Getting your foot in the door as a new driver

I took a crappy job with Ozark that had me running FedEx all night long. I hated that company and hated those hours. But I got my 2 years of experience and got signed on with a company that respected my demand for no night driving. 3 years later I was shot 6 times in their trailer drop yard by a relative of another driver and almost killed.

Your results may differ.

 

There is a driver shortage. There's no shortage of people who say they want to be drivers.

 

there is no driver shortage. Never has been. Lots of folks getting cdl's every day. Megas still bring in hundreds of students every week to orientation.There is however a shortage of "quality" drivers.

 

I think you're making my point for me. How many of those wannabes getting CDLs actually turn into drivers 12, 24 months later? Not too many, which is why the megas are bringing in hundreds more next week.

 

And a lack of companies that treat the drivers with respect and pay them decently

if there was 110% tie over of teachers at the local elementary school or nurses at the local hospital it would be a crisis and someone would be trying to figure out why .

the reason there is a “shortage “ is because the company’s treat the drivers like dog doo stick to their shoe , and every shipper and receiver treats them the same way . Like garbage .

plus you work 90 hours a week and get paid for about 40 .

you’d make the same money working 70 hours a week at McDonald’s .

 

I would try a job that is possible without experience.
And in a year, with experience, you will have more choices and will be able to choose a more interesting one for yourself.

 

If the industry wanted to end the shortage they wouldn't continue with a process that increases the ranks of CDL drivers by 600,000 PER YEAR and chases off 480,000 - 540,000 per year. The schools and trucking companies prefer the current system and by shouting "driver shortage" to everyone who will listen they hope to get govt money and policies that make their life easier.

Customers don't need to or want to pay more for shipping, because there is a desperate carrier waiting to haul freight behind every piece of litter on the road. Since there are too many trucking companies hardly any one carrier has any market power to receive higher rates. If the 10 or 20 biggest companies each bought 10 or 20 other trucking companies the new Mega-Megas would still control only a small portion of the industry. If you can put a new truck and new driver on the road and competing for freight in the next 1-6 months, it's too easy to create a company and offer anything beyond generic service moving commodity freight in a commodity method at commodity pricing.

 

If a trucking company wants drivers and can't hire drivers is there a shortage of drivers? If I want a house and am willing to pay $20,000 for a 1,500 sq ft 3 bed, 2 bath, with a garage is there a shortage of affordable housing?

The number of truck drivers is a CONSEQUENCE of the supply and demand for drivers. It's not a goal of the system to produce X number of drivers. All of the current and potential drivers don't get together is something like a union hall and designate who can work and who cannot work. Each trucking company, customer, driver look at what is being offered and makes an independent decision and the accumulated decisions of everyone involved generates the current number of drivers. It's like arguing if we have a shortage of rain. We have the rain we get and if someone planned on having 80 inches of rainfall on their farm in Arizona, they have a stupid plan.

I think the current systems produces 60,000 new CDL holders every month. It also chases off 80-90% of those new drivers before the end of 12 months. The boat has too many holes in the bottom, there is no shortage of drivers. We have exactly as many as we should have, even if some trucking company owner wants 10 times as many as he had last year. Just wanting something and not getting it doesn't mean someone is taking that something from you or preventing you from having it. The industry would be better off if half of the trucking companies went out of business, IMO. Few industries have so little concentration as trucking. The top 10 sea shippers control most of that industry. The top 30 trucking companies might control 25% of trucking, I've lost track.

 

that's why there isn't a shortage but some people just want to focus on semantics I guess...