College Student Writing a Paper- Trucking pay/driver shortage

Mega carriers will always push the driver shortage mantra to justify shoddy training and cheap labor. Good companies that pay well and treat employees well don’t have a shortage. 40k CDL’s are issued each month, there isn’t a driver shortage. There is a shortage of good paying companies run by people who know what they are doing.

I’m not OTR, although I run OTR miles, but when I was OTR I had made 65k or better. Plenty of OTR companies that pay 60k or better.

 

Just do a cost analysis using the inflation rate since 1979 to see how low a drivers wage is today compared to back then.
I knew a driver back then that made $48,000 a year driving for Radio Shack. He had a monstrous home on 14 acres of lake front property and a stay at home wife with three daughters.
Today using your number of $44,000 he would be renting a low end townhouse and his wife would have to work to support the kids.

 

Sorry. I punch a time clock now. Used to be otr.

However, I hold a Bachelors degree in English literature. If you need me to I can edit you paper for you. I have edited 1 doctoral thesis. A few masters thesis and several run of the mill college essays, along with poetry and creative writing pieces as well. If I can be of assistance in that department please let me know.

 

You can send me an email address and I can give you some true numbers. I'm a terminal manager with a trucking company.

 

306 service days 2001 that means two of us (Husband wife team) were more than 150 miles away from the home the entire taxable year working per our logs. Which were retained 8 years and disposed.

Gross was right about 65000. Company FFE. We put 221000 miles on that truck it comes out to 0.29 cents a mile total to the truck based on odo from 16 when issued to us new to the day we turned it in and hopped a rental car home.

House expenses were a couple hundred max. Water bill less than 500 for the entire year, there was a accumulating balance on the gas bill which was also less than 500 that year. Insurance was 30 bucks on two cars and house was paid off. Insurance on home was a hundred something a month. Electricity less than 500 that year.

On road expenses came to around 13700 for two people against perdiem in food deduction standard that year. We probably approached 20000 in road expenses making our take home about 45000. Perdiem canceled the taxes on the gross and about 175 per person per week extra cash withholding led to around 12000 or so refund check making ready for a new year 2002. That 2002 trucking year did not happen as both of our OTR work ended at the end of 2001. College consumed the 12000 in 2002 for both of us. Poof. Eventually college created a worthless 4 year degree for one and a busted two year for the other (Due to H1b visa immigration for workers to Arkansas taking my future IT entry work openings that time period I cut my losses and stopped college) Total finanical cost of college for 46000 roughly give or take a thousand paid in full 2013. POOF. This however gained us total finanical freedom from any future act by Uncle Sam because Student Loans are non dischargeable.

So we see that as a loss. Medical work on me totaled about 55000, cancer combat with spouse almost 1.5 million not including another 200K in VA care between 2001 and 2013. VA said we wont see 5 years after cancer even chance. We got 10. And are grateful for it.

Trucking in 2001 was our best. And at the same time with FFE specifically having us doing one particular task, a National Fire truck racing to grab Single Solo Drivers and Their Loads THAT ARE RUNNING LATE and issued deadlines against FFE by Accounts threatening to sever business relationships should that load not make it to say chicago by midnight that day.

That work made up the bulk of our work that year. Once in a while roughly either Spring time or Falltime, things settle and become stable enough for us to run 7000 miles a week for months on end LA to Avenel NJ A round trip cross country every 6 days. Truck was supposed to be paid a total of round .75 cents give or take a little.

Spouse pay started at .27 increased to ..32 maybe. My pay changed from high .30's to salary that made mileage pay system meaningless during training for months and when spouse was accepted as full team driver my pay went to around .40 a mile roughly, I forget the exact total.

So. 65000 gross. almost 20000 spent. (12000 burned after 9-11 caught us in a 10,000 dollar storm repair work on the house plus a few thousand needed to run 6 weeks without pay with a different company running medicine from memphis because payroll people were destroyed in attacks) Everything was eventually caught up. Taxes ate almost 20000 what's left?

