Driver shortage isn’t accurate

That,and shortage of PAY is the real issue!

 

Like I’ve posted here before the competition is stiffening for other things and other options for people to do. Now most of us here got truck driving running through our blood and we’re not gonna do anything else. But for example, you can now work at McDonald’s in California and make $22 an hour. You can work and hustle drive share and drive delivery services and make $300 a day easily and most semi-busy or busy areas. That competes with the people or pool of people that would go in the truck driving. Very few and I mean very few truck drivers. These days are willing to drive coast to coast and spend 2 to 3 weeks out on the road at a time. In my opinion, you’re a special breed if you’re engaged in that kind of driving and you should be paid a much higher pay than the average truck driver. However, companies don’t do that. They pay you the same as the guy who runs a day out in a day back and then goes home for two days.

 

May I ask -- what product(s) are these guys hauling? Does it require a lot of seniority there to pull those loads?

-- L

 

I suppose if you don't have a family, or you don't like the family you have, OTR can make sense. Live in the truck, shed all the expenses associated with owning or renting a house and having a private vehicle, and bank it all. Take your home time with friends or family or visiting wherever interests you.

I've been local, home daily as long as I've been driving so it's not for me. But under the right set of circumstances, I see where this could be a reasonable choice.

 

With satellite tracking and trailer trackers and basically up to the minute location there really is no reason for the long haul OTR business model to be a thing anymore for any mid to large size carriers. There’s no reason a person couldn’t leave, spend one night in the truck, meet another driver to swap trailers, and return home. A lot of companies ran relays back before deregulation but once everything was opened up it became the norm for people to live in the truck for a month and get a whole 3 or 4 days off when they got home.

 

For some depending on the area live in local jobs sometimes don’t even pay enough to justify doing them because the jobs won’t even pay the bills and cost of commuting as well..