a quick question about driver turnover

OP to answer your question roughly half the people in this country with a CDL don't even drive truck. A lot of them after getting out of trucking school started driving over the road got sick of the lousy pay and never being home after a few months and quit. I would bet that about half of them got out of truck driving altogether. The other 50% tried to get a local job with only about half of them getting a local job and the other half after finding out they don't have enough experience quit trucking for good than. That is one of the biggest reasons for the high turnover rate and driver shortage.

Another reason is truck drivers are very likely to quit the job they are at if they can or at least think they can make better money at another job. So you have for lack of a better term a lot of "jumping ship" going on in the trucking industry. Then you have the massive amount of drivers that are retiring and going to continue to retire this decade and the following decade. The average age of a truck driver is 48 and 25% of truck drivers are senior citizens. Combine all of this with the internet where people can look up how much a OTR truck driver actually makes and hollywood selling the image of nothing but OTR truckers and them being stupid, crazy, and/or disgusting and it's easy to see why a lot of younger people aren't getting into the industry.

 

my safety guy were I work said that he can count on a 80% turnover rate each yr at our company...

 

I believe the problem is so many drivers get into this business thinking they are going to be making big bucks from the get go ... i blame recruiters for that ... they are not all liars ... there are a few good ones ... but it's sad that they can get these new drivers thinking like this

You ask any driver who has been on the road more then a couple of years and stuck with it through this rookie stage and didn't go broke doing it ...

so many factors will determine whether or not you will make it in this business ...

unfortunately simple hard work and determination isn't going to get you there...

first you need to be smart about standing up for yourself ... meaning you need to take control of your new career and not let a company or driver/manager run you in the ground ..
you need to set your own expectation as to the money you should be making and and do not accept anything less ...
don't be afraid to fire a driver/manager ... I went through 5 of them with my first company ...
when I didn't hear what I needed to hear from my driver/manager... I started going over his head ... to his boss .. and kept climbing the ladder until I got what I wanted... and if I made it to the top and still wasn't satisfied .... time to change companies...

THE SQUEAKY WHEEL GETS THE MILES IN THIS BUSINESS ... AND MILES ARE WHAT GETS YOU PAID... NOT SITTING AROUND A TRUCK STOP WAITING FOR A LOAD AND LISTENING TO
EXCUSES ...

You and only you will be the deciding factor on whether or not you make money in this business ....

and really that's all we are out here for ... correct?

 

Is having that philosophy more important than what company you work for? I'm worried that I'm going to get on with a company and not get enough miles to pay the bills...

 

So when they get tired of the constant complaining give you a bunch of lousy loads constantly and when you quit them and leave and the next company calls your previous ones since you have about 5 different truck driving jobs each year for the last 4 years and they get told about all your complaining and no one will hire you than...what are you going to do?

Look I'm not telling you to eat **** and say "thank you sir may I have another" what I'm saying is pick and choice your battles and don't regulary ***** and moan. Only complain when you have something to legitimately complain about. Having a good MVR, DAC, choosing the right company for you, and working hard is how you get ahead in this industry. Not trying to one up management when they do something you don't like. If that is a constant problem then you need to go find another company to work for.

 

Answer to original question....

90-95% have quit.

Only about 5-10% have been fired.

 

these companies all love the turnover, they want it that way. they have it set up like a bunch of carnies, and the driver is the rube. why do you think there arent yearly raises at most companies? so they can point you to their buddies company in the next town over. its a constant shell game, and the drivers are always taking another chance on "more miles, newer trucks, top pay, new pay program," etc...

and the new game in town seems to be "we'll treat you like family!". all a sham, and i dont know why thats relevant, because i just want to get paid for the work ive done, not have some creep pretend to care about me past getting my end of the job done....