Hardly 10000 House bills for being away took half of that. 5000 net. Medical bills and a few enter tainment stuff. Poof. Break even. Refund check arrived in 2002 to begin new year early.

POOOF.

That was a interesting year. Truck doing a total of averaging 0.29 a mile entire year including the team we did for 11 months and my solo the last one making twelve months in total. We did NOT count my service days away from home that month of December that amounted to three more weeks. I went home for good from OTR a few days prior to Christmas that year.

in 1987 or so I made 25% or .25 a mile with a number of companies, one in particular paying by load delivered per day. (This one was a outlier, you could and did between 350 in delivered loads per day 5 days a week. Most days at least 170 depending on what customers you caught that day or preloaded the evening before.) Three months in a seacan company was a total loss of about 2000. But I consider that a win because I walked away with my life, the lives of others and the losses were overweight tickets etc I paid. The money came from other jobs that paid better to make up for it that year in 1987. Gross was around 26000. Reason? Too many firings or quitting that year. I went through almost 6 employers that year. Mostly for nicky picky stuff like rubbing a telephone pole or totalling the occasional car as a newbie etc.

The differences between 1987 and 2001 is simple. Inflation. In the late 80's rent for the unit equal to the one I live in now was 200. Market rate for the unit I live in now is about 1000 a month. It's still the same cube. Same power requirements every month (Electric) same water and so on for one person. However you are not paying 30 dollars a month for 1980's electric. You are paying 100 a month for 2018 electric. Half of which is taxes and administrative fees etc. (.55 cents of that is imposed on replacing our State Grid destroyed in 2000 Ice storm)

There is no point in going further back into the 60's At that time we were on the Gold Standard and the American Silver Certificate could be redeemed for silver in those days. Cars were around 3500 new for a V8 with AC and houses 4 bedroom, basement etc built retail 20000. Gas .22 to .29 a gallon milk is a few nickels maybe. I think one of my relatives was famous for putting in a dollars worth of gas into his Crysler which had a 32 gallon tank of leaded gas for a whole weekend. (And we did run to the base commissary etc for our errands in those days on that weekend time with that car) There was enough income in those days to make money irrevelant to us.

Community college for 4 years was a few thousand. Nothing like the debt ridden monstrosity it has become today with about 1.4 trillion outstanding owed to the American People this year. And about 1.1 trillion in credit card debt (Visa and MC) and about 700 billion in subprime car loans and so on down the line. You can wipe out the entire Budget for the USA at the federal level just for those piddling debts. We went from about 1 Trillion debt in the carter-regaean years to over 21 trillion now.

Taxation on income approaches the levels endured in 1946. For the two of us we are effectively non taxable. But we pay our income in many other losses even today. Mostly medical work that is necessary and accumulated from a life time of trucking, and military etc. for the two of us.

We do not expect to live very long so social security is not even planned for. If we made it a few more years at 62 it would pay 1100 a month each. At 68 full retirement maybe 1500 a month for life. SS expects to be negative around 2034 about 25 to 32% cut in benefits expected. Government COLA increases running greater than 2 to 3% per year now. We have gone from 15 million Disabled workers on SSdI to approaching 25 million including outstanding claims with about twice that number to three times that retiring at 62 or becoming elgible to collect either or both SS and VA in the next 10 years.

per worker in deduction towards future social security there may not be any SS at all when current people under 35 make it to 65. Congress has not had a formal budget for almost 12 years now. It's all very carefully selected departments such as the Military, VA, SS, Nation's agencies etc. And even then it's at levels paid 10 years ago and CR's or Omni buses with increasing borrowing each year.

The US Congress to be fair did built a FULL 13 agency full fiscal year 2018 budget to the last dollar as of September 2017. It passed the House and went to the Senate, where it was tabled to rot along with about 450 other bills not yet addressed by the US Senate to this day.

