Customer loads. Haul to Laredo, Tx. Pickup Empty Dirty to east side of Houston, Tx. You do the math. I quit them when the TM wanted 2 empty dirty ISO tanks taken to Fitzgerald, Ga. on 10-11-18. Told me Hurricane Michael “was only a rain storm’. The 136 miles of I-10 would be open the next morning. I got tired of working for STUPID.
Their isn’t a shortage. Just a lie to get more new drivers in ATA companies so they can pay them a tiny fraction of what they pay an experienced driver. These are facts, driver shortage is fiction.
I have long maintained that the only actual shortage is of drivers willing to work for pennies per mile while the CEOs of these megafleets make millions off their cheap freight business model. That’s what the BLS report says – pay drivers well, treat drivers well and they won’t leave.
Instead, government created an environment that rewards driver turnover by incentivizing companies to open ‘driving schools’ to attract inexperienced newbs into the profession with the false promise that they can be their own boss someday and then in reality they find out that federal regulations ensure they cannot earn enough even to meet the standards of minimum wage requirements. Undoubtedly BLS didn’t delve that deeply into the matter.
Very good comment. Very rare u see one own here. They give them the school and they students come out and have to sign a contract to work a year at very cheap rates. But if they dont make it a year they have to pay back the company 4 to 6000 dollars. And Gov is what is paying it to start so the Schneider,cr England’s etc is double dipping. Ata companies
Federal regulations? Lol…the only federal regulation that screwed us was federal ‘DE- regulation!’ And truckers vote overwhelmingly in favor of political candidates that don’t want ANY regulations over big business. Regulation was a bonanza for truckers. ELD’s are a good example. The driver shortage combined with the ELD regs have forced driver pay upwards.
Scale per mile has went up but it has been utterly useless because you can’t drive as much anymore… Pay has went down… Exactly what the ATA wants
Yes, there is a shortage of drivers willing to work for nothing…the researchers erroneously thought drivers had to receive a living wage…
Exactly! 1975 = Min Pay $1.50 per mile Avg $5,000 a load or more, just depending on the Type of Load!
Today 2019 Instead of Increasing Pay, in Trucking, pay has constantly gone down from those levels! Now today $.45 CPM, Avg $1,000 a load approx., depending on Load Type! Some Owners/Contractors get more. But in general overall. Other Countries like Australia, pay WAY HIGHER WAGES OR PERCENTAGES, THAN HERE IN THE STATES!! Don’t have ANY WHERE NEAR, the REGULATIONS, That there are here in the States Either!
In 1975 rated were regulated.
As for companies that pay more, we pay 85 percent to owners and 30 to company drivers.
If a person wants that from a mega carrier they’re dreaming.
85% or 30% of NOTHING is still NOTHING!
Please state your rate, $1.32 pm, $2.65 pm, you can give percentage all day long. But I would never take 85% of $1.65 pm that would be financial suicide!
What are you talking about? Pay was higher in 1975 BECAUSE OF regulations!! You guys need to do your research and lay off of Fox News.
All of you guys have no clue what’s going on,bitch,bitch and bitch….if u want a good paying job,get a haz mat on your license,apply with ltl company,drive a day cab,and you will do good with earnings,it’s so simple
Nobody that drove a company truck ever made 1.50 a mile in 1975. I worked part time thru high school at that time, and my pay was 2.00 an hour. After graduation I worked in the oilfield for 3.20 an hour, and it seemed like a gold mine. I think you have been drinking too much koolaid…..or the wrong flavor.
I also dispute your claim about Australia….if it’s so rosy, why are so many Aussie drivers over here? Socialist countries love to impose regulations where they aren’t needed….
Aussie driving America only do so for the holiday in America and get payed while travelling.
