Shortage

Funny I mentioned the position today... found out one of our regional drivers put in 2-weeks' notice due to a family medical issue, needed to be home daily. Happens to live in the Twin Cities, too. I reached out and offered the transfer, and he's no longer leaving the company, he's just changing trucks from a 2021 to a leftover 2018 for the local shuttle position.

 

This pretty much sums it up. I agree with everything except the last part. I do not believe there is a driver shortage. Just a shortage of companies that will pay a person a decent wage. All the imports work for peanuts because all the fringe benefits of living in America are so much better than where they came from.

 

If you're really interested...

https://www.trucking.org/sites/default/files/2020-01/ATAs Driver Shortage Report 2019 with cover.pdf

 

Here's an interesting take on the driver shortage, follow the link:

There is no shortage of US truck drivers

 

It's a correct take the way I see it. The only disagreement that I have is that it's not the lack of parking every night that pushes most drivers away from the industry. Rather it is the absolute disregard (and disdain) that shippers and receivers have for drivers and their time. A driver will go 1500 miles in 2 1/2 days only to get to a receiver that takes 12+ hours to unload him. Then he has up to 6 pickups to grab before they turn around and scoot back to do it all over again. In a nutshell, a driver loses upwards of 3 days every week just sitting around and waiting to get loaded or unloaded. At the end of a year, that's a lot of sitting around and not getting paid.

 

My father has drivers bring in resumes regularly.

Seems the so called 'driver shortage ' is mostly an 'aggravated drivers looking for a better gig' story.

 

Your question assumes there is some authority that determines how many truck drivers there should be. If the pay doesn't persuade everyone with a CDL to work as a truck driver, or if the pay doesn't attract people to trucking from other job segments, there will be less truck drivers than shipper/receivers/trucking companies may want. The pay and working conditions in trucking are attracting the exact number of drivers those pay and conditions should attract. The fact shipper/receivers and trucking companies would like another 50-100,000 drivers but they won't pay substantially more doesn't mean there is a driver shortage.

It's too easy to start a trucking company and it's too easy to get a CDL. Because of this there is a glut of companies and a glut of drivers willing to work so cheap few people outside of the industry are attracted to working in the industry. The low pay in the industry at many places can only attract new drivers from areas that are living a Third World existence.

 

There’s been a so called shortage every since Deregulation. Trucks on the road increased dramatically every since. Except for a few yrs leading up to the Banks crashing, in 09. Tonnage rate dropped 5 yrs in a row prior, total of 6 yrs. Bottoming our in early 2010. Many fleets had Trucks parked. Some actually laid off Drivers. Imagine that. Werner as I recall downsized their Fleet by 33%. Unheard of. No Driver Shortage. Even in Boom Times, Megas have an attitude that Drivers are a dime a dozen. They’ll tell you that during normal times. Now they’re using this recent backlog as an excuse. Still just as many Trucks on the road, just less Drivers working for the Megas. It’s driving their greedy #### crazy. Not being able to tap into more of this good paying Freight. Not being in control anymore. Best trend would be more Independants, more small Companies. Taking Freight from the Megas, because they can’t cover it. I hope this trend continues, and the Megas lose political influence. They can only buy so much influence. The rest of Us have a voice. More Visas, and Lower Standards, Lower CDL Interstate ages aren’t the answer. It’s their Dream. Cheap Labor, more profits.

 

Very well said and succinctly put. Every company I’ve worked for were not advertising for drivers when I went to work for them. The openings were either word of mouth or them making an opening for me because they wanted me, in two cases trucks were purchased for me AFTER I put submitted my application.