Stagnant wages in trucking?

exactly. The CPI index is all lies because it doesn’t include energy and food which are some of the biggest costs. Just to buy two steaks the other night was $35 for my wife and I and I had to cook them. I’m not interested in living like some broke college student eating disgusting food. That’s why people are walking away from working and pretty soon they’re going to be giving the big finger to the government and the banks and if millions do they will all tank and they can’t take possession of everyone’s home and assets. They will have enough sheriff to send out. it’s greed and nothing more. Even my musician wages haven’t gone up in 20 years yet everything else has gone up. My 3 bedroom apartment here in Florida is renting to new tenants for $3500 a month. everything is out of control and it’s all going to come crashing down.

 

Of course it's going to crash. Our economy the way it's been run for the last century has been nothing but a series of bubbles.

 

OTR pays more than regional?
I get 8 cpm more being regional.

My times at home remain the same, because I choose when I want to get home.

 

Considering all the bozos that drive trucks nowadays, this is primarily the reason.

 

Well, companies get what they pay for.

 

How many of the horrible drivers you see a day do you think would be better if they were payed a buck a mile? Their give a #### is busted is the problem. Anybody who takes any pride in their truck and not half assing the job is immediately a "super trucker." How many truck drivers are doing what they've always wanted to do and enjoy just about every minute of their job? How many are driving truck because they can't hold any other job? How many are driving truck because someone told them it's like being paid to be on vacation? How long does the guy who wears flip flops and sweatpants putting fuel in last at a "normal" job? Tolerating mediocrity and lackadaisical attitudes is what's driven the industry to this point.

 

I believe that companies who pay well are in a better position to be more picky about who they hire as well as in a better position to enforce standards. People will compete for a good paying job and will work hard to keep it. I've seen plenty of evidence of that. Look at Walmart. They have some of the strictest application requirements and that's just the requirements to apply. Then half of the applicants that show up get sent home without a job because they couldn't pass all of the tests. However the guys that do make the cut are earning 6 figures. Have you seen a Walmart driver fueling his/her tractor in sweatpants and flip-flops? How about a UPS driver? If you're seeing someone fueling in sweat pants and flip-flops you're probably also seeing a name like CR England on the door of the truck. So again, companies get what they pay for.

 

You don't pay a 50k dollar driver a 100k, no matter how much they "deserve" or "need" it, not if you'd like to stay in buisness anyway.
You don't get 100k dollar pay with a 50k dollar attitude, I mean you don't EVER get there with that attitude. 98% of the world is not handed a 100k dollar a year job without proving they can handle it first. Driving like a dipstick, not going to get you there. Walking around the world like you're in your living room, not going to get you there. Half ### your 50k dollar job and nobody is going to hire you for better pay if there are any better options, and if the half asser is getting 100k dollars soon 100k dollars only buys you 40k dollars worth of living. That is universal to all industries. You want to get paid better, prove you're worth better pay.
There are companies where there is little room for improvement on pay, their buisness model won't take a few thousand 20 or 30 year veteran drivers, they pay a few enough to be able to brag about them to get suckers in the door to make money off of. Those type of companies have always been around and always will, there's always somebody willing to screw over their own family for a buck.

 

please man… give it a break. It’s a crappy job where you’re on the road constantly you have no life it’s unhealthy and it doesn’t pay all that well considering the time you’re gone, a 70hr clock and the lifestyle. If it paid well, you’d have a better class of professionals driving. That’s the real reason that you see the crappy drivers on the road today that everyone complains about. An Industry gets what it pays for.

 

Yet there is little actual shortage of people willing to do it. How many people do you know that actually like their job? I've never liked any job I had, they were all crappy and didn't pay enough. It's a job not happy fun time, that's why they have to pay you to do it. And just like any job, it does not matter what industry you pick, you don't jump into it and get all the gravy work and great pay out the gate. No industry pays a worker with a 50k dollar attitude 100k dollars, the world doesn't work that way no matter how badly you want it to.
"No life?" Please, get a less juvenile argument, you're an adult now, they don't have "a life."
It can be less unhealthy if you want it to be. It may take a little more effort but all you really have to do is actually want to be more healthy, most people don't actually want to be more healthy.
It's far from the only job that has you away from home weeks on end. Though that's almost entirely by choice on the company's part.
Wages never have and never will keep up with inflation. That's why inflation is not a good thing.
Are you suggesting the industry should be paying 100k dollars fresh out of Swift's or Werners "training" program?