Aussie trucking gets way better money…. 1500 to 2000 a week in hand after tax is a typical good job
That $1.50 number was more top end for the owner op then the average company drive. Per mile pay for company was less then $0.20 per hub mile but there was a meal and motel expense add to your check along with a few other benefits. As per mile pay increased the benefits started going away and companies started paying house hold movers miles till the 90s when more companies started using computers.( a lot of problems with computer mileage I will save for later). Pay increases kept up with inflation and the computer mileage pay till about 2000 then after 2001 when fuel prices skyrocketed pay got stagnate in 2007/08 at the start of the recession is when companies started to lower wages stating that lower wages would eliminate the needed to layoff drivers. In about 2010 when the economy started to improve most companies where and in most cases still reluctant to restore pay to what it was and even more reluctant to pay livable wages or even provide reasonable health benefits
It is obvious to me that the “Chief Economist” for the ATA got his degree from a Cracker Jack box. He has utterly no clue about what he is talking about. Basic economic principles utterly disprove the idea of a driver shortage. And a tour around your local truck stop will confirm it!
I agree with the parking. On the coast and around metropolitan areas it’s next to impossible to find parking after 3pm. A lot of places charge us up to $20 a break because there’s no place to put us. It’s a scam.
It’s a monster of the ATA’s own creation. The chickens are coming home to roost . Karma is a beach.
I’m a bit surprised that even a government agency can see through the line of nonsense the ATA, and their mouthpiece Bob Costello, are spewing. Any real facts that get in their way they try to explain away. And its not working. At least with people who have any brains.
Why does anyone care what ata says. They are only out for the big companies. All they do is lie to push the big company agenda. The more drivers they can get in the workforce the cheaper the they have to pay the drivers. There is no shortage of drivers
Because the ATA has a pro-corporate ally in the form of the Trump Administration and their other allies in Congress that will listen to them and legislate in their favor. That’s why you should listen to them.
I’m so glad that so many truckers out there understand and comment on the facts accurately. It gives me hope when so many folks can see through the “smoke screen” and spell out the truth of the situation.
Pay more money and you will fill your open positions. Mislead, with so-called sign on bonuses, and gimmicks, instead of paying a good CPM, and you will not attract and keep good drivers. There’s a ton of truck driving jobs out there, just put your name on “indeed” or other jobsite, and you’ll be offered 50 jobs within a few days, and 95-99% of them pay crappy. Keep yourself informed, and keep spreading the truth.
👍👏👏
Well said!!!
ATA = drivers enemy #1, I put that on the back of my trailer for everybody to see, do the same, send the message.
I’d sure love to see an honest study conducted by someone on the true shortage out here…THE GOOD COMPANY SHORTAGE! This false ” DRIVER SHORTAGE” issue would correct itself pretty quickly!
Wanna see some funny stuff take a look at the snapshot of the mega carriers. Accidents or accidents where someone was injured or killed. Those numbers are staggering.
They wanna fix the problem mandate strict training standards. 6 months training and put a limit on how many can be trained a year by each company. Also the trainer has to have at least 10 yrs verifiable experience to train. Also no more getting a cdl from a school that can’t provide real world training. Actual freight and full size trailers. And no more people who obtain a cdl and then go buy a truck and trailer and venture out with out training. Also regulate the students speed for 3 yrs so they can at least avoid tickets on the highways. In town and dragon flying it will still be a problem but at least it might start to help the problem.
Then at least the freight rates might go up cause they couldn’t just poop them out like deer droppings.
Making more people go slow will only add to the problems. Most can’t do the speed limit already, why make it worse?
Thae only shortage I see is the shortage of good paying freight….
There is a driver shortage. You can’t be your own boss if you’re being called a company driver. The basic research done that says no driver shortage, is done by lobbyist working for the big companies who pay them to say what the big companies and politician’s want them to say. The don’t ask the We The People Government what we think about it. I’m a driver who worked for one of those companies for a year and a half was put on the road at $.31cpm and only given 1800 miles per week. I got in a dedicated line for 1month where I got 1440 miles one way to deliver a load of motor oil from the south to the north then turn around and get the same load of motor oil and bring it back to the location as the first load. Meanwhile produce comes from Costa Rica and goes into grocery stores and you people buy that stuff and feed it to your children. God Bless America.
Show us the money! 🤑
$3000 per week, salary.
