Wannabe drivers beware!!

A so called driver shortage has been talked about for years by companies to disguise their training practices as needed to fill seats rather then what they where really about - getting gov. training funds and keeping labor costs down.

Now however several factors are contributing to what is fast becoming a real driver shortage. First, most drivers are part of the baby boom generation and have mostly reached retirement age. Second, regulations such as more restrictive HOS, CSA, EOBR's, etc have pushed out drivers with marginal skills and reduced the earning of others to the point they have left trucking for perceived greener pastors. Third, entry level pay is still not very good for the most part so lots of people that train aren't driving by their one year anniversary. Fourth, trucking isn't an easy job, away from home, varied weather, long hours, it's just not for everyone.

If it persists supply and demand will eventually dictate pay for company drivers and rates for l/O's and O/O's will rise to attract more to fill the void. If the political winds blow in a different direction some slack on regulations could happen. Don't hold your breath for that though, it was the bush administration that took away the sleeper birth split. Then the Obama administration added the crap sprinkles on the turd cake by screwing up the 34 hour reset and the half hour break. Guess it's easier for both sides to piss in our cheerios to please Public Citizen et al.

 

what if all loads paid the same per mile rate? look how much money this could save. you would always get the load that is closes to you dead heading would be a thing of the pass. this may only work if there was only one company. (the federal government) they could build terminals every 250 miles in every direction so drivers would only have to drive 500 mi a day. there would be more local drives. DOT could inspect the trucks every day at the terminals for safety. they could make sure we eat healthy with government restaurant at the terminals..all driver would be paid .55 per mile. 25years and full retirement.

 

I still get Werner brochures in the mail. Good thing I bought a new phone and got a different number or I will still be getting Berenice calling me forever and ever till the end of time.

 

Can't keep up with the turnover rate. Even the 50-100 new hires scheduled for every monday can't fill in for the huge amount of disgruntled drivers leaving every day.

 

That's true with most companies. One company in Ohio has 40 trucks sitting empty and hurting so much for drivers they started recruiting from Ohio Department of Corrections putting convicts about to be released through CDL school. Can't really blame the trucking companies for the shortage, except a few, because the federal and state governments set too many silly rules. The state DOT cops and state troopers are the worst at harrassing working Americans.

 

The big "mega" training/ lease op companies like prime, Werner, England, trans am, and swift could care less who they keep, they get government money for hiring vets, displaced workers, etc just keep trucks full, provide training(some are better than others), and they can pull people through the schools, and jettison those they couldn't brainwash into their idiotic micromanaging, or won't be easily suckered into their lease purchase scam. If you go to these companies as an experienced driver and they have a lease op program, they will try to make your life miserable until you give in and either lease or quit. (Transam will coerce drivers and students into it by denying them a truck and making them sit in the terminal or hotel until they eventually "find" them a truck, or twist the drivers arm. Prime, however, won't overtly force you, but they will leave out information on a lot of things like home time policy/ request procedure, fueling system requirements, etc. they have you to through computer based training where all of the programs are geared towards students or lease ops, company driver specific info is conveniently left out. Basically, they just have the "carrot on the end of the stick" scheme, and be warned, they have a reputation for putting false bs on DAC reports when drivers leave. They have already been caught and fined by the FMCSA and OSHA for this. Avoid prime at all costs if you are an experienced reefer driver. I've heard their tanker and flatbed divisions are good to drive for have have the nicer equipment, as well as actually being 48 state OTR. If you come in as an experience reefer driver, the recruiter will tell you it's mostly east of the Mississippi, but the reality is you will be stuck staying out 3-4 weeks at a time hauling most of the short I-95 northeast garbage in & out of Maine. You'll be lucky to hit over 1500 miles a week on average, stuck in one of their coffin sleeper "lightweight" trucks, the extra dime they pay for running NE reefer in that truck is more to make up for the lack of miles, and you will hear endlessly from people that the only way to get the good long runs is to lease op or become a trainer.)

There are smaller companies like grand island express, Don Hummer, Morehouse, GSTC(I did criticize them for a while, yes, when the new management took over and the recession hit things weren't going so well there for a while, but the old guard has returned and working to change things for the better, but of all the companies I worked for, they were the most honest, and if you did your job you were treated like family. Yes. It's running Midwest to the east and back, but the home time and miles were always great when the economy was better. No I don't get paid to recruit, JMHO.)basically any company that has between 100-200 trucks. If you are new to the industry, I recommend toughing out your first couple of years in whatever "mega-starter" company, keep your nose and record clean, have NO wrecks, and these smaller companies will be begging for you.

 

And something else.... Too many regs? The problem was for too many years, the industry pushed drivers to run faked or multiple log books, running the drivers virtually into the ground,even in bad weather, some even made them take stay awake pills years ago! Some people said enough is enough, and yes, some of the regs don't really work for Making things safer, but this is an industry that as a whole cannot be trusted to police itself. Try talking with a state cop sometime and he could probably tell you the ##### he's seen... Especially when they have to explain how they found a family turned into hamburger because a driver either thought he was being a "real trucker" and decided to run top speed on the snow & ice like some of these "chicken truck" idiots out here, or a he was pushed beyond his limits by a company that didn't care who they killed or maimed for profit because they could throw him under the bus and replaced him with another poorly trained student.


The other thing here is drivers do not stick together or help each other as they used to. Especially when they will get on the radio to harass other because of the way they look or because they might have a different political or religious views, not for traffic info and "bear reports" like it used to be used for. Basically the reason I got rid of my CB and no longer use it. If someone wants to blast away at me because I try to keep a safer pace in bad winter weather and he wants to show his stupidity, he can blow right past me and I won't hear a word. I'll just remember to smile and give that idiot the one finger wave when I pass by and he's jackknifed in the median.

 

CR England. Too funny - end of 2008 I purchased a second tractor from an independent KW dealership to lease on to my current company, and lo and behold; two days after I completed the purchase some jackwipe from CR England CALLS me and tells me "I'd been approved for orientation and which week did I want to come to SLC????

After I picked myself up off the floor laughing, I tried to find out how they got my info, but to no avail....

 

I can...too many useless DOT rules poverty level pay treatment like a 4th class citizen need more?