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

Very true, I apologize to the op for the my part in hijacking the thread.

The answer to the question of this thread is yes because we are often defined by how well we hold up under pressure and instances of otherwise good people in prison for reflexive actions is a recurring aspect of this life.

As for hitting the gator in the road at night I can't say that rises to the level of redefining someone with that track record. Tough break.

 

And just so we're clear, you're saying a driver shortage is absolutely impossible under any circumstances, yeah?

A simple yes or no.

 

When I drove flatbed for my old boss back in the day he had a waiting list of people wanting to work there and at the same time places in Missoula like Jones Bros and Decker ran ads every week. Does that mean there was a driver shortage in Western Montana?

 

It seems like it's a shortage of everything in those parts of the country, except wildlife lol

 

THERE IS NO DRIVER SHORTAGE IN THIS INDUSTRY - PERIOD. ​

We have an overcapacity situation driven by two factors, the filling of gaps by megas from collapsed companies AND the elure of making a fast buck by armchair owners and bottom-feeding fleets.

I know plenty of fleet owners who have no problems finding people to apply and work for them, but the megas can't maintain the 100% turnover rate to keep the revolving door moving at warp speed. This is where the problem is, the need to keep their throughput as high as possible because of the mess they have with resource management - driver management.

All of the industry rags are trying to promote this idea that we have had a driver shortage for the past 20-plus years and they work with the advertisers of the rags who insist it exists.

 

Is this a driver shortage thread or is it about longevity in trucking and that very few make it past 5 years?

 

If the 5 year thing is true, the reason people don’t last is because they probably don’t understand what they’re signing up for, or they fall for one of the numerous get rich lease purchase sales pitches.

It’s up to each individual driver to choose their own path. How many people go from mega to mega to mega expecting things to change at each company instead of improving their own skill set so they can get a desirable position doing some type of specialty work? I’ve been at this since April of 1997. I’ve never worked for a mega and I’ve never signed up for a lease purchase so it is possible to do.

 

5 years??
I’ve been doing it for thirty. Most everyone I know has been doing it for at least 15-20.

 

If something’s in short supply, the price goes way up, right? A driver shortage would look like the oilfield boom of 07-08.

 

Funny, I see drivers at truck stops driving '30 years' who don't know how to back.

'30 years' is vague. A guy driving June/July/August doing 200 miles/week on a county country road with no traffic for 30 years can say '30 years'.

30 years means nothing.

30 years could mean never out of a small farm town in East Central Illinois, never driving from Oct to April. Also never driving in rain, fog or at night.

'30 years' means nothing.