Why is it so hard to find good drivers?

i feel sorry for the good honest employers in the industry ....across the board the pool of good drivers that give a dam has dried up .

 

I agree with Ziggy. I was a teamster car hauler and it was far far far from the perfect world lots think it to be .... especially when management and union are in bed together in a smaller terminal. Then the book goes out the window. Seniority and grievances depended on who you were friends with that day. The union had become very 'clicky'. There is a reason that teamster car haul went from 50,000 25 years ago to 8,000 now .... if that many. My teamster / company environment became so poisonous that I left. I am in a much better place now. I used to be a proud teamster ..... piss on 'em. I don't even tell people I was one.

 

Finding good drivers,

is like finding a good job.

Word of mouth is still the best method we've found.

 

I have a response - from one very good professional driver ...

I have been in the car business since 1988 and was essentially baptized a "car hauler". I have never hauled freight and have known nothing but hauling cars. I possess a class A CDL with double, triple, tank and hazmat endorsements. I went to a school to earn my CDL and have driven only car hauling equipment from light duty two car flatbeds to old school 11 car Volvo day cabs and to present day NexGen strap trucks. I have a TWIC, port pass, clean background, a perfect DAC and never involved in an accident. I also have a college degree in business and my career has been - financially - successful.

I start running at 4:30 am ... I can load a truck in under 2.3 hours (including picking my car) and unload with ramps up in 1.2 hours. I have a fractional percentage point damage ratio, and consistently run between 9000 and 10,000 miles per month.

I am a car hauler

That said, at this moment I am sitting in a terminal far, far, far away from my home; and I have been parked here empty since 8am this morning. I will sit here perhaps until 5pm when the automaker gets around to releasing loads. If I'm lucky I will get a load headed toward home. More likely I will get a load going nowhere and spend another week out here wondering why I don't find another job.

I am asked regularly to drive 350 to 400 miles empty to sit in a parking lot and wait for a load. My life is unimportant and my purpose is only to serve the customer. On time - damage free delivery ... Pick the cars - Pre-inspect - load - unload - park - post inspect - park - get signatures - ensure customer satisfaction ... I do this all as part of the job and paid on average 51 cents per mile to "drive" ... All other job requirements are just "part of the job"

As a driver I am responsible for absorbing "all the bumps in the road" ... Truck breaks, deal with it ... Car won't start, do what you have to do to get it on th truck ... No night drops, unload on the highway, load in the snow, unload in a hurricane ... Move the cars, get the signatures, and wait to be summoned.

I run 70 hours per week on the log, and another 20 in a shade of gray... At the end of the day I am paid $20 per hour straight time... Period.

This job is hard and in my opinion sucks... But it's what I know. I don't know of any other job where I can make this kind of money ... But it comes at a price. I do not know my children and my wife and I see each other occasionally on a weekend when I am released on good behavior.

I do this job in the hopes one day I will retire by a lake and get to enjoy what's left of my life. I believe the answer to the question "why is it so hard to find good drivers?" Is very simple ... Most men are unwilling to sacrifice their life for money. Most would prefer to be home at night and for those that will take the long haul, be home on weekends.

The auto industry is influenced heavily by China ... Their values ring true in every aspect of this job. Performance, and profit at the expense of human life. I sell my soul by the mile in the hope of a reward in the end. I chose this business for the money ... Money is all I have as I have given my entire life in exchange.

Car hauling requires a driver to live like no man would, in the hopes of one day living like only a few men do. I think I chose poorly.

There are no good drivers in this business because this business is unable to recognize good people. I am a truck number, I am revenue, I am units moved... Most notable is I am irrelevant, unimportant, unappreciated and replaceable.

Message to the automakers: money does not buy what you seek

 

Well that was refreshing and interesting.

I also thought car haul was going to be my retirement gig. I've hauled Army, flat, float, tank, freight, temp ...... etc. That's my resume. 30 + years. I'm done with car haul. For many of the above reasons. The back stabbing. The lack of respect. The union ? There's a joke. Management within the big carriers ? Another joke. Respect from the manufacturers - joke. The brother hood of car haul - long gone. It's cut throat now - same as freight went 20 + years ago. Rate slash after rate slash. It was just no fun anymore, not even a job that you looked forward too.

I've gone back to being a broker. But I'm back in freight. I run a dedicated run. VERY low miles, but it's a schedule, and it's consistent, and ( unfortunately ) I don't have to deal with people anymore. It's safer that way anyway. Everyone's out for themselves. I do my job and go back to my family. That's what counts.

It's to bad. I don't care if it's a priceless Rolls Silver Dawn, a roll of crap wrap ..... it's all become freight to me, because that's how we're being treated to haul it.

I still handle myself and my rig professionally - That won't change because the last thing to go will be my personal pride -- and that's the day I park and walk away.

I've changed my user name here, and my avatar, but I still find myself drifting away from sites like this as well. There is a good crowd here..... but the industry fence's need mending. Some days it just really gets depressing.

 

Daimler really changed my perspective on this business ... I provided new equipment and top shelf drivers along with a 5 million dollar cargo policy ... They kept shaving dollars off the rate until it got the point where it simply wasn't worth hauling the cars. I moved on...

Fast forward... I see Mercedes on high mount rolling junk. Chains swinging, cars bouncing and drivers chatting it up on the phone. I think to myself, "how is that a company like Mercedes seems they could not care less about what their cars are being hauled on"

The follow up to that thought is now I realize Mercedes is not focused on the "what" ... All they are about is the "who" ... That is "who" is willing to haul their cars for the least amount of money.

My friends their is a reason why Daimler Chrysler went belly up and nearly took the rest of the auto industry and America with them.

In case anyone has forgotten, what caused it has not been cured and we can expect another financial collapse in about another 6-8 years.

My 2 cents

 

Can you tell me what all qualifications I would need such as driving experience. Riders allowed?

 

Because no one wants to work 60 hours a week for 44 cents per mile. And I might add the hard time drivers experience from the north east. Traffic, parking, jerks with the chip on their shoulder attitude.

 

I have a single axle that if I find a driver I will purchase a small car carrier and would be willing to be 55 to 60% of the profit (after fuel and tolls)