60,000 driver shortage in the USA

I thought this was odd too. I see posts, articles, and videos talking about a driver shortage, but then I'm also seeing videos about the lack of parking at truck stops. If there was a shortage, wouldn't there be spots to park? Unless this is a situation where demand has outgrown the capacity of when these truck stops were first built. I saw a video on the Asian Mai Show about the need for more parking, and it was not included in the recently passed Infrastructure Bill.

 

This thread was forgotten for a long time. Most of that information is old, but not completely obsolete.
Trucking companies are staffed with some of the least intelligent managers in any industry. That's largely the problem. No trucking company needs to have more trucks than drivers. They'll actually expand their fleet before figuring out how to put drivers in their trucks.
I just shook my head when my local trucking company decided to expand operations a couple of years ago. The expansion project they were working on has now become a field of weeds and a dream for times that probably will never come again, and recruitment there has been met with desperation.
I've pointed out elsewhere how the new technology is being used not just to prevent accidents, or to combat dangerous behaviors, but also to nitpick drivers. Drivers don't put up with it, and they either get fired, or leave. If you're going to use this kind of nuclear option, you need to realize it hurts both parties, not just the driver. For you and me, just make sure your congressman knows that you don't support bailing out trucking companies when their decision to include criteria having nothing particular to do with safety results in their not being able to fill trucks they never should have gotten. Unfortunately, there's little you can do to stop them from benefiting from bankruptcy, as many are filing for that kind of protection instead of eating their losses.

 

It sounds logical to equate this, but it would be an error. I hate to admit it, but years ago the average trucker was driving on 2 or 3 logbooks. It really was a common practice. Drivers would stop for an hour or two and take a power nap, sip on lots of coffee, and drive. Back then the carriers were not tracking trucks and the drivers sent in doctored logs. This started to change in the last part of the 80s and early 90s when the forerunner of the FMCSA started cracking down. Then E-logs started. The FMCSA made some HOS changes also. With all this tracking the drivers had to stop. This added more trucks into the truckstop infrastructure! Then over time truck stops started getting smaller. This along with some gypsy parking areas became unavailable because property owners close it all off. Are there more trucks on the roads? YES, there are! It's just the lack of available parking has many other reasons.

 

Sometimes that was because truckers were dishonest. At other times, it was because the hours of service required truckers to drive when they were sleepy, and sleep when they could not fall asleep. In order to maintain logs properly, and put in a decent work-week, it's almost inevitable that most OTR truckers and sometimes truckers with regular routes will not be able to maintain a regular sleep schedule. THE HOURS OF SERVICE RULES DO NOT WORK. Federal law does not determine when the human body gets tired. People can get tired for any number of reasons. It could be from a long day's work, or it could be something in the air, something in the food, job stress, temperatures, weather, noise levels, fear of crime, inability to find parking, and who knows what else. Life is complicated and trying to make a trucker's life work in a predictable manner so that it fits in with some rigid federal scheduling idea both causes accidents and wrecks health.

You would think that someone would find it odd that one of the only jobs that doesn't pay overtime has to create serious laws to prevent workers from working too much. On most (e.g. factory) jobs, paying people time and a half or double time still isn't enough to get them to work more than 40 let alone 70. Now if some of these Einsteins would figure this out, they'd get to the core of why you literally have threaten a trucker with criminal charges to get them to stop working.

 

Im in Cebu City. They are scaring the population into getting the vaccines, but it’s not real effective. So far about 13% of the population is fully vaccinated. They have a lot of businesses closed and air traffic is virtually non existent. Worlds longest lock down, that’s the Philippines. Looking to get out of here in November to renew my CDL.

 

I have no opinion on part 395 I want to share openly! In my comment, you quoted I was only addressing one aspect of the parking shortage as being caused by the tightening of the HOS. Back to the HOS question. I have a serious doubt most people are 100% happy with the current HOS rules. Most industry insiders are NOT, most of the states are NOT, and finally industry safety groups are not! The FMCSA has been taken to court and Congress has slapped them over rulemaking decisions they have made. The FMCSA is a Federal Bureaucracy! Let's NEVER forget this! Most bureaucrats have some things in common. One such thing is they NEVER go out on a limb and do anything that will give them liability! They are ALWAYS seeking more money! AND most importantly they are ALWAYS ready to justify their existence. You can see these traits in almost every Federal agency!

Offhand I can think of several MAJOR problems in this industry that are being caused or aggravated by the FMCSA demuring on doing their jobs. The rules on PC are a case in point.

One final point and I will finish. Another issue I have with the FMCSA is how they interpret rules. The FMCSA and the DOT that preceded them have made a mess of almost all the 300 series rules found in title 49 CFR. Just in the last 4 months, I have had differing opinions coming out of THE SAME FMCSA field office. This MUST stop!

 

Yes back in the 90's there were a number of drivers that came over to the USA on the H2B visa and did over stay however that is a totally different topic one that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) handles, however there is no need for drivers to become illegal ( also known as unlawfully present) as I've mentioned all they have to do is apply for an extension of stay USCIS form I - 539 which helps them remain legally present in the USA.

P.S Unlawfully present is different to being EWI a person who is unlawfully present is someone who enters the US legally then overstays there allowable admittance time granted by the CBP. Usually a person entering on a work visa is granted 6 - 8 months on temporary work visa e.g a person enters the US on the 8/20/21 is granted 8 months stay therefore would be required to depart the US on the 4/19/22 however it they apply for an extension prior to the 4/19/22 then they could remain legally in the USA for another 8 months if the USCIS approve the extension if not then they would be required to depart ASAP and if they did not leave would be deemed unlawfully present.

 

A shortage is good. Water has huge margins in the desert. Why make it rain when you are the pipeline? Fight for the regulatory that’s holding wages up, not for the nanny devices dumbing them down.

 

Driver shortage.....if you ask big companies with lots of customers they'll say yes... if you ask owner ops and small fleets that rely on broker freight they'll say no. I think it's subjective

 

Importing drivers is a good way of fiddling with statistics. Domestic drivers have a past they have to deal with, which goes back at least ten years, and longer for serious matters. They create records that follow them around for the rest of their lives, and matter heavily for the next ten years.
Imported drivers often don't have to worry about their past or future. Trucking companies can get drivers from any of a number of countries that may or may not have, or share, records of accidents or crimes. Who knows? If such a driver happens to get tickets or accidents that would normally ruin a domestic driver's career, they'll just go back home where they might have a clean record, or go to yet another country.
I've never actually been asked if I had ever gotten into an accident, or gotten a citation in another country. Many countries, like Mexico, handle tickets and accidents usually with no record; the driver simply pays the cop and everybody forgets about it. The cops practically work on commission. If the cop is just picking on the driver, that driver has the option to take the ticket to court, so that keeps the cops reasonable. But if you look at the cars down there, as well as in many foreign countries, you'll see dents all over them. Every driver probably gets into dozens of accidents in their life. Also, if you watch traffic signs, you'll see that they're all but ignored. Even in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, it's customary to run a stop sign at between 15 and 20 MPH. If you are the car stopping at one, or even slowing to 5 or 10, you're likely to get rear-ended.
Trucking companies don't know how good they have it with American truckers. We're some of the world's safest drivers, but of course if you bring in international drivers, the statistics will not account for matters such as what I mentioned above. They'll just all be lumped up into one group: Americans. And the domestic American trucker will get the blame for what the immigrants do.