For myself that 24 to 32 will set me back to 2009 levels of income which was pretty good. But the outgoing billing will turn it negative and must be disposed of, for example insurance on the vehicle and the vehicle itself. That will go first. Followed by other cuts as necessary. Even the internet will go. It's not that needed. Literally not needed, other forms of transportation is coming online such as Uber, Medical van etc. There are 5 options right now if I need to go somewhere with two days notice and a few dollars in cash.

It's pretty bad. And getting worse fast. Our work the last ten years exactly has been a maintaince of some gain of cash each month versus the ever rising expenses. Foods, Utilities, Gasoline, Insurance etc etc etc etc. At some point that will turn negative. Never mind the medical work, about 25000 dollars so far has been deferred and rising at a cost of poorer health. Essentially we are finished ourselves.

Two weeks ago the doctor wanted 10,000 for a scan plus about 4000 more for related work this month and next month. I canceled all three appointments. His income consists of medicine refills for a hour each month now. We to extend that to every two months to cut medical billing even further. Medical debt on me that I am paying on stands at 12000. That will be paid approximately 8 years from now or when I die after life insurance pays that off. Im worth more dead than alive. Funeral is paid for as of 2002 for two people.

You could take the entire income of two of us against current unpaid medical billing annually for three years and not cover it all.

If you are a youngster with a whole life ahead of you? Grats. Good luck.

There isnt enough birthrate to support the elderly for the next 30 years. Immigration is covering that losses including illegal ones. President by law is allowed to accept 45000 refugees this year.

 

Well there's so many factors to think about with driver pay. To me, it's not horrible money, but I do think it could be better. When people determine pay rate, they do it as if it's you and only you. I don't believe they consider where one lives, family, and other mandatory expenses. If a trucker goes home once or twice a month, and assuming he doesn't break down, he/she can see earnings north of $60000 grand per year with most otr companies, there few exceptions in which drivers can see more. I think how well someone does in any career is not solely based on the income, but moreso obligations, and spending habits. It seems to me that all otr drivers hover around the same weekly averages of pay, maybe the top ten percent see 65000 or more

 

Yeah, the "Driver Shortage" theory is a little like the Global Warming theory. And also is a Corporate theory that if told over an over along with manipulated data sounds completely true! Mega carriers are always screaming this concept. Why? Out with the old and in with the new. New CDL drivers with little experience are paid less. Then if there is a shortage, the federal government starts giving Mega carriers thousands of dollars for each driver they train ..... Not employ... Train. Megas have been getting Grants for EACH student for years now. Some $6k plus for each CDL Trainee. So the Driver shortage theory is only doing 1 thing.... making mega carriers more MONEY. 10 Loads waiting for every 1 driver?.... no way... maybe for walmart but overall? nope. those "10" loads are probably way out in BFE with a low rate mixed with being heavy, OR.. the shipper has a bad reputation and/or has crappy freight brokers and freight managers. Pay depends on the company you are with. With my experience I can hire on with lets say England and get a whopping .36cpm?, I can lease and that varies from pay being around homeless to "I was able to pay my phone bill".... I can be a owner operator and gross $4-8k weekly, I can drive for a company that takes minimum 2-3 yrs otr experience and make starting .44cpm , or like now, I am making .50cpm for a mom and pop company doing a triangle from ca to or, to tx, back to ca....The average yearly pay for drivers data is mainly coming from the stock market trucking companies... more experience equals higher pay, seems this driver shortage has diluted the data.

 

I actually believe there is driver shortage. Just a lot of drivers have bad dispatchers or brokers. I have ran a load almost everyday that I've driven and I'm in my 9th year. Every otr company is always hiring with few exceptions. It's just convincing people that it's worth it. It's stable employment. That's what these companies are really selling people. As for global warming, that my friend is real. We just won't be alive long enough to see the planet melt itself.

 

Lol, I know that.... I was referring to that one politician Al Gore? Having his data say we were all going to be melting already...lol just didnt feel like differing from the GW scam and the thousands of years from now real thing...