Driver Shortage !!!!!!

I am paid by the mile under practical miles.

I am referring strictly to the experience I have had as a company driver.

With the new proposed hours of service, it brings many problems to light even for the setup I have. It may lead me to leaving the industry.

 

I think that the new rules will result in many leaving the industry. I have a good friend who plans on leaving in the next couple of years. He is tired of all the BS. The result of more and more useless regulations is that those with the most experience will be moving on or getting out of the industry. I may wind up making changes myself. I have no intention of spending the money on EOBR's for my trucks. I don't see that having a 10 hour driving window rather than 11 hours will have much impact on my business. The ridiculous qualifications for a reset could be somewhat problematic. By the way, the comment period for the EOBR's has been extended. Those who have not made a comment should take advantage of the extension.

 

Any industry that treats a 90% yearly driver turnover rate as normal is going to have problems...

 

Look to Europe,for plenty of years the gov open the border to the eastcountrys,now no exist the truckingindustry.about the cheap drivers from the east,this will happen in the USA .when the usa gov open the border to Mexico,after you can not make more good money here in USA with driving a truck

 

Fast food has a 300% turnover rate. Many industries have a high turnover rate. The driver turnover rate includes those who move from one carrier to another in addition to those who leave the industry. According to some drivers that I have spoken with concerning the turnover, many leave because of home time and being away from family and friends. Many people enter this business with false or unrealistic expectations. Some will change to another carrier for various reasons and that is included in the turnover rate. It would be interesting to see the turnover rate that separates those leaving the industry from those who move to another carrier (churn).

Moving from one carrier to another is sometimes tied to pay. Some will make a change for a penny per mile. Others change because they didn't get their way about something.

 

So you have 'trucks' and a business and do not want to pay by the hour because you think drivers will rip you off? But you said in your previous post that you think drivers should be paid for sitting at the shippers etc- do you pay your drivers for sitting at the shippers etc?

I still think paying for performance-which is used in many industries can lead to good peformance but also cheating. When the average driver is making say 30-35 CPM and maybe getting 2500 miles/week and ADD the cost of living of being on the road they may bring home $500 week or less. That is not a wage most can live on. Hourly rate would take into account weather delays, breakdowns, sitting at shippers etc. And back to my original comment-you can track the drivers performance easily ie MPH miles traveled etc to weed out the ''slackers.'' There are slackers in all jobs and industries but most are paid hourly or salary- you are paid for the hours you work your job or if salary paid for an expected amount of hours. Drivers can ''work'' 14 hours a day/70hrs week and bring home maybe $500. Do the math? A worker at McDonalds making $8/hr 40 week would make in 70 hours=$560 before taxes. So to me that equates the average driver makes about $9-$11 hour. No so good for those CPM in my opinion.

 

A good hubometer will take care of accurate mileage reporting.Cheating on your hours would be grounds for dismissal when paid hourly. At some point companies and drivers need to start trusting each other again for mutual benefit.

 

A noble thought krash but I doubt it anytime soon. Carriers breed distrust with all their secrets.... that they feel they need to keep....from the drivers....including how much something pays or the outright lying.

 

I agree that a lot of retraining for dm's dispatchers, and fleet managers need to occur. It should be instant dismissal for anyone to suggest a driver run illegal or when a driver says he's too tired to drive.

 

Let's be honest!

There are lots of driving jobs and lots of drivers.

Only a small percentage of either are really good!!!