The Driver Shortage?

The real issue isn't the shortage of drivers. From the standpoint of being a driver, I kind of like the idea of there not being enough drivers. Any time you have a skill and the practitioners of that skill are neede, it tends to drive the value of that skill upwards. A shortage of drivers works to my benefit, and I am highly in favor of there continuing to be a shortage of drivers.

The issue is turnover and the churning of drivers at the bottom of the pile. The big companies with bad reputations for how they take care of their drivers are the ones that have the highest tunover rates, and correspondingly hold down wages in the industry. If you have a company with 18,000 trucks and you have a turnover rate of 200%, then it means that you need to recruit 36000 drivers a year just to hold steady where you are. Any form of growth requires that you hire even more to cover for the numbers you will lose.

There are two ways to solve the problem. First, the requirements for getting into trucking need to increase. There should be no way that a 2 week quickie training course should put you behind the wheel of a semi truck and put you out on the road. The courses need to be longer, and they need to be much more specific in training in the skills needed. By making the requirements to get into trucking harder, you will drive the value of the work upwards, and that will increase the wages.

Then, on top of that, the companies that treat their drivers poorly need to do a better job of handling their employees. Most of the people who leave the big companies before completing their training payback obligation are people who found themselves abused by the companies. Solve the problem here, and the retention rate for your drivers goes down dramatically. And with that, your recruiting costs drop substantially.

Now, will companies do anything along these lines, the combination of which would drive up driver pay? Of course not, because they are getting by as thy are now. A working driver brings in enough income that the company's cost of operating the training program is covered in a fairly short time out on the road. And once that cost is recouped, then the loss of the driver isn't such a big deal.

As with anything, the key to making the skill more financially lucrative is to limit the ability to acquire the skill. Make it harder to get into trucking, and the pay for everyone, new or experienced, will rise. And the conditions under which drivers operate will improve.

 

The Truck Driving Schools are ,themselves, big business. They are popping up one after another. I saw one the other day that had opened in an old warehouse.. and had two trucks to train with. The government is subsidizing them and they have employees there that help potential students fill out the paperwork so they might get a grant to attend.

d.

 

is a government grant basically a loan paid back?

 

no a grant isn't paid back

 

Burky has smacked the nail again! It's partially about the skill sets required to obtain a CDL. For comparison: 1. in the boating world, a captains' lic. is very hard to obtain...lots of schooling and apprenticship. The larger the vessel, the more and more difficult it is to get a lic. for that tonage (because they're harder to operate! duh!!) 2. in the airplane world, bigger aircraft, more engines, more passenger capacity, etc....harder and harder to get licensed. I am currently in school (on a Federal grant, no less!!) thru a vo-tech center. It's a 320hr/10-week course in which we'll put on about 1000 miles. Of course I'm anxious to get out and start making money, so I looked into the private schools...I view them as puppy mills and the average "graduate" of these 20-day wonders scares the poo out of me!! 3 weeks of training (and that INCLUDES studying for and taking the DMV tests!) and then to work with an 80,000# instrument of death ain't good. I understand the general public's contempt for and fear of large trucks...but it isn't the trucks' fault when things go wrong out there. I will strive for perfection, and do my best to be safe and courteous each and every mile. I will perform to the best of my ability to make my company money, the customer happy, and you old-timers proud.
As far as the conspiricy thing goes....I have no doubt that there IS one in play. I just can't yet figure out how Moulder and Scully are gonna solve this one.
BC

 

Hehe. I caught your message first, then doubted it with other replies. :laughing: Guess I had it right the first time.

 

It sounds to me like the vet drivers dislike people like me that try and become a professional driver. Shortage or not. As a newby we do not have much of a choice, mostly due to insurance. Smaller co will not hire recent grads.

And to blame the government for every thing is just lame. Trucking companies are there to make a profit. The driver is just an asset to them to use as thy see fit. If you do not like what thy pay go some where where they do pay. I do not know nor care if there is a driver shortage, as for driving schools thy are there to train aspiring CDL drivers.

 

Veteran drivers have always complained about the newbies. Always accused them of being prima donnas, unskilled, not caring.
Then they whoos on all the new fangled attachments to trucks.
When I started driving, they ranted about those soft newbies that complained if they didn't have AC in the truck.
When air ride cabs came out, they ranted on the newbies because they were too soft.
When we got rid of the steel spring suspension and added air bags, (notice it's WE now) we ranted about the newbies not having it hard enough.
It's just a rite of passage that the old timers rank the newbies. Your time will come.
In the meantime, try and sort the pepper from the fly specks. Take what makes sense and good, and ignore the rest.

 

There in fact is a shortage, of good paying driving jobs that is.

 

"There are two ways to solve the problem. First, the requirements for getting into trucking need to increase. There should be no way that a 2 week quickie training course should put you behind the wheel of a semi truck and put you out on the road. The courses need to be longer, and they need to be much more specific in training in the skills needed. By making the requirements to get into trucking harder, you will drive the value of the work upwards, and that will increase the wages."


My training at the Skowhegan driving school is 6 "that is six weeks", and that is to just get a handle on operating a semi. I then have to go to a mega company that is willing to hire me with no experience. Which means I am going to be with a so called vet to teach me a lot of what I need to learn. after that I will be on my own and on a learning curve for the rest of my career.

I am so happy for you experienced drivers who unknown to me and most other noobs were naturally endowed with the experience to drive this monster down the road.

I have done many things in my life and I was never lucky enough to be good as a welder or a sales person. Yes driving a semi is going to be my third career change.

So instead of Pi$$ing and moaning about driver shortage real or imagined experienced drivers should help noobs like me to become as good as you all think you are.

Just my 2cnt