Will industry shortage make automation come sooner

The speed limiters are results of hiring the incompetent buffoons more than fuel mileage, same with auto trans, all makes it easier to hire people to drive trucks that I wouldn't trust with a pickup and small boat.

 

I agree. We had some really fast trucks in their day, but some of the drivers inlcuding myself were really bad at times.

One driver stuck out in particular, a vietnam vet known fleet wide as a speeder with the bulk tanker. He would just floor it in any and all weathers empty or loaded as if he had a death wish or something. (There were many things wrong with him which would would have gotten around to taking care of him one way or another, away from that truck.

He was protected by those that decide who to fire or hire. So all the way until the last day I was there, he would blaze along at 80+ in 55 mph zones. I did a spot of fast running myself however the bosses had no trouble picking on me for it until that got resolved. However one State Trooper did not get trusted enough to answer questions the way he would have had liked them to have been heard based on truth with dispatchers not allowing anything to be late and you implicity were needed in Frederick at 75 mph up I-270 in those days, anything slower they treated you badly as if there was something wrong with you. So you were cursed and ###### on one hand and then cursed and ###### on the other. There is no point in being in impossible situations like that.

 

I dont know if that's the answer. Even if pay was high, I still think retention will be a problem. Too many people are trucking as something glorious. The lifestyle change I think is what throws people off. It's a certain type of person that can drive trucks, a very mentally tough person. I dont care how much it pays, if the mind ain't right, it's no way one can succeed doing this job.

 

There is no shortage, zvar pointed out the labor end of it, there is another component that has to do with capacity and how a carrier has manages that capacity.

The work is easy, it is a job to most, not a career and not a profession, it is dangerous but the work itself is easy.

Also people don't last because of the labor component zvar posted about, there is a perpetual revolving door that most of the people in this industry will not fight, but cry about.

 

I think I'm about as mentally tough as they come, and my last job #### near broke me. The only reason I was able to stick it out was because the pay was so ridiculous. If this industry had more jobs that were essentially golden handcuffs, more people would stick it out.

 

Just my two cents for what it’s worth. I doubt we see automated trucks for a long time. I get they are testing them but I think it’s a joke. How many more people have to get killed by automated vehicles before they scrap the plan? Oh wait, they won’t. Money to them is more important than human lives.

As for a driver shortage, not sure if there truly is one. Just more so a shortage of good drivers willing to work for peanuts. Sorry, I won’t get a truck and be gone from my family for weeks at a time for anything under $.50 a mile.

I also believe foreigners/immigrants have allowed companies to drop their pay because a majority of those people will accept crap pay just to be able to work and live in the US. That drives down wages.

And again, as I’ve stated, GOOD drivers. I learned and took my state DMV test in a 10 speed manual transmission. But they allowed other students to switch to autos if they wanted to. Point is, not everyone is cut out to drive a manual transmission. That used to weed out a lot of bad drivers. Now they can throw anyone in a truck with an auto trans with further drives down wages.

Again, just my opinion.

 

tough? HA.

Let me confess something.

I have come very close to being such a snuffle nosed overflowing crybaby a time or two on tough jobs or essentially impossible jobs.

I had one morning bright and beautiful full of possibilites. Recieved the load packet from Mr Cloud behind his desk. Asked him if he is fine. **Growls...** oh ok so that's how it's gonna be. How do you want me to run this load sir?

*Driver. I. Do. Not. Give. A. Dam. today. get. that. steaming. pile. done. asap.* The last word brings both of his fists slamming down on the desk that shook the tile floors below.

That particular load kicked my ###. It delivered to a freaking barn off the side of US 1 of all places. What I had to do to get that trailer 2 feet from the door (On top of a 70 foot ramp to please the people who do not want to hand carry freight off tail gate and uphill) Never mind the idea they are still carrying boxes uphill in the developing snow.

I called dispatch from Dumfries scales. He says thank god that BS is off now we can get back to trucking,. Can you make Indianapolis by morning?

When the sun came up the following morning I still had about 37 miles to go.

 

Live to truck... Truck to live.

 

People in the United States resist change. Robotics have been around for years.

Nope it will be years before humans are taken out of the equation

 

5 years or less.

Not disagreeing with you, hand...in fact, I am on the same page as you. But with all the cars coming out with the braking and lane control and tells you when there’s a car beside you, in the next 5 years, the majority of motorists will not be able to use mirrors. So, their solution will be to replace the fat, antisocial, fair weathered sidewalk sissy Braindead steeringwheelholder of a truck driver with, a truck monitor.


No CDL, no medical card, no drug testing. So, they can do their weed and porn and video games to their heart’s content for a couple hundred bucks a week. They will sit in the truck until something goes wrong, and the company will send out a real driver to either park the truck, or get it through the bad weather. And I’m telling you right now, the real guys, the guys that can problem solve and actually drive...are gonna make bank because once again, trucking will be skilled labor.

“How much bank will they make, Six?”

More than most current owner operators gross. But it just won’t be big rigs, driving will be so bad that it will be school bus, tour bus, limos, straight trucks anything that anyone has that’s critical and absolutely has to be there. So, what you and I will have to do, is watch our weight, keep our health up, work on our appearance, and keep your skill levels high. And be sure to catch up on those Transporter movies, just for fun.

Luck in battle.