No wonder truckers are paid so little!

Rank i think hes trying to say 1980 mcdon's 3 bucks a hour today 11-15 , 1980 trucking 30 grand today 65 grand. If trucking came up with the rest of standard wage increses

 

If you need $70k a year just to get by on living expenses, something is wrong.


I was paying for a house and supporting my unemployed brother and myself off of $35k/year.

 

Well 15 years ago i was supprting myself the wife and the first kid on 12 bucks a hour, now i make twice that and the wife works to keep near the same standard of living

 

They get paid on par with a 1st year apprentice. You can't go back 50 yrs and apply COLA to get a 2015 wage for everyone. If you did, shoemakers and the guys that made those suits of armor would be rolling in the dough.

Times change. Trucking rates haven't kept pace with your inflation numbers therefore wages can't either. There's what we think and then there's reality.

Bottom line is we live in a capitalist society that (more or less) encourages EMPLOYERS not employees (although sometimes I wonder). If you think you are under paid, start a company and pay all your first year drivers $70k.

 

Lets take into account a company such as swift (no reason just throwing it out). The swift wiki page says they had 16200 drivers. 12300 company drivers. How exactly do you think a company with those sorts of numbers do you think is going to pay for this doubling of salary? Walmart is raising the pay of all employees who are making less than $10/hr to that $10/hr threshold. They are paying nearly a Billion to do this. Where is the money coming from for the mega carriers? Will is be from the money they use to buy new trucks and trailers? How about raiding the maint budget? It is real easy to be so righteous when you are dealing even hypothetically with other peoples money. Especially more so when you do not have the required info to make an informed decision. As far as "paying our dues" and what not, the reason it takes so long for a skilled trade to make the big bucks is because they are expected and required to be experts in that particular field. When you are a carpenter framing out a house, it would not do good to not know what you are doing and have it fall down later would it? Trucking is the exact same way as those closed shop trades, merely without the title. You enter as an apprentice into a large mega carrier, then you advance after a certain period of time into a more lucrative company. After the so called magic 2 year mark you are then able to make even more money. This is not unlike any other profession in this country. Just as this applies with every other industry and job, people are not driving trucks because of the pay. They are not driving trucks because they do not want to.

 

It's ironic that trucker wages have not moved up in real terms since 1980 but have instead fallen back in real buying power. Sad state of affairs. The CDL schools grind newbies out month-in and month-out and the predatory OTR megas grind them up.

It's a dysfunctional way to operate but works for the megas because they manage to fill seats with low-cost labor, less than minimum wage.

Not so well for drivers...

There's another issue and hopefully UKJ will move on before impacted: the health consequences of the hours, the vibration and the stress. 61-year life span, gives up 15 years. Diabetes, high blood pressure, over weight, lack of exercise, sleep apnea, bone and skeletal troubles. Etc.

 

The gov let deregulation run a little to rampant in our industry and we are paying the price. Saying cost of goods would sky rocket is a misnomer that i am also guilty of beliving from time to time. It sounds logical to say if you pay more for workers everything will cost more but its not the case services cost companys more money so they charge more and to make more they pay less. Its all circling the drain, (had to end sometime) (riddick) so were left with less money and more cost, and being told there is no fix to the inflation dragon waiting to pounce..... dont think the gov is tbe answer butsomethings gotta give