TURNOVER

Biggest reason for the high turnover is a lot come into TRUCKING with no IDEA of whats involved and how they need to change their style of life to make it work. There are drivers that will jump from 1 company to another for a truck with 3 more chicken lights on it than the 1 they are driving. Nothing like being 1,000 miles from home when you want to be (or are needed ) at home and your heading in the opposite direction

 

Some get homesick for family, esp when you have to stay out on the road for weeks at a time in order to make money.

Some can't drive a truck.

Some can't follow a map.

Some are not dedicated enough to get the load to where it is supposed to be and delivered on time. Think it is a 9 - 5 job.

Can't keep up with the ever changing driving times, ie, day time then back to night time, then back to day time.

Money is not there that they thought it should be, ie CR England.

 

The drivers aren't doing anything but leaving one company and showing up at another one.

Turnover is a bunch of hype.

if we were actually Leaving the industry at the rates these people post ,
trucking would have ceased to be decades ago.

 

Why the high turn over rate you ask?Well the pay really sucks.Ppl come into this industry in hopes to make the big bucks because recruiters and the net leads them to believe a lot of false empty promises.Then they get out there and find out trk driving isn't for them.With the low pay comes low miles and then if you brk down and in a hotel for a couple days you'll receive brk dwn pAy $50.00 a day.What companies pay drivers are an insult to their intelligence.Then you have the stupid laws for the sake of safety but most of us know its all about revenue and job creation while the trk drivers are the real victims in all this.I do see companies having a tougher time finding good qualified drivers.More drivers are retireing from driving trk and more and more are losing there cdl.We have thousands of fresh new laws in place and I personally can't see how its improved safety on our roads.I see as many wreck if not more then before all the laws became implemented.Alot of the new drivers coming into this industry gets fired before they have a chance to quit.Because of poor training..So that's part of the reason why the high turnover rate,Companies treat drivers as a dime a dozen and that's how I treat companies as well.There is so many things wrong with our broken industry and no one wants to try and fix anything.Theres over a million reasons why the high turn over rate.

 

You'll see.

 

This is a good question..........I wish all newbies would ask this. Having said that, it really doesn't matter for most newbies what the answer is because they are going to jump into the industry anyway. So here goes for starters, just a few reasons for high turnover.....

More than likely for OTR you'll be assigned a truck. The truck will probably go no faster than 65MPH (probably slower). You'll be expected to work miracles in a slow truck and crisscross the country for months at a time not seeing your family. Oh you will be paid, probably around 28k your first year. The company will tell you to turn the engine off to save fuel, your comfort while sleeping is unimportant to them. If you're lucky, the truck will have an APU (may not work). And.......if the company doesn't care if you idle the truck engine while sleeping some local state or federal municipality will. Some of these fines can run into the thousands of dollars...(so much for that high 28k a year pay check right?) You will often spend hours at warehouses loading and unloading and will not be compensated for this. When you finally do get on the road (where your pay is earned), you will have a computer telling you when to take a break, when to shut-down for the day and how many hours you have available to work tomorrow. Not to mention the "friendly" DOT man who thinks nothing of your time when he pulls you over for a random inspection that takes 1.5 hours out of your day (again often uncompensated and often ending in a fine). I could go on all day but I've got other things I need to accomplish today.

 

A lot jump from company to company to stay with their friends or because things sound better. Just look on this site someone starts a thread about starting a job at XYZ trucking and paints a good picture. The posts start wanting name of recruiter and do they hire from this area, how long til you get a new truck and will I get hometime if I live at the North Pole even if they only run Calif to Florida.