Landline article ! Good read! Link!

Never much of a driver shortage at the better companies !!!!

Everyone knows why prime and knight can't find enough personnel.........

 

I wonder what the answer would be if they ask the heads of the ltl carriers and the better private fleets if they are having the same driver shortage?

 

So everyone keeps talking about the driver shortage right? Let's get real, when the babyboomers start to retire there is probably going to a worker shortage. It wont just be drivers, it'll be widespread. Than again, with 9% unemployment that should kind of balance things out.

 

ps I didn't read the article, I'm totally lazy.

 

Whole lotta boomers gonna be delaying that retirement,

by 10-20 years.

You'll see them, they'll call themselves mentors !!!!!

And have driver of the month pins on their hats !!!!!

 

stop copying my attitude

 

Hey, they really need to make the case that there aren't enough drivers to drive their trucks. What other way can you think of that would make it super easy for them to push for Mexican cross border trucking and a 97,000 pound gross weight.

Besides, there probably IS a shortage of drivers who want to drive for them. There's not a "driver shortage", but a "driver who's willing to work for nothing for more than a year shortage."

 

Okay, I get the opposition to Mexican trucks. Can you explain what's wrong with heavier trucks?

 

Well, first off, do you think many of our worn out bridges and infrastructure needs every other truck bouncing 48.5 tons off of them? It'll just be another excuse for anti truck advocacy groups to blame the destruction of our roads solely on trucks. Then, they get to lobby to further raise our taxes so they can do what they've always done, raid the highway funds and not make the repairs they tell us our tax dollars are for.

Second, do you think these big ATA companies are going to pay drivers more for hauling the additional weight? I don't. The next step will be owner/operators agreeing to pull the added weight for a reduced rate. You know that will happen.

Third is training. These big CDL mill/lease purchase companies are more focused on their schools and leasing trucks than they are hauling freight. This is simply a way for them to get more done and pay less wages. They are already turning out sub-standard drivers. I really don't think I want to see a guy who's never sat in a truck 5 weeks earlier running around tailgating everybody with 97,000 pounds in their control.

So, if you're getting paid more to haul the additional weight, I'd have no real problem with it, but I just don't see that happening. I think 80K is plenty. When they start paying a decent rate to haul that, then we can talk about 97K. I just feel that if the big companies get 97,000 that the O/O's will have to follow suit, while upgrading equipment and pulling the 97K just to keep up with the BFI's and not making a cent more.

Maybe I'm wrong about all of this, and if you can change my mind, I'd certainly say so, but I'm automatically suspicious of almost all of the ATA's ideas to "increase productivity." It just strikes me as one more way for all drivers, O/O's and company drivers alike, to do more for less.