Driver Shortage !!!!!!

Much depends on your cost of living, someone like me living in KY can pay all bills, eat steak every day and bank money making $40-50K, someone in NY or CA may go BK on that....

 

There is no question that the cost of living is much higher in parts of California and New York than other areas of the country. I used to deliver on Long Island about once a month. The guy who usually unloads my truck still lives with his parents because he cannot afford his own place. He told me that his parents pay over $20,000/year just for property tax. Most people, especially down South, don't have house payments that high. If these states don't start lowering taxes they are going to drive more people out of the area which further erodes their tax base.

I don't see how some people who live in these areas can earn a decent living. Most carriers pay the same rate to someone living in California or New York the same rate as a driver who lives in Mississippi. There are some who offer a differential for New York deliveries.

Even with the higher cost of living, it is still possible to save money if you know how to budget. It still comes down to managing your money.

 

We seem to be on the same page when it comes to money. If i can t save any money at all from my paycheck, then i think working overall is meaningless. Would be better off living in a farm, growing my own potatoes, since you are poor either way. I need to get wealthier every month.

Additional bonus to saving money is that if you are constantly in credit, then you pay interest to someone for using money. But if you have savings then someone pays you for having money (e.g. term deposit). The difference between being -5% versus +5% is 10% (just rough numbers, don t know the rates in the States).

 

The problem with getting paid by the mile is that the long runs pay the most and you work less. Short runs pay less but you work more.

 

If you work at the local fast food outfit for $7.00 per hour... and work 70 hours per week you'd make $280.00 per week with 40 hours straight time and $315.00 for 30 hours of 1 1/2... that's $30,940 per year... Bump the pay to $9.00 per hour and you are making over $40K for the same hours a driver works... and you sleep in your own bed, get to play with the wife and kids, etc.

I made $25,000 per year as a driver in the 70's... inflation has raised the cost of living 400% since then...

Even the Teamsters wages are depressed. Jimmy Hoffa always said his Teamsters should be making the same as the 'skilled' trades... plumbers/pipe fitters/electricians, etc. Show me a Teamster making $55.00 per hour straight time like the plumber I had at the house a few months ago.

 

But what fast food place would let you work those hours and get you into that income range?
If they would...Would you want to?

I made good money in the 70's and the 80's and the 90's....I make good money now.
What most of these morons that complain about $35,000 a year need to know is that they're not really working 70 hours a week or anywhere near that.

They sleep or play on the internet when the truck is being loaded and think they should be getting paid for sitting there, They mess around at the truckstops and think that they should be paid for being there, They pull in and stop for the night at 3:00 in the afternoon (at least that's when the truckstops start filling up) and ##### because they think they ought to be paid for that....You'd think that with all the hours they spend at a truckstop that they might find time to get a shower, But Noooooooooooooooo......They sit like morons in their trucks and play video games and eat themselves into an early grave and wonder why they don't get treated with more respect!

Do your job right....Get paid accordingly! Do it the way so many these days do it and...Get paid accordingly!

 

GMan-you don't like drivers too much do you? You demean them and think they are basically just a bunch of morons holding steering wheels getting paid a ''decent'' wage or 'where can you get a few weeks training and start off at $30 K a year?''
Well I am sorry BlackW and GMan: but I DISAGREE that drivers are ''messing around'' and not really working 70 hours a week. The average driver is driving 9-10 hours a day and spending other time (pre post trip or fueling etc) so let's say they work 11 hours a day. Okay the average person at McD works say 8 hours and makes say $9 hr (for math sake) and makes in a week $360 (gross) if he worked 70hrs he would make $630 in that 70 hr week- so the average driver making 30cpm driving 2500 miles /week would make:$750 in that ''70'' week so do the math as I said before the average driver is making per hour about $10-11 when it's all said and done. Add in the cost of living on the road! GMan you said that driver's can't budget money?! I know many that cook in the truck and shop and don't each at the T/S but still you are limited as to what and how much or how long you can keep some foods on the truck. Also you don't have to PAY to take as shower when you work at McD! Another added cost of living of being on the road! IF you don't get your shower with fuel and had to pay for your shower EVERY day that would be $70 week out of your pocket just to be clean! Add in cost of laundry on the road! You guys say that drivers are ''messing around playing games'' well I would consider that entertainment same as the McD worker that has a droid phone or Internet at home or Net flix or whatever!!