25% safety bonus, annually.
100% paid health insurance.
50% 401K match.
4 weeks paid vacation, annually.
Paid holidays at home or double on road.
Driver arbitration by drivers in disputes.
The only shortage are the number of companies willing to match this👆…
You pay me well enough, I’ll wade knee deep thru pig poop to deliver that load!
That’s not realistic. You really think as a Driver you should make $185K a year to drive a truck? I could understand 75K a year but this is a little extreme
The only problem with your fantasy numbers is there isn’t enough money in trucking to support that kind of expense. The oilfield boom in ND made similar numbers look realistic, but you had to work 15 hour days, 6 days a week, and live like an animal wherever you could park.
No amount of money is worth that
I’m sorry to be the one to break your bubble there isn’t a truck company in America paying a driver $3000k per week, giving them free healthcare and matching a 401k and safety bonus percentage. What companies are doing is pulling back on all those promises to employees so that they can pay the new drivers coming in that meet their criteria for drivers. that’s where the shortage comes in at. Not being able to meet the criteria for clean and spotless MVR, 2 years verifiable experience, current DOT medical card, then take a new physical to prove the current one is legit, no accidents in 3 or 5 years. the pay is secondary but goes along with all the other bogus Robocop directives that companies throw in. Leaving companies exposed to Payroll Lawsuits. that why they’ve been lobbying congress to make new laws and regulations to misrepresent not hold or be held accountable. Like Forrest Gump said Stupid Is Stupid Does.
There are numerous practices by ATA carriers that are meant specifically to keep the wages low, and allow them to hire unqualified and unvetted African and Eastern European drivers who are a danger to the public and a national security risk. Claiming there is a driver shortage is just one side of their scheme, which also includes ridiculous rules, and inflexible home time.
The mega carriers who make up the ATA WILL NEVER PAY A DECENT WAGE UNTIL THE REQUIREMENTS TO HOLD A CDL ARE CHANGED TO ONLY ALLOW NATURAL BORN UNITED STATES CITIZENS.
Hmmmm……that would preclude drivers from Canada and Mexico from driving in the US
I’m all for it
I get more money as local paid by the hour than many OTR drivers. There’s no shortage just people unwilling to live on the toad for minimum wage, or less.
All drivers should be paid on salary mandated. Owner ops and companies can still use mileage but any pure employee driver should only be allowed to be paid salary.
Salary implies a set wage, whether you actually do any work or not. I’m guessing Joe Driver could expect around 5500 a month at most
The only driver shortage is a shortage of idiots willing to work for the cheap wages that the mega carriers want to pay. Consequently, you get what I ran into last week in Phoenix. I was at a recycling facility in back of a Willie Saunders truck. It took the driver 25 min to get into the dock. While this backing marathon was going on, I checked in at the office. On my way back to the truck, I saw this guy had gotten his tandems hung up on the scale. There was another guy outside the truck who, I assumed, was the guys trainer. Turned out that it was the trainer who couldn’t get backed in. When I found out, I slapped the young man on the back and said “Son, you’re in trouble.” and walked back to my truck. When he was done loading and pulled around to get his paperwork, I backed in in about three minutes. The trainee just shook his head and walked back to his truck.
I was recently working for Jb Hunt Dedicated Account out of Van Buren, Ohio.
I was offered this job to start at .59 Cpm. You might think it’s was better than average pay but it was not. The most miles I ever drove in a day was much less than 300 miles..
I was so dissapointed with the pay,
that I had to quit.
There’s no driver shortage. ATA is full of crap.
There is a real shortage of companies paying a fair paycheck and abusing the system to screw drivers.
Sign/safety on bonuses that never happens, “training” money put in an escrow account that drivers never get back, forced loads or forced team driving, never getting home time when needed( it’s always we can’t find a load that way or we’ll get you there after the next load).
Plenty f smaller companies are always looking for drivers because all the Big Boys treat their drivers like crap and can’t keep them.
