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

Yes, I am certain I can answer. Can you?

 

Will you please share it?

 

Yes sir, the stat breaks down to roughly 80% drivers, 10% maintenance, and 10% driver managers. This ratio of drivers to support staff is fairly consistent over periods of time.

Truck tonnage is a measurement of freight transported by trucks. As tonnage changes the amount of labor used to transport that tonnage adapts to maintain efficiency. Dividing tonnage by labor and graphing over periods of time shows the relative growth or contraction of that relationship.

 

From the example:
1. Company buys/adds 1,000 trucks to their fleet.
2. Company doesn't have drivers for those 1,000 trucks.
3. Company cries "driver shortage".

Answer: Company has an excess of trucks, not a shortage of drivers. The company didn't have the "missing" 1,000 drivers before they bought the trucks and they had the same number of "missing" drivers after they bought the trucks. If you can't understand that, you'll need someone else's help.

Nothing requires every truck any company wants to put on the road be filled. If there was a genuine driver shortage every newbie from a CDL school would be hired before they graduated, every driver with bad marks would be able to get hired, every former driver that wanted to return to trucking would be hired, driver pay would increase above rate of inflation until it reaches the market-clearing price for the labor of truck drivers. Labor is a commodity, if you pay enough you will get enough of it. This "driver shortage" myth comes from starting at the wrong end of the calculation and forcing a perspective without good reason. I think you are deliberately trying not to understand or you're trolling.

 

"A shortage, in economic terms, is a condition where the quantity demanded is greater than the quantity supplied at the market price. A shortage can be contrasted with a surplus"

I wrote a big thing but at the end of the day it doesn't matter because you are simply arguing with dictionaries.

You're gang banging on words but even if you use a different word the idea still exists.

And it's still correct.

Driver shortages are real.

 

This is why I always it depends on who you ask. Those companies will say driver shortage. Others will share your logic. I don't know one way or the other. What you're saying makes sense, but many companies don't really get to call the shots when it comes to who gets hired. Insurance, as you know dictates that for a lot of companies. I believe that if there weren't some sort of guidelines, like MVR, CSA, etc, these companies wouldn't have a care in the world. I can envision where a driver shortage will be more obvious, because it ain't like young people are banging down the door in droves to be truck drivers. Then our country is constantly growing in population and commerce so I can see that being a possibility. It's only thought though.

 

Also.....something prompted those companies to buy those extra trucks.....surplus of customers I'd assume. So if they're trying tonserve all those customers without having to broker out that freight, that's probably why they say there's a shortage.

 

Is it good to be bad, or bad to be good or good to be good, sshhheess this is getting to stressful and well above my pay grade, I'll just stick to trying my best to do my best and let others be the judge of that.

 

I totally agree. Earlier on the thread we alluded to this very line of thinking. It isn't so much the job, but the lifestyle. One member said if you pay drivers 1 mil per year, it will attract more people to do this job. I completely disagree with that opinion. It's nice to make a million yearly, but if it comes at the cost of a "normal life," it's pointless to many people. Drivers, current amd former, need to understand that the trucker life just isn't attractive to that many people. As an industry, we don't really do much to improve the image. Trucking has a lot of crybabies, sloppy people, rude people, grumpy people, you see more negative minded drivers than happy drivers, and unfortunately, those are the most vocal. You work for a good company, and I feel I work for a good company too, and we are always looking for more drivers. It isn't the job itself, but that psychological part of it. Not being at home with friends and family, especially on special occasions, is too big of a price to pay for most people.