GMan you say the incentive to MAKE money is to get miles and it's just a matter of a ''good'' relationship with your dispatcher YEAH RIGHT!!! So as in all jobs it's just a matter of being a good employee and playing nice with management and management NEVER screws the employees by giving them more work with OUT compensation. So you get a FM who's a dick and doesn't give you miles or a dispatcher who gives you short hops-your whole weeks pay depends on HOW MANY MILES YOU GET!! Week to week you have NO IDEA if you can pay your bills or even afford to go to Wally world to buy food to eat on the truck if you sat too long and didn't get those 3000 miles that the big companies keep saying are out there!!!! Why do you all so NOT trust a driver to DO HIS JOB! Why the big brother attitude?? As I said before the trucks are so wired that each and every movement is recorded. A drivers is not going to be out having a party and screwing his company out of money if he were paid hourly or salary!!! The bad driver as in any job would be weeded out very quickly. CPM leads a driver to try to run as hard as possible to make as much as possible at the risk of breaking the law or as GMan says ''an incentive to get a raise.'' You drive faster, more reckless and violate log hours if you can- not so easy today as it used to be but it is still done. The old days of ''seeing'' the country are over. I get that in the day you could take your day off and sight see-not anymore especially with the cost of diesel going through the roof or the risk that the company takes on if they even let you use the tractor. GMan you also say it's so easy to just ''buy a truck and trailer'' well yeah if you happen to have a spare $125K laying around or you can FLEECE deal one and get stuck and never ahead. Lots of O/O are not making money right now with cost of fuel and freight down.

If life were as easy as you make it out to be GMan then everyone in the USA would have a great paying job, a house with a white picket fence, well behaved and educated children. Wake up man! Times are tough and most everyone is living pay check to pay check and hoping to keep their head above the water!!! Attitudes such as yours just keep the image of a driver as a lowlife slob that should just work harder to get ahead alive.

 

For those who complain about trucking pay. You don't have an income problem. You have a SPENDING problem. If you cannot earn a decent living at today's rates then you need to take a look at how you are spending your money. Make a budget and stick to it.

It is getting old to keep hearing that you can make as much working for McDonald's. If you think you you can make as much working at McDonald's then by all means go fill out an application. I heard that they just hired 50,000 people the other day. Blackw900 is correct in that you won't be able to work that much over time at McDonald's. When you get to the $35,000+ income you are getting into management, which involves more responsibilities. Most fast food restaurants will rarely allow workers to get overtime. In fact, you may not even be able to get 40 hours. Your work schedule will likely also be irregular since restaurants usually schedule the most workers during peak times. In addition, you will be on your feet the entire time you are at work, other than a few minutes for a break. But, you can make as much as sitting on your backside seeing the country.

And as far as Jimmy Hoffa, Jr., is concerned. The guy is a lawyer and has likely never seen the inside of a truck. He makes a living off convincing drivers that they need his organization to earn a good living. No good worker needs the Teamsters or any other union.

I have NEVER had a problem earning a living in this business. OK, things were difficult the last quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009, but I survived as did my business. Hundreds of thousands of owner operators and carriers did not survive.

Instead of complaining, perhaps you should spend your time getting an education or finding suitable employment in another profession. Instead of complaining, start planning your time better. I don't know when I have heard so much whining from drivers as I have recently. How many professions will pay you $30-35,000 to learn a career? I don't see McDonald's paying you that much to ask "Want fries with that?"

I will tell you what. If you want to stay in this business and feel you deserve more money then save your money and buy a truck. Find a carrier and lease the truck on to their authority. Or, you could get your own authority and then have no one but yourself to blame if you don't earn enough money. You would probably be one of those who want to go on strike because you can't manage your business. My guess is that those who complain are happy being unhappy and complaining. You like complaining about the low pay and long hours. If you don't like it you can get your own truck or find something else to do.

 

Again with the budget? really? When is the last time you lived in the truck and spend money on the road and see what it costs a week to live? Add in that alot of drivers have families kids car payments or what ever?

GET an EDUCATION WOW what a GREAT IDEA that has NEVER ever been thought of? REALLY??? How is it that there are now drivers that had business that failed a few year back, in management and were downsized or laid off and were making WAY more money that they are now?? How many people out there have an Master's degree and can't get a job? What is the unemployement rate right now? OH not what the government tell us it is like 10% I mean the real unemployment rate?? It is SOOOOOO easy to get a job today and has been for the last few years right? I don't know what rock you have been living under but for the majority of us living in the real world times are tough and your options sound like it is such an easy fix to get a truck, or find a new job or get an education when NO ONE HAS ANY MONEY!!!!!!!!!!!