The only shortages is the ones who don’t want to work for pennies, case in point, when I first went to truck driving school and went to work, I was earning 25 cents a mile, I later went on to earn 39 cents when I stopped working OTR, this was in 2002, now in 2019 big companies are only willing to pay 46-49 cents a mile with my experience, I am working locally making over 24 bucks an hour, why would I go over the road?
Because that equates to about $.40 cpm! You were not very good in math were you?
To Perry & TexasJester, you said it very well. If you ride through Springfield, Oh on I-70, just look at the new trucks Werner buy and just sit them out there for show knowing they didn’t need them. They have been doing this for years because they get a deal when they buy trucks in bulk. Don’t believe anything Chris Spears and the ATA put out. They have been in bed with at least five mega carriers for years. So to the ATA, shut the *%#*.
Everything the government gets involved with goes to crap. Ever since the deregulation of the trucking industry it has been going downhill. Many companies have gone under. Such as Preston, CF, St Johnsbury to name a few.
The government has stolen the money that each person pays when they purchase a gallon of fuel to fix roads, bridges and infrastructure. The enforcement tactics by regulating authorities is biased against the industry. They claim it is for safety reasons. I say BULL it’s all about revenue. Why don’t they check the motoring public the same way.
Well ATA, prove it. The ridiculously low rate and the high number of cdl’s being issued says there is no shortage. Tell your mega-companies that you are the mouthpiece for to sell some trucks and stop buying so many. Or they can raise pay and benefits.
I am an Experienced C D L (A)Driver and I will not drive for any more of the Lying Trucking Co’s. that only use an employee for their purpose and not to benefit an Employee. I was told Home Time was Abundant, yet I seldom even got by the House. I was told Great pay ! (.37 cents a mi.) I drove over 130,000Mi. last year n My W 2 shows $25000 in Gross earnings !!! Should ugh been $48,100 for Driving alone ! I was Scammed by the Gov. which took $4000 in FICA TAXES on that total !!!! My ID was also taken illegally an sent to Canada > Canada TAX !! I also paid a State Income Tax that was not DUE, (per residency rule )and is shown in W 2 as a 1099 G Refund by a State Gov. ,, THAT IS NOT PAID. ALL THESE ISSUES ARE Fed GOV.. controlled
ATA, what a joke.
Biggest bunch of Idiots.
ATA should be classified as an mental institution. Then they could still collect a government check.
The ATA is full of Bull Excrement. There is no shortage. They are the biggest enemy to the trucking industry today.
I have been in this business for going on 42 yrs. OTR, Logging, Construction and Oil field work. Its always the same old story, ” Pay me well, give me a great benefit plan with a descent at home & vacation plan and I will be the most loyal driver you ever had. What surprises me is how loyal a driver will be to a company that is sucking the life out of them.
Its all because we are the ones that are trying to pay for our trucks, homes, cars, college, etc……
We cant sit around complaining we have to run and run hard.
We you dont have to run hard you just have to sit and go fishing for 2 wks and the world would stop. No fuel, no food, no clothing, no medical supplies, No Nothing. 2 wks and the shelves everywhere will be empty. Oh yes I hear it now ” Oh my God I will lose everything” like the banks want 40M trucks in their repo yard. You stop for 2 wks and you will have this country by the proverbial nuts. If you cant afford to stop for 2 wks then you cant afford not to.
