Is there really a trucker shortage?

Obviously not.
We aren't talking about if there is a trucker shortage or not. We are talking about orientation participation indicates if there is or not.

BTW, and I've posted plenty of times that driver shortage is a made up concept by mostly the ATA to keep wages down. It, however, has nothing to do with orientation.

 

The only shortage I'm sure of is decent rest areas and safe parking.

 

Yup. We need 5M more truckers, and shut down rest areas so they can't park.

 

Serious question - Does your company have a website? Social media accounts (Facebook, YouTube videos, etc. etc.)? Any reviews on places like Indeed?

I say this as a younger person, I've never gotten a job without reading reviews online. If a company has no internet presence I don't trust it. Maybe it's dumb of me, I don't know, but it's how I've grown up. Even starter jobs that I had when I was a teenager, if I didn't know anybody that personally worked there then I was looking at online reviews of the company and looking at their social media presence to try to get a feel for what the company was about.

Also, many drivers won't ever look at 1099 jobs no matter what. I'm one of them. I'm not interested in paying my own social security and all of that other stuff myself. Health insurance is kind of a big deal too. It's very expensive if you get it on the government market. Bigger companies can get better and lower rates for their drivers. If I had a family health insurance would be a HUGE deal for me. Then with 1099's you also don't get a 401k match. So that 86500k per year is probably more like 70k per year when you take into account everything a 1099 worker has to pay themselves.

If you are in even a medium size city, chances are the experienced drivers have the pick of the litter right now with jobs they want. I'm not saying 70k gross per year is a bad wage. It's a good wage that is on par with larger companies that will offer 70k gross as a W2 WITH benefits.

Really the biggest advice I would give to you would be to pay someone to make your company a professional website and go ahead and make either/or a Facebook or YouTube page. That way people can see that you're not some dirtbag 1099 employer who is going to screw them over. I think that goes a long with, especially with the younger generation.

 

These jobs are probably hiring because:

1. For linehaul, at most LTL yards you're going to have to run night shift before you can get a daytime run. Many people can run nights. What people have a problem with is sleeping around 11:00am - 7:00pm at night. That sleep schedule is a lot rougher on most people than what most people think before they do it. I know I couldn't handle that sleep schedule.

2. For P&D, people get tired of working 60+ hours in a 5 day work period, ESPECIALLY when overtime is after 50 hours or something like that. That's on top of the daily commute as well. I remember you posted about your experience doing local and how much of a grind it is to work so many hours in a 5 day period on top of a commute. It just gets old. I personally got burned out by those type of hours.

So for LTL, having worked in it, I would say it's definetely not a pay problem. The money is there in LTL. The problem with LTL many times is the work-life balance. In many cases it's crap (although I personally believe LTL is a great career for those who can handle the negative aspects of it).

 

I wonder if work life balance is achievable in any CDL job. I think that's the detractor about trucking. Work life balance is nearly impossible. I imagine some jobs afford that, but not everyone can work those jobs. I have very poor work life balance, but I actually like the OTR lifestyle.

 

Of course it is.
I work 4 - 12 hour days and have 3 days off for example.
My brother-in-law hauls propane. Sure during the winter he has 70 hour weeks, but the other 3 monthes he farms.

 

I read in interesting tidbit the other day: Last year, the average CDL driver made around $47,000, yet the average advertised pay for a CDL job was $70,000.

We fight this every day, as we advertise at $75k. Its an honest 75k, as our drivers average just over $0.64/mile with accessorial pays and mileage bonuses factored in. If the average driver only turns 120,000 miles, that's actually $77,000. We have some guys turning 145,000 miles with 1.5 days home per week pushing that 6-figure mark. Get a couple referral bonuses ($2k each), and they are over the hump. Meanwhile, we also have guys who prefer a lot more home time who are only rolling 100k per year, and they are happy being home 2-3 days per week at around $65,000.

We have a few positions with excellent W/L balance. Local line hauls with 4-10s or 5-8s. Obviously these positions are highly sought-after and never stay vacant, even with the hourly pay only coming to about $45k. There's always someone looking for a good 40-hour local job that pays hourly, is 100% no-touch freight, and comes with benefits.



Now, as for the driver shortage, a lot of the reasons for/against the view have already been presented. The 18-year old part is interesting, as everyone seems to miss the point of trying this out. Here's my take:

When someone graduates HS and doesn't want to go to college, they have to find a job. There are other trades offering apprenticeships to 18-20 year-olds that make a decent living, train them and mold them into an industry, and by the time they are old enough to drive a truck they are no longer interested (because they are now making a good living in another trade). That's the point of getting them in at a younger age... exposing them to the lifestyle before another industry grabs their attention and they are lost forever. It has nothing to do with the retention problems in the industry, it is specifically to increase the potential labor pool.

Retention. That's the key. The industry saw a 92% turnover rate last year, primarily driven by the usual suspects churning and burning fresh meat at rates well over 100%. Smaller fleets averaged about 68% turnover. All fleets will experience turnover for various reasons; the key is to find a company with sub-40% rates year-over-year. Those are the companies that actually take care of their drivers.

We lost 4 drivers this past quarter. The first to cancer. The second to surgery. The final pair to "greener pastures." One was a job-hopper we took a chance on... he might be back. He actually lasted 4 years here. The other is a multi-year veteran here, and there is a pool in dispatch as to how long it will be before he asks for his old job back. He left to chase another nearby company's advertised pay after he was upset that his truck was being retired at 430k and he was being forced into a new truck (you all know the feeling, you get attached to the old machines). A company that can tell you the names of every driver to have left in the last three months and the actual reasons behind it? Yep. That's us. We're not the only ones, but places like this aren't seen advertising in all the trucking journals, truck stops, and airwaves trying to find dozens of drivers per month.

Anyway, I got long-winded and off on a tangent. Back to your regularly schedules arguing, bickering, and general grumpiness.

 

48 years driving, dang, you got me by 1 year, your awesome Buddy. do you
intend on going for the 50 year mark. i would like to but my health is falling apart.