Can you be a really good truck driver and still be bad?

You're adding your own baggage of ideal total number of drivers or just the right number of drivers.

I have my own set of blinders so please provide some relevant links to sources that discuss driver shortages and also propose just the right number of drivers.

I haven't seen those.

Matter of fact most writing that uses the term comes nowhere close to language that can be described as planned economy.

Once again, the expression driver shortage is a useful heuristic describing a situation and it relies on the fact that when there are shocks to the system of freight that cause standard deviation changes to price the quickest response from the giant network of individual entities is to focus on manipulating the number of drivers they have.

 

@bryan21384 ...You can jump in on this too. I was going to add you to the other post but the donut lady showed up and you lost out to an eclair.

 

I just laughed out loud on that one. The eclair definitely deserves the win there. Donuts are freakin delicious lol

I have secretly thought for years that 400k yearly was a bit of an inflated number. I think to myself it's like 300 million people in the US, and figuring maybe ½ that number, are able bodied working adults. Isn't there about 5 million actual truck drivers in the US? I've never been able to verify that either. Then also, it isn't really that easy to get into trucking. It's not a super fast process. Yes it's a 3 week course, but schools gotta have space and if it's company sponsored, you may get weeded out before even making it to the company.

 

Haha hilarious.

In one part of your post you say you can't see the logic of supply and demand for a signal to seek a higher wage.

Then later you walk yourself through the logic of supply and demand for seeking a higher wage by outlining why having more endorsements will give you a higher wage.

No disrespect but you're complicating simple steps just to argue a position that's very straight forward.

The conversation is simple.

You walk into the office of who is responsible for approving a raise and you present the ultimate.

Hi, I have this job offer from XYZ company at this wage which is higher than my wage here. Will you match the wage?

This is not difficult problem solving.

If the driver shortage is real one measure will be wages. If you are better than average, not in some isolated situation, and don't have any other unique impediments then securing a competitive wage is not complicated.

 

That ain't what you laid out. You laid out using driver shortage to command pay. Now you're saying use going to another company as leverage to get more pay. That ain't necessarily going to work if they don't feel like they're losing anything.

 

It's exactly what I laid out.

Do you want me to apply for the jobs for you also.

What is the correct level of hand holding for you to get the point?

"You said if I was hungry I could have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. You didn't say I had to open the crustables box, get out the sandwich from the wrapper, and close the fridge so you lied!"

SMH. Maybe you're getting average pay and you're overpaid, if so salute to you.

 

I agree. If every company driver was making $100/year salary and home on the weekends, you would STILL have the exact same problems and discussions.

Pick a problem and throw money at it, nothing changes. If you give the average homeless person $100 grand, in a year he will still be homeless. We have the exact same mentality in trucking. Pay a garbage driver big bucks and he will still be garbage.

 

I'm pretty sure you would put up with the current problems in trucking for $1 million per year and so would a lot of other people not already in trucking. At some level of pay, a choice between the employers and the employees, you attract enough applicants, and enough applicants pass the requirements, and enough of them complete company training, and enough of them stay for a few years. If pay and conditions in trucking were suddenly cut in half from what they are now, there would be a much bigger "driver shortage". If you aren't attracting enough employees you are not offering enough pay and good enough conditions. There are TONS of people that go into trucking because it's a chance to get away from people. Not every person wants a 9-5 rat race life. The people that don't look before they leap will always have more problems than the people that don't walk blindly through life. And those walking blindly will always have someone else to blame for their own problems.

 

Maybe they don't have a driver shortage but they really have salesmen over-promising freight customers we can move your freight when they can't move their freight on time. They may have too many trucks and trailers and customers for the number of drivers they can keep. Nothing guarantees a trucking company a permanent size. Shrink or grow as the conditions dictate. Employees don't get to keep their bass boats, RVs, $250 cable TV package because they once had a union job in 1984 but now they work as an independent accountant for a couple of small businesses in a small town and make a lot less money and their health insurance is a LOT more expensive.

 

From a OOIDA PDF refuting the ATAs claim of driver shortage
https://www.ooida.com/wp-content/up...ent-on-Flaws-in-Driver-Shortage-Narrative.pdf

In November 2021, Quartz, a news outlet focused upon global economics, noted that “the assertion that the US is suffering from the latest round of a 16-year truck driver shortage is misleading at best.”6 Quartz also stated that the real shortage is a lack of good trucking jobs that can attract and retain workers in a tight market. According to figures released by FMCSA and the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA), states issue more than 450,000 new commercial driver’s licenses every year.7

Footnote 6
There is no shortage of US truck drivers
Footnote 7
FMCSA, Regulatory Evaluation of Minimum Training Requirements for Entry-Level Commercial Motor Vehicle Operators Final Rule, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (Nov 2016), pg. 39