You know mark,
When we say “we should shut it down for a week “ and then you start hearing all the excuses why they can’t. But when something major or minor is wrong with the truck and it’s down for 3 weeks or more . What do they say then 🤔
I am in my late 50s and have been a driver for over 30 years mostly in the flatbed/specialized hauling part of the industry. With this type of driving comes a lot of hard work and a few injuries and at my age they all haunt me. Last year I injured my shoulder (Not on the job) after about 6 months of physical therapy Dr. gave me a return to work letter with restrictions (Auto transmission and no heavy lifting) But no one wants to hire me until I get full unrestricted return to work letter not even van companies with mostly drop and hook loads. the only other jobs I can qualify for require lifting so as of this month I am out of money and homeless. After a few inquiries from companies that have rejected me it comes down to what the insurance companies allow.A lot of Trucking and Insurance companies have health and fitness standards that go beyond the DOT rules. That is one reason why older experienced drivers are fewer today then 2 or 3 decades ago.A new truck under warranty needs very little down time and very little in maintenance expense.As soon as that changes they get rid of it,Same goes for truck drivers. Nobody wants a broken down old truck and no body wants a broken down old truck driver. If there is a true driver shortage then companies would be willing to work with the older drivers.I have a 2 year DOT physical I meet the legal requirements for driving a truck. There are a lot of Auto shift type transitions in the industry today so it should be that hard to accommodate me and I am probably not the only one. The industries is creating a shortage intentional or not based on their hiring practices. A driver close to retirement has a harder time bouncing back then one just starting out in his/her 20s. I have a lot of comments about how it is hard to teach an old dog new tricks (ie new technology in the trucking industry) but this is to long already.
Sorry to hear what happened to you Jim.
With your experience especially in the heavy haul section.I think you should apply for a dispatching position and forget about driving. It will be much better for you
The driver shortage is like the pilot shortage. Its all about low pay and lousy schedules! Pay us a liveable wage and stop working us to death!
I am so glad that most of the truckers out there understand and comment on the facts accurately. It gives me hope that you are able to see through the b.s. and you are able to articulate very well the truth. That is, there is no driver shortage.
Carriers, pay more money (CPM or hourly) and you will attract and retain good drivers. There are a ton of truck driving jobs out there, I recently filled out a driver application on “indeed.com” and was offered about 50 jobs over the phone and on the internet over nest two days. The problem with the offers were they were looking for cheap labor, thus I wasn’t interested in any of them.
Truckers, keep informed and keep spreading the truth.
There has never been a shortage of CDL holders to occupy trucks. It is a retention problem, not a “driver shortage.”
They buy 500 truck for 40,000 apiece and run them a few years, make a bunch of money with them then sell them for 45 or 50,000 apiece. Trucks don’t cost them anything.
no carrier small or large can buy brand new trucks for $40,000
The law of supply and demand contradicts a driver shortage. When something is in short supply the price goes up not down.duuuhhh.
I’m wondering, if there’s really a driver shortage, as claimed by the ATA,why are driver wages reflecting this?
Someone tell Bob Costello that if driver made the same as him, there wouldn’t be a driver shortage
The big companies create a shortage to keep the mills operating, they make
as much on school subsidizing as actual work, the turn over they create is in
their favor, they get a % from government funding for education than charge
the student a ridiculous tuition it’s a win win thing for them
Thank god we have some truckers that uses their brain and knows what goes on in the trucking business 👏👏
This driver shortage exist only in the mega fleets companies,they want to manipulate the market,ANY given day I see trucks sitting at truck stops waiting for freight,so no,driver shortage does not exist,piss on the Anti Trucker Association.
Go buy a bunch of trucks, then hope you can find drivers…..presto, we have a ready-made shortage. Same thing with outfits that build warehouses, apartment complexes, etc then hope somebody will move in.
There is no incentive for anybody to drive these days. Ask any CEO of a big trucking outfit if they are willing to live in a truck for weeks or months for minimal pay while being buried by senseless regulations, being treated like dog poop by the company, law enforcement, and the general public.
I predict he will either die laughing or become highly indignant while asserting that “doesn’t happen at our company”…..
I agree with almost everything in the article except…
“The large carriers could then eat up that market share and replace the well-paid drivers with cheap rookies.”
Rookies are expensive as ****! They destroy equipment and drive up insurance costs. The babysitting and drag on the operations team also doubles when compared to using drivers who already know the road plan and procedures.
Until I actually see it happening, the narrative of a trucking company letting trusted 5-10-20 year employees go for rookies is just Bologna.
Not a single owner I know would ever give up his most loyal & expensive drivers for rookies – that’s insane. Sure, the POS companies that already break rules and cut corners with 1099, no benefits, illegal equipment, unverified drivers etc… sure, they might do that. But they aren’t hoarding all the good drivers – good drivers don’t ever work with those places to begin with. You can’t really name them because they change names every 4-6 months to prevent DOT from shutting them down…
Any halfway decent company would never give up a safe, trusted and loyal driver.
