The driver shortage (solved)

most shippers will gladly pay $2 a mile ... unless they can get someone to haul it for 1.95 a mile .... unless they then can find someone to haul it for 1.90 .. ect .ect.

 

That is all true until you get into things like bulk hazmat or fuels etc. A tanker load of trimethalamines for example can be extremely costly to clean up compared to a a load of can goods.

 

I think it is great that you have a home daily job that pays well but you have to know that those jobs don't grow on trees everywhere... Most of the home daily jobs in my area are paying in the neighborhood of about $40k a year and for this area of SW MO that is not bad considering our cost of living in general, not enough to live high on the old hog but enough to live well. I am turning 60 this year and have a nice piece of property and home, my kids are all grown and I have one of those home weekends jobs. I am home usually from Friday to at least Sunday evening more often than not I load somewhere close and leave Monday morning. I do pretty good, been getting $1200 to $1500 a week consistently without doing anything unusual, sometimes a bit better and sometimes if I have mechanical issues I can drop back to that grand. Not a lot of difference considering the perk of being home daily. the wife and I like it this way and probably I will either find one of those local jobs soon enough or I will go back to the County Highway department and ride around all day in a JD mower enjoying the A/C and music all day mowing ditches for 8 hours 5 days a week...LOL

To each his own in his given area I say.. I will say that it's going to get harder and harder to find drivers if they don't figure out a better system for pay other than piece work, which is what mileage pay is.. A person should be compensated for all the time they spend away from home in some way and I think they will have to figure that out to keep up with driver demand.. J/S

 

I think alot of drivers bail on the career after a otr stint that chews em up and spits em out, especially the ones who come into the profession green and go the training/mega route.
There are so many niche positions/ possibilities that it sometimes takes a real effort to find something that works for you.
25+ years ago I got on w UPS and worked a year for them, kinda kick myself now, but freight hauling didn't do it for me..I even tried it again 10 yrs ago w Conway, lasted 3 months.
Found a gig I enjoy despite the micro management and hope to retire in a few yrs.

If you like the activity itself try to find the style that suits you, whether it's hometime, compensation, freight or equip.

 

Ny sucks in general but I'm lucky there is a huge agriculture buisness here. There are so many local trucks during the summer, it's really a large local buisness....and milk hauling is year round, so is feed for that matter.

 

If I work 7 days I can make $1,200+, the same as otr. I would rather run 7 days a week local then go otr. I usually work 9 hours and go home.

 

Plenty of steering wheel holders out there, no shortage of them, even on the owner operator side. And I am not talking about fleece ops. I have run into more than a few owner operators that lack even the most basic skills, like being able to read a map. And yes, that includes GPS. And customer relation skills, oh my GOD! Then the mechanical side, and I am not talking about successfully changing your wheel bearings in a truck stop parking lot with a can opener and pocket knife. I am speaking of simple things like changing the oil and air filter, knowing which motor one has under the hood, that stuff. And don't get me started on the emission systems.

Yes, there are plenty of drivers and owner operators out there, but as someone else stated, quantity does not equal quality.

 

Shortage huh

What person in there good mind needs a job where you constantly away from home. But you still have household bills to attend to along with food and toiletries while on the road. For the $80-$400 a week that some of these megas pay one can't afford to go OTR. That same money can be made at a fast food restaurant. And be home everyday.

If more companies had better pay, more regional runs, ok health insurance, and decent equipment things would be fine. Oh and recruiters that were honest up front.

There are too many companies that want to work a driver for free. Either through the L/P deal or only paying by the mile. If a driver does a pre trip/ post trip, fuel truck, or sits at tire shop. The DOT Consider all of that as work to be logged on duty not driving. Well many companies don't want to pay for that.

My classmate sat in line 3 hrs at the truck wash to get his trailer washed out. Then wasn't paid for it. I don't know no other industry where workers are expected to do free work.

But this so called shortage is being fixed. There are several drivers coming to the US from elsewhere. And they will gladly work for .35cpm

 

Truck wash can't be helped ( well really if you're hauling a reefer you have to have the extra 10 cent a mile built in your pay to compensate for the extra fooling around you do with a reefer ) but the companies do not like charging for detention to shippers maybe a law,that pays the truck on the spot 50.00 per hour on everything or part of an hour past 1 hour and your company can get part of the 50.00 from you. owner operators keep the 50.00 detention time is hard to collect from the recievers and as an owner operator it's like pulling teeth sometimes getting any kind of detention. .... also the crooked ### lumper system should be illegal it is nothing more than extortion ... you order it your responsibility to unload the truck or make other arrangements from the shipper .... any delays over 2 hours they have to provide you with access to hot food and allow you to finish a 10 hr break on there property .... the government doesn't seem to have a problem saddling us with regulations but the folks on both ends can do whatever they want for the most part. sometimes I forgot how bad this job is when you are starting out .. your pulling mostly the bottom loads from bottom feeding companies it can get a lot better with time and experience if your smart enough .... the so called piece work pay isn't going anywhere the companies get paid a fixed amount and are going to pay you a fixed amount ... and if you have a decent company or can think and drive for yourself you can more than make enough to make it worth while . unfortunately everybody is not cut out to be a truck driver I think you can train just about anyone to actually drive it's all the other stuff that's harder ... some get it completely and make a great living .... some get some of it and can make a good living. . some guys just can't get it and blame someone else that they can't .... as a matter a fact the people that you are talking about making 300 or 400 a week probably are getting payed more than they are worth ... with the same mileage pay the company is losing money on the guy making 300 a week but making good money on the guy making 1200 a week .... so what happens is the company makes sure the guy Making the 1200 stays happy starts giving him better loads ect. now the guy that's making the 300 is going to get the scraps until he can show that he is capable of doing more ..... now this is a very hard concept to understand especially for Democrats now the reason someone or some company to give you a job is to make MONEY nothing else they aren't being nice or want to take care of you or owe you anything else ... so to stay on the good side and make more yourself go out and make some MONEY for both of you ... now if you think you can make more MONEY with some other job you may have to and that's understandable but just realize that the new job will give you more MONEY but they are expecting you to make them MONEY

 

the hell with fast food. i make $1k per week gross and HOME DAILY. typically i work 8-1/2 hour days. WHY are trucking wages compared to fast food? should compare OTR wages to local driver job wages. i make roughly the same as a OTR driver running 3,000 miles per week, and i am typing this at home in my living room. i drive 7-800 miles per week and make about the same, what good logical reason is there for me to go OTR? since i do farm pickup i spend allot of my day getting paid waiting for the milk to load..... which is why im only doing 100 or so miles per day. hell i would rather work 7 days a week local and be home at night, then drive OTR and only be home 34 hours per week, if i worked everyday during the week i would make $1,200+ per week, and im still home allot more then a lame ### 34 hour reset. even if i work a 10 hour day im still home 14 hours per day. 14x7=98 hours home per week working everyday.

OTR i would want $100K+ per year. we all know that wont happen, so forget it.

fast food???? give me a break