Are you seeing pay go up?

There really isnt a shortage of drivers... There is, however, a major problem with driver retention, which can generally be attibuted to the poor pay most companies offer. Combine that with the fact that most of the really big trucking companies treat drivers like slave labor in reguards to respect, work schedule, and work consistency... Well, that all spells "High Driver Turn-Over." I'm talking turn-over rates That average between 90% and 120% annually!!! That is what you should really point out... High driver turn-over rates give evidence that there is no driver shortage... Why such high turn-over rates?

 

As other drivers have pointed out, there is no real driver shortage. It's a pay and quality of life issue. To too many companies, a driver isn't really a human being, just some sort of weird animal that can move a truck around, and they are treated that way. The young folks entering the profession don't yet know how to stand up to nasty dispatchers, and diseased, brainless customers who act like they know everything about trucking, but would would fail to find a big truck on a childs play chart. I don't want to sound bitter, I love this job, but the challenges, especially when you are new, can be daunting.

 

LTL pay is good, but you will earn every penny of it and in my experience at least you're not going to have any kind of home life Monday - Friday. I think the OTR sector is the slowest to catch up in pay.

 

I think the driver shortage is a native driver shortage. There's absolutely no shortage of fresh off the boat immigrants looking to live the dream in a truck. They don't say no, and work for low wages. I think I was reading recently that the number was nearly 20% of drivers are non-native and that was over 5 years ago.

No need to give big raises if they can still get drivers when the good ones refuse to work for slave wages.

Speaking of my own job I've made more money every year since I started here almost 5 years ago. Just under 80k last year and looking at over that this year. I know some drivers that live like kings on that wage, and others who think they're kings and waste it all while living in their truck.