If that happened to you, my guess is you weren’t trusted or safe.
shortage, my hind end…
there is a GLUT of idiotic MORON Drivers which illuminates a shortage
of qualified & safe drivers.
this article nailed the reason of the shortage. Ive been saying this for 20 years. Its not just the mega carriers, small to midsize dont want to pay either. There are a lot of carriers that offer better pay but they are few and far between.
there is no shortage of drivers. there is a big shortage of Good honest trucking companies to work for.
Well said…..
I just left a company. A struggling to make 1500 miles a week yet they constantly would hire 50 to 100 drivers weekly..driver shortage is a joke..
The ATA is wrong – again – as usual.
Save ur money, 10,000 South American driver’s are in the way. .20 cents a mile.
ATA is the same group pushing 68 mph truck speed limiting. All under the guise of protecting the environment and public safety, of course. Another very thinly veiled attempt to drag everyone else down to their level, and eliminate competition from small companies. They count on people being stupid.
If you work for a member of the ATA, you’re a driving whore to me. A kind of scab. And I don’t want know you.
No more milage or PC, everyone should be paid like the clock punchers
especially since your controlled by a time clock, the time kept on your
EL is your time card, carriers take advantage of their drivers on either of
these pay scales it’s a rip off you should be paid for all your time even if
your waiting for a load, if they leave you sitting for a week then you should be paid for that time waiting especially if your away from home
It’s the ’80’s business model that labor is inherently stupid, lazy and deserves being taken advantage of by a clever, devious, desk jockey. Low turnover companies have long since figured it out, while others skimp to the point of exhaustion for short term profits.
There is NO DRIVER SHORTAGE…. If you offered pay $$$$ reflective of the crap job, people would jump on it quickly….
Case in point; Just like they did in 2018 during the freight boom and much more money being available….
Driver shortage? What a deal. It’s more like there are plenty of drivers out there but these companies just don’t want to pay them! So shame on these low paying companies out there.
There is no driver shortage, Only a pay shortage…. Up the driver pay and you will see them come out of the woodwork… Too many other jobs available that pay better and allow you to actually have a home life with a family. Many drivers are leaving and taking jobs that pay more. Less people are taking trucking jobs because it is a job for a single person with no family, and someone who can only handle a steering wheel. That is why a good dependable driver who is responsible, and has a good driving record is now delivering local for Amazon in a van. Like I said, there are a lot of good drivers out there. Like the old saying, “if you are only going to pay peanuts, then you’ll only get monkeys”…. Companies with good drivers pay for excellence, and they get what they pay for….
Driver shortage is because the big companies want fresh drivers to work for free .
I have said the same thing that the government is saying now for many years. There was never a driver shortage . ATA has been pushing this same narrative for many years so that major carriers that pays them to lobby on capital hill can continue to be subsidized by the federal government as long as they put ads out for drivers. ATA is the biggest crook in the industry. The only shortage, is shortage of good companies that really cares about their drivers.
Over hear in Australia we get payed 47 cents klm we get paid for been away over nights from home $55 anight .
The problem hear in a Australia we have new age drivers that think they know what they are doing and driving over night and end up putting the Truck over on its side.
The Government has put in place a safety program to stop this from happening.
We travel 1000 klm a night from city to city .
We have also lost a lot of companies that have gone broke or just shut the doors…
Learn how to spell, Des. After that you can take some courses in communication so people will know what youre trying to say
There is no drivers shortage. There is a shortage of companies willing to pay prevailing wages.
I don’t believe one word of any statement from the ATA.
I’ve been in the industry 20 yrs. First 4 as company driver. All the rest as owner/operator.
Someone hit the nail on the head:
The problem isn’t “a shortage of drivers”.
The problem is “a shortage of QUALIFIED drivers”.
