Truck Driver Shortage

Another solution to solving the truck driver shortage is to find good people with good work records who have never earned more than low income to lower middle income wages. Chances are, these people will stay with the trucking companies for much longer periods of time, especially if they do not have families to take care of, (spouses, children, or aging parents).

Chances are, these individuals, as described above, will be more than happy to do the job for the INCREASED amount of dollars per year.

$36,000 a year is a heck of a lot better than $18,000 a year, plus any possible overtime that can be acquired. This an additional $18,000 a year for this type of individual, (DOUBLE their old rate of pay).

IT IS ALL A MATTER OF NEED AND PERSPECTIVE.

 

While there is no driver shortage,

it has never been harder to hire good drivers.










90% of them either can't drive,

or are too darn lazy.........

 

You can't judge a good company just by milage pay. For example, I made .36 per mile hub miles, but, $12.00 detention pay after 2 hours, $14.00 per day for meals, $5.00 per day to fuel the truck, $12.00 per hr. starting immediately for breakdown or waiting at a tank wash. $7.00 per day for pre/post trip. The turnover for drivers was 0%. I was there 5 years and did not move up at all on seniority. My average pay was $65K per year. Get your endorsements and search for the good companies. When you job hop, you stay at the bottom of senority list & probably don't make enough to contrubute to a 401K for your future. I unloaded beside A&R Transport and Bulkmatic drivers that made more than me. Many fuel haulers made more than me by a bunch. We were all company drivers. Most food service haulers(reefers) make more than that by a bunch. The worst pay I ever made was dry van. You newbies, stay away from the dry van and get reefer experience & work on those endorsements, then if you study and pay attention, you will move up quickly on the pay scale with good companies & have a good pension account someday.

 

There is a shortage of fresh victims. You can choose to treat drivers decently, and pay them fairly, or plow through mountain of applications, and run orientation at multiple terminals weekly...to keep the seats filled, temporarily.
What these bottom feeder companies are looking for are people who are happy to make barely over the minimum wage, have a truck to sleep in, and pocket change to spend in truck stops on bluetooth headsets, cb radidios, GPS's, and chain drive wallets.
The turnover is high for a reason. The industry sucks as a career. Truck driving schools make money churning out new bodies, and most large companies figure they break even if they get one or two years out of a newly hired driver. I don't know what the current cost is to hire a driver and get him through orientation, and actually get 6 months of work out of him, but it has to be $5000 by now.
You would think the company would think it was smarter to maybe treat the current drivers a little better, and give them a few thousand a year longevity bonus?

 

We're Americans, we want $100K from day one. Home every night, and make our own hours. Think about the rest of the world, ever wonder why so many drivers are from somewhere else? Its because the worst job in America (OTR trucking) is better than most jobs anywhere else.
Suck it up rookies, call your congressman and thank him for this one world economy that put us on a level with Mexico and China.

 

Maybe change that to Mexico & India. I do see your point though. Saw a report tonight, Chinese people are buying 30 million cars a year now; #1 in the world for Bentley, Rolls Royce, and keep the showrooms cleaned out of BMW's & Mercedes & Audis. One young guy bought a 2 bedroom apartment with an ocean view, in Hong Kong for $52 million USD in cash. Most of the homes & cars are bought with cash, because they lose face/status if they have to finance. Trying to outdo each other, they are paying cash for multiple homes and multiple automobiles. I realize this is off topic, but I think interesting. It's just crazy.

 

U had potted meat? Dang, all I had was a mustard sandwich and water. Cheaper than Ramens.

 

Whenever you hear that there is a driver shortage, you need to consider the source. The source in this case is a mega carrier. Mega carriers don't hire drivers and don't want drivers. Their business model depends on a steady supply of inexperienced warm bodies to run their trucks for deplorable wages until they quit or get fired. There is no shortage of drivers and there never has been. There isn't even a shortage of warm bodies for the mega mills to grind through. But they need to keep spreading the propaganda about a driver shortage in order to help keep the steady supply of unsuspecting slave labor rolling in the door. It was that way 10 years ago, it will still be that way 10 years from now.

 

All drivers must be paid at least minimum wage for all hours on "line 4" enforced by the labor commission. Shortage solved.

 

I bought my first truck in 1973, because there was truck shortage, and I could get rich being a driver, I was told.Still hear that same story. When CDL's became law, we were told that would decrease the number of drivers.Never did.I have heard about a shortage of drivers ever since I started, but I have never really seen it. Plenty of steering wheel holders are around, especially when jobs are scarce.Like now.
A shortage of truckers is a different story. Most people who get a CDL do not find it to there liking, and will go from company to company for a while looking for that elusive perfect job,finally learning trucking ain't going to change.These steering wheel holders finally decide to find another occupation.
A trucker will find a driving job that is generally in line with his desires, go to work hauling freight, take the good with the bad, but knows he has diesel in his blood, and that shifting gears is his occupation. Not many of those kind around anymore.But there is no shortage of new wannabes, the major carriers make it too easy to get a CDL.
Trucking will never change, it will always be a hard job, and only a few can adapt to the lifestyle. Constant turn-over,but no real shortage.
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