Is there a Driver Shortage?

Since the oil crash, I have noticed the local-home-every- night runs in various industries are being filled by displaced oil patch drivers....Still lots of jobs for long haul jobs.

 

The only thing there is a shortage of is quality drivers who want to stick around and deal with all the BS more then a few years.

No freight is sitting on the docks anywhere waiting on a truck (driver) to finally take it. Sure, some small(er) companies complain they can't find QUALITY drivers with awesome resume's, but the offset of that is, the large "mega" carriers who move 70% of the freight have a never-ending supply of driver-wannabe's marching through their doors, who will work for nothing for the opportunity to find out for themselves how good and/or bad trucking can be.

You poll response options are not correct either. There are a large percentage of qualified CDL holders who think $700 week is good money and will work their butt off and abandon family life for that paycheck. Hence, the stagnant wage growth in the industry. Why raise wages when, every hour, someone will walk through the door who think's we're "paying too much"?

 

The bottom line is there is no shortage of

• driver wannabe's who just want a paycheck, no matter the size
• well seasoned experienced drivers who know their worth
• well seasoned experienced drivers who DON'T know their worth
• mid-career drivers who are still unsure if they want to continue driving but in the mean time will allow themselves to be abused
• "illegal" drivers who need the job as long as they can get away with it
• and many others classes of drivers in between

So, there is a driver for every necessary seat. The marketplace will insure that and it will insure that it gets done at the lowest possible cost [across the broader industry-wide scale]. No ifs ands or buts.

 

Free enterprise my friend. What they do unfortunately comes with the territory. And a lot of guys like the free housing that comes with trucking, so a few hundred bucks a week is just enough for McDonald's and those stupid truck stop t shirts and those insanely overpriced off brand TVs to make them happy.

Now to answer your question. There's most certainly a driver shortage. No shortage of steering wheel holders though. We have an over abundance of them, just look at all the drug test questions.....

 

On a micro-level, there is one thing you can do and that is make sure your skills are being properly compensated and your skills are allowed to operate at their best possible use of time.

problem is, many drivers really aren't that good, yet they claim they want better money and to be treated like the world's best truck driver when the blunt truth is they simply aren;'t worth it, and the only one who knows this is the carrier. But, if you're as good as you think you are then only make yourself available to the one who will pay you what you think your worth, for what you're willing to provide in return for the wages paid.

 

It would be cool to see a thread about what makes a driver good from some of you highly experienced drivers. So much is out of our control with appointment times and being detained at shippers and recievers.