Driver retention

Discussion in 'Experienced Truckers' Advice' started by REALITY098765, Nov 21, 2021.

  1. LtlAnonymous

    LtlAnonymous Road Train Member

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    Any changes would be varied. Either the businesses would tighten their belts, or they'd pass the extra costs on to the customers.

    As it stands, they are just trying to lower the bar to flood the market with as many cheap drivers as possible until self-driving trucks become a reality. So welcome to my 18 year-old Class A CDL compatriots before too long. Hang your high school diploma in your new cell on wheels.

    People can keep crying about the poor corporations and how hard it's gonna be for them to have to pay a living wage to people, or some necessary corrections can take place. Doesn't matter to me.

    I just like it when the little guys take a stand against institutional power. We used to like that a lot more in this country back before people became corporate bootlickers.

    "Ooooh is so yummy in muh tummy sweet sweet twickle down uwu sank u so much senpai manager-san!" Pathetic. Lol

    I've got mine. I hope everyone can get theirs before this house of cards collapses. Setting up a fiat currency system then allowing the businesses that rely on our purchasing power to ship all the jobs out of the country hasn't turned out too well, so hopefully we can adjust to the new normal and enjoy our staycations and continue using the cars we can't afford as taxis and the houses we can't afford as bnb's, and yay corporations! Woohoo!

    Lol I mean what the #### do you want me to say? The "economic fallout" of what I'd like to institute? Maybe CEO pay might have to come down from 300x the average worker's salary to only...250x? Lol

    There are some serious wrongs in the world right now, and they've only gotten worse. The wealth disparity in the world is ALARMINGLY high.

    I'm not saying this as a poor person wanting a handout. I'm saying this as a person who makes a GREAT living and wants others to be able to do the same.

    But doing nothing hasn't worked too well the last 40 years in the trucking industry. Because that's what's happened. A big bunch of ####ing nothing.
     
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  3. REALITY098765

    REALITY098765 Road Train Member

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    Where are we now?
    Why should the trucking industry shoulder the economy?
    Truck drivers should be treated like everyone else.
    It would be nice to at least keep up with inflation.
    Truck driving used to be a middle class job now it's just an entry level job, HHHMMM I wonder why there is a driver shortage.
    It seem to me if the goods can't get to market then the economy tanks also,
     
  4. Long FLD

    Long FLD Road Train Member

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    So start a company and pay your employees a livable wage so they can reach their dreams. I’m sure you’d have no problems finding drivers if your company is head and shoulders above the rest.
     
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  5. Still undecided

    Still undecided Heavy Load Member

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    Wages were higher when trucking rates were regulated and the race to the bottom started here when those regulations were removed.
     
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  6. Long FLD

    Long FLD Road Train Member

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    People that have goals and determination do fine in this industry. They move up the ladder and into more specialized fields and their pay reflects that. But the majority just bounce from mega to mega and back to the other mega expecting things to be different and they will spend their whole career making lateral moves every 6 months.
     
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  7. Pamela1990

    Pamela1990 Road Train Member

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    Same for me, in 2017.
     
  8. tscottme

    tscottme Road Train Member

    Whoever is paying the freight bill will not tolerate drivers sitting idle at customers for hours unless trucking companies participate or accept those delays. Imagine trucking companies ROUTINELY dealing with freight brokers that only supply freight if the dispatcher must wait on the phone for 2-6 hours. Trucking companies, except for the small/new/desperate one would avoid that broker. Many trucking companies are very weak on asking/enforcing detention pay as they see it as a way to get more freight. Their accommodation or acceptance of customer delays is exactly like pulling cheap freight. To new/small/desperate businesses doing more for less may be their only strategy for getting customers. It's easy for small/desperate/new trucking companies because the company gets paid and the driver experiences the waiting. Those type of companies will often have the same Detention Pay* policy of "if the customer will pay us for your detention, we will pay the driver." That's really not a Detention Pay of much value. The savvy freight customers simply exclude detention time from their contract. Even the very common stipulation of "detention pay can only start 2 hours after appointment time/arrival" is a kind of scam. Not even Walmart or Amazon could get away with having their employees be required to be at work but not have to pay them until after 2 hours of waiting. It only takes about 30-45 minutes to load or unload a dry van with palletized freight. The 2 hours of free waiting is a concession to the shippers/receivers.

    You will know the trucking companies, shippers, and receivers are serious about addressing the "driver shortage" when they adopt policies like "Detention Pay starts when the trailer doors are opened", customers must provide some amount of truck parking or the trucking company won't carry customer's freight, a customer locking drivers out of their facilities (toilets, vending machines, etc) won't be using our drivers, etc. Mot of the participants in the industry use a definition of "driver shortage" that means "we won't change what we are doing and yet we can't get MORE or ENOUGH drivers to work for us." With that kind of definition we also have a automobile shortage, super-model shortage, money shortage, prosperity shortage, housing shortage, entertainment shortage, everything shortage.
     
  9. tscottme

    tscottme Road Train Member

    That's all true. Deregulating trucking wasn't meant to increase pay of drivers. Deregulation was always sold as a way to increase competition among trucking companies which would increase options for shipper/receivers and lower the cost of moving freight. That lower cost and more flexible schedules would benefit shippers/receivers so much that consumers of their product would benefit from lower prices or slower increase of prices. It worked in spades. Ditto airline regulation.
     
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  10. Drunk Trucker

    Drunk Trucker Bobtail Member

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    People complain about no overtime requirement but all truck driving jobs pay well over twice the amount compared to minimum wage plus overtime for a 70 hour week.
     
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  11. gentleroger

    gentleroger Road Train Member

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    You do realize that minimum wage represents about 1/2 of what a living wage is right?
    Living Wage Calculator
     
  12. asphaltreptile311

    asphaltreptile311 Road Train Member

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    It seems liberals are content with just complaining , that's a whole lot more fun then saving money and all that "privileged" stuff . That's ok rental property can be a good source of income.
     
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  13. tscottme

    tscottme Road Train Member

    When I researched Minimum Wage MW and wrote a paper on it, when dinosaurs roamed the earth, well over 90% of employees working for MW were teenagers. In addition, something like 50+% of those teenagers were from middle- and upper-middle class families. People seldom work for MW for very long before getting a raise or moving to higher paying jobs/employers. For political purposes, the idea that MW was created as a living wage and inflation, govt delayed increases, etc have allowed MW to become a poverty wage is untrue and misleading. When it was created the average starting wage was already well above the proposed MW. Think of a Traffic Engineer taking a survey of traffic on a road and then posting the speed limit 5 MPH above the most commonly traveled speed. That's essentially what happened when MW was put on the books. BTW, President Clinton was offered by Republicans the option of automatically increasing the Minimum Wage every year by an amount equal to an official inflation measurement or equal to the Social Security Cost Of Living Adjustment. He refused the offer. Politicians want to have this symbolic battle at regular intervals instead of "fixing it" and working on other issues.

    MW is nearly only a teenager wage.
     
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