Will industry shortage make automation come sooner

Manages that capacity? How? By getting as many people as they can to get their cdl even though theres 'no need' for it?

 

Exactly.
Trucking company has on average 300 days of work a month. Instead of hiring 10 drivers (times 30 days) they hire 15. After all that work load is just an average.
Thanks to CPM pay, it's cheaper to rorate all 15 drivers on a less than optimal schedules than say have 11 and one quit. After all, don't have to pay someone that is sitting around waiting on dispatch to find a load.

Until a new person is hired, the company simply cannot run an extra load that month.

 

All of the experts involved in creating my truck's "collision mitigation system" have created an automated panic-stop generator. A shadow or a guardrail beside the road will SOMETIMES cause my tanker truck to begin a panic stop. It's not like making a panic stop in a curve with a smooth bore tanker full of HazMat is dangerous. So at least when I'm killed and some county's water is contaminated some programmer is gonna be so embarrassed. "ooopsies"

 

I can see why you guys think this. I just think its different. For every 10 guys that get behind the wheel, 8 or 9 will ditch it. This causes the companies to say theres a 'shortage', which there is. But they can also make out sometimes because maybe they have 2 months straight where theres more drivers then loads so they can save money on labor by paying lower rates or whatever. But then it goes on the flip where they cant find enough drivers so then the guys in the system are getting crazy miles and big checks or companies have to start throwing out bonuses to get guys to sign on and run their loads.

For instance, my first job was with UPSF, who gave me a $6k bonus paid out over my first 3mos on the job. Now, why do you think UPSF, of all companies, has to pay bonuses to get drivers to take a job?

 

No, 8 or 9 will change jobs. Always looking for greener pastures. Know what will keep them? More money. Know why they don't pay more money? Yeppers, it's because there are enough other drivers playing the same greener pastures game to fill those slots.
I would love to see the ststs on how many turn in their CDL, vs. how many get a new CDL to see the overall growth/decline of the labor pool.

Because they don't have a base pay that's enough to attract the drivers wanted. If they paid more they would not need a bonus that effectively locks the driver there for 3 months.

 

I'd like to see the dmv stats also on cdl's. How many turn theirs in each yr vs how many are issued/re-newed?

I know the pay is lower then we want. I think thats partly because the margins arent always there. A company might be able to give its workers a 20% raise, but then that might make it too vulnerable to market fluctuations which could close the biz down. I think also we're too fragmented and corps just have too much sway over the workforce. Workers have become much too dependent upon companies and the low pay rather then companies appreciating the people that make them money and paying them accordingly.

 

That system is simply doing what it was programmed to do. It was not programmed to fully automate your truck. It’s a computer with simple parameters. Do you think that system has prevented more accidents than it has caused?

 

And the worse thing is, you would still be liable. And that’s ethically wrong since the computer took over control. If the driver isn’t 100%in control, how can he still be 100% liable?

 

Has it caused you an accident?