I’ve wanted to hire a driver for my one truck for years. The trouble I see is the people that would like to be a driver have limited time and resources to devote to the lengthy qualification process.
They’re willing to begin work NOW, but the process takes way to much time.
And for lots of the prospective drivers I’ve talked to, they hate the idea of spending weeks and weeks on the road living in a tin can.
I don’t know what the answer is, but I do know that nothing is going to change without a major overhaul of how the industry operates.
I also know that more regulations & requirements from the damn government isn’t the answer.
The inconsitency between the researches comes from a slightly different problem descriptions. BLS researchers take it directly as a driver shortage, which doesn’t exist. I personaly drove 1000 miles empty home from CO to IL just because the rates offered in CO were not worth the sweat and time (pulling flatbed, btw). That should not happen if the shortage would be real, I believe.
Now the ATA has a bit different perspective on the problem. What hey really have in mind re shortage, is that there is a shortage of drivers willing to drive “THEIR” trucks, which they keep buying more and more no matter what.
The pay is about 20 yrs behind schedule, this minimum $1200 a week crap is a slap in the face , your insurance cost about $500 to $800 a month. At the end of the week you got nothing for being away from your family, sleeping in truck stops and rest areas, putting your life on the line at some of these places.
Those of you who dispute that there is a driver shortage, I suggest you try to hire drivers. Run ads in all of the available outlets and let us know what results you receive! Their has been many factors that have contributed to the shortage we are experiencing. The stagnant, slow and minimal increase in driver compensation from the early 90’s, weren’t magnified and brought into light until the 2009 recession. That got the carriers off the hook for not compensating drivers and everybody was able to blame the economy/recession. Eld’s are a catch 22, a few have mentioned its the doing of the carriers, some believe its the DOT. The last thing the carriers want is to put a driver in a position to say “im out of hours”! Dispatchers arent that good at what they do to begin with and puting Eld’s in play makes an already hard job, harder. To say they are smart enough to know individual driver pay enough to ensure the load is being transported the cheapest and most cost effective way is ridiculous, they are not that good! If every driver is forced to utilize Eld’s its going to make the field even, although its going to put a demand on hiring more drivers. Obviously if drivers are held to the amount of actual drive time its going to take longer to pick up or deliver a lot of freight. Lets simplify the situation, the movement of freight across this land lay in the hands of Carriers and Drivers who work for those carriers! All new drivers, have no choice but to work for one of the big carriers, its their only option because the carriers are self insured and every other trucking sector with fleets have fleet insurances that say they cant put a driver with less than 1 or 2 years of experience in one of their trucks. This puts the big carriers in a very influential and powerful position. The ATA advocates for carriers and carriers alone, the drivers have nobody advocating for them, the teamsters used to advocate for drivers but their to busy lining their own pockets to advocate for anybody but themselves. Isn’t it ironic how the big carriers not only caused the driver shortage but the ones screaming the loudest that their is one. Going to their advocates like ATA and local government people to complain all the while they slowly inch up the cost of moving freight and from 2009 to 2016 driver pay didn’t move much at all, but the cost of moving freight did! That’s just for starters, I couold go on and on, but il stop here for now! I welcome any feedback, positive or negative!
Thank you and well stated. We need more drivers like you!! Use their brains! Not just driving skills.
I just can’t believe anyone would want to do OTR these days!! But I guess some peoples hobbies and interests are ‘making money’? The problem is that no money can be made after school with mega carriers. I made 23k in 9 months 11 years ago out of school. And that was with a big 3 month push of 3k miles a week toward the end. And I worked LONG hours for that chump change! Local LTL is better. But many companies are just as greedy at local level. Office people want a 1,000 a week working 8-10 hr shifts while manipulating drivers to work 12-14(or more) hr shifts for the same amount of $$. I understand most of these positions are needed to run a business. Except most safety(made up jobs). But outside agencies(customers) are not paying specifically for this!! THEY PAY TO HAVE FREIGHT MOVED!!!!!!!!! Drivers and ONLY drivers do this!!!!! Start getting what you are worth drivers!!!!! Peace out