Driver Shortage

I better get in before THIS one gets cancelled too. When I hear people say there is no driver shortage, how could they be in such denial? CDOT alone has over 100 snow plow jobs, the MOST wanted job of my time, going unfilled. Chinatown makes a hobby out of posting a slew of good jobs going unfilled. If you don't think there is a supply chain problem, go to any store today. Empty shelves. All stuck on a container floating in L.A. harbor? I don't think so. This is simply the result of what happens when you over regulate an unpopular industry to begin with. We, as an industry, lost so many GOOD drivers, because they couldn't pass a stupid drug test, or BP 2 points over( in my case, requiring further review,,,screw you, I'm not playing into that game) and are the highways any safer? Not according to some, who seem to make a special point of trucker screwups, FURTHER complicating the issue. Today, so much is based on this job as being this high and mighty entity only for specially qualified people that can pass our stringent regulations, when in reality, it's just a person driving a darned truck. It was never anything fancy, and to be perfectly honest, who do they think this job attracted in the 1st place? Rich rulemakers with clean fingernails who never even sat in a truck? No, it was regular schmoes, like me, that couldn't or didn't want to do anything else. Remove those people, what do you have? A shortage of people to actually deliver those goods,,,and better get used to wiping your axx with newspaper, if you can even find THAT.

 

I watch a lot of YouTube videos of new drivers. I use a lot of forums and websites. Most new drivers start out giddy, then within 3 months they talk about the pay but keep the belief that they’ll eventually earn more. Before the year is out they quit once they realize the math isn’t adding up.

Recruiters lie. Current drivers lie. New drivers go into it with the wrong expectations because of this.

Cdl is NOT a skilled job. It’s just another drivers license. When dealing with non skilled workers employers play the numbers game. It’s cheaper to replace and “retrain” than to pay and retain. What’s training? 3-4 weeks out with another driver that has 5 months experience? Pay you 40 cents a mile and wait for you to quit.

I’m getting into the business but I have a strategy and I already have some ideas of where I’m going and it’s not OTR or to megas. I’ll go OTR once I get my own thing going down the road.

 

gg, I was talking about driver's "office", truck in short. There is nothing else drivers have, truck is everything.. work place, office, kitchen, bedroom, living room, repair shop)

Upgrades to the "office" means install some nice TV, wrap sit is a good looking cover, etc.
Upgrade the "office" - buy a newer truck)

 

Here's your other thread; is your plan falling into place?
Possible Career Change at age 56

 

A career is just a job you stay with. It has nothing to do with a ladder or upgrades.
It's like saying it is not a job, it is a lifestyle.

Actually, it is all three.
A job, a lifestyle and a career - all rolled up into a single thing you do until you don't because you either retire or die.

And if you don't like being by yourself most of the time, you should never get into this line of work.

 

I never by myself, there are two of me and when I'm bored, I let both of me talk to each other just about anything. And the funny thing is, that even if there is a disagreement, them both never fight)

 

I love the driver shortage,
I love all the government rules and regulations,
I love the that new drivers can't last a year,
I love the DOT hammering companies.
I love the strict drug testing,
I love the parking shortage.

those of us who have mastered and love the OTR life
Never had it so easy.
All the things that keep everybody else away,
Drives up are wages.

I keep making more and working less.
We never had it so easy.
I'm waiting for the hair testing to begin.
I'll get another raise after that.

They keep restricting the market of available drivers,
The companies have to pay more to keep the ones they got.

 

Honestly, its a combination of things. Driver shortage is actully shorthand for the industry can retain drivers and the reasons are manyfold. First and formost is the pay is stagnant, oh sure people say b...b...but in the 70s you only made $500 a week! Yea....nowadays the average (note i said AVERAGE not MAX) wage a driver makes is about 45k a year. There are of course the handful who make upwards of 100k but they are few and far between. You can make that working less hours doing almost any other trade and still be home more often. Hell working 70 hours a week at mcdonalds and hell mart combined you would make more and STILL have more free time while not being gone constantly. This makes the trucking lifestyle hard to swallow.

Next most humans arent really built for the near constant isolation. It wares on a lot of people and takes a special blend of crazy to actully succeed at this lifestyle gods forbid enjoy it. After that is how most of us drivers are seen as little more then interchangeable replaceable cogs. How many drivers do you see come here and ##### and moan how they are treated like dirt. From us O/Os to the rookie company drivers. Im sure we ALL have stories. This makes working in trucking not only hard on ones psyche to begin with but also extremely hostile.

This is further compunded by the stresses put on us by the massive list of ######## from regulations, nanny devices, tattletails, cameras constantly watching us inside and out, constant potential lawsuits, crazy drivers, tight schedules, fighting to be paid, lack of basic human amenitys like say a toilet at a shipper thats held you for 8 hours. The ever shinking places we can go for everything from parking to supplies, the skyrocketing costs involved and a million other little things.

Then this is further enhanced by the lack of good options to stay healthy and how #### easy it is to end up as this guy



And how hard it is to fix it especially when not if the lifestyle causes family issues and tons of stress making it even harder still. Further compounded by this industrys love of shoving Cpaps down everyones throats and fines for stupid things like running the AC when its 110 outside and 150 in your truck. Then yet further added onto how the lack of training for new drivers is dismal at best and again comounded by how most insurance want 2-5 years experince before they will let a potential employer even look at you making it hard for these drivers to get past mega hell and even THEN still having a 7 in 10 chance of ending up in some ####hole of a job. And once again compunded by how many places prey on drivers. I mean look at the lease to own scams so many places have that are designed to part a driver from their money and then slap a garnishment on their wages afterwards.

And this is only the barest TIP of this rancid reeking #### burg of an industry. Is it any wonder that 9.8 out of 10 drivers tap out after 6 months? And because of this you end up with a so called "driver shortage" because the juice is not worth the squeeze save to a handful of people who are built for it, need it or have no where else to turn. Afterall why pay thousands to stay out in a hellish industry like this when the same money can buy you a ticket to any number of tech schools or apprenticeships that make as much or more money for a fraction of the work. Hell take an electrician as an example trade school ticket is 5k and the starting wage is suprise suprise the same or better then trucking for a 40 hour week with the prospect of an assured ticket to 80-120k a year as a master. All while attending a 6 month to 2 year trade school and being employed as an apprentice all the while.

 

The average age of new entrants coming into the industry is 34. 67% of new drivers quit after their first year. The Bureau of Labor estimates that if truck driver wages would have kept pace with the cost of living since 1980, that the average pay for drivers in the truckload sector would currently be $120K a year.

Allowing eighteen year old's to run interstate, is not the answer, because the insurance companies will not allow it, unless of course the government in their infinite wisdom is going to subsidize the insurance premium's for the companies willing to hire and train them. Long story short....the chickens have come home to roost.

 

Just be because plenty of people have CDLs doesn't mean every single one of them are truck drivers.......