A question about wages and job openings.

I completely agree with you but the driver is also to blame for this as well. I think too many drivers dont understand the business that they operate in. They are too willing to take near zero profit loads to keep going, because a lot seem like them have never sat down and truely figured out what their total operating costs are. The companies are slick enough to take advantage of this. Its sad that the average wages are in the 40,000 for a driver that will be working a 70 hour week. Not that this will change any time soon. Stronger financial literacy is needed across the board, and until that happens, people that do not understand their business will always be taken advantage of.

For Owner Operators
An owner operator is never going to make as much from a load as a company would. If they were then the company would have kept the load for themselves. The best thing any driver can do is build a relationship with a shipper and hopefully things become strong enough that they can haul directly for the shipper rather than through a load board or the company they are leased on to. If broker/company keeps 10% (and that is probably the low side of the profit). If you can eventually work directly with the shipper you can split the 10%, you get a 5% raise and they save 5% on their shipping costs. I know that is easier said then done, but it is the shift that has to happen in order for drivers to ever enrich themselves.

For Company Drivers
The grass is not always greener on the other side. Stick with one company and you will see greater benefit than hoping from one company to the next every couple of months. Find a company that pays you benefits and hopefully has a pension as well. You will be far better off in the long run then jumping to a new company for 1cpm raise or a new chromed out long hood Pete (they buy those to lure in suckers, not because it makes any sort of business sense).

 

"Its sad that the average wages are in the 40,000 for a driver that will be working a 70 hour week."

Yes, but to them it's not "work" per se. It's sitting and driving something somewhere, inbetween periods of waiting to drive something somewhere. Even burger flippers at Mickey D's have to get the meat, put it on the grill, turn it over at the right time and then assemble an end product for the customer that meets strict company guidelines. That's considered "labor".

Fast-food has highly developed "systems" purposefully structured around an expected high turnover rate. A "trainee" is up to speed and working the drive-thru window in a matter of days. The big trucking companies also have a highly developed system of recruiters and trainers for the same reason. The only difference is that a fast-food business (or ANY business) must pay time and a half for any work over 8 hours in a day and/or 40 hours in a week. Whereas in trucking there's a "perceived" advantage to the worker of getting paid by the mile. The accountants of the trucking industry have scrupulously managed to structure the driver pay scale towards their advantage...while putting in place ongoing recruiting and training programs to support the turnover rate.

I was talking to some recruiters the other day (Swift, Knight, Werner) about this topic and one of them said "We're in the business to make money and we'll take every advantage we can to do so." IOW, they're not some altrustic society out to keep heroic truck drivers happy. They're out to move freight for customers who will pay nothing but bottom dollar to do so. And the customers certianly don't care about truckers either.

I told all three of them, there are no secrets anymore since the internet. Word is getting out. The "system" is being deconstructed and laid bare for all to see, and that they will have to adapt beyond the hype and spin, beyond their usual narrative. One said they already are.

 

Sure, a very small percentage of new entrant drivers are successful and do find a small niche carrier that takes them under their wing. The other 99.9% end up @ the mega carriers and fall into that "driver churn" methodology that the mega subscribe to.

 

It's not quite that simple. $40,000 a year for someone living in NYC, LA or similarly expensive cities is starvation wages. $40k in Wisconsin is above the median income ($39,500 in 2010; latest year I could quickly find). The US median HOUSEHOLD income is $49k (again 2010, last year data is available for). That means that a spouse would only need to earn $10,000 a year to put the median truck driver in the middle of the American economic pack. Or so say the statistics.

One of the problem's that the industry faces is that I living in Green Bay, WI can haul freight into and out of NYC and am willing to do it at a much lower wage than if I had to live in NYC. If a company has two employees, both bringing in the same amount of revenue, why would it pay one 50% more than the other based solely on where that employee chooses to live.

Another thing to keep in mind is the per diem tax deduction and lifestyle differentials. Before I started trucking I earned over $60K a year, yet I've saved more in the last two years earning (on average) 75% of that. I'm not commuting into work, I don't have to spend money on a professional wardrobe, I have no "continuing education" costs and I only pay taxes on half of my income. So even thought I'm "earning" less I'm actually "making" more. The fact is that if you approach OTR intelligently (yes it's a whopping big IF), you can live a decent life on $40,000 a year.

 

Now here, Ralph, is subject I trust you know something about! LOL.
Its a bit of a crapshoot for noobies, isn't it? I'm reminded of the time I drove a cab decades ago. Sure,
I had a job...but in the summertime, the meter barely moved...

 

Thanks "Rogerthat" for recognizing my expertise!