Driver Shortage? Misery?

Job hopping tells the employer that you won't take their bs.
So..a bs company probably won't be interested in hiring said job hopper...problem solved.

 

I remember in 07 when a lot of local drivers were getting laid off they had to take an OTR job. Mind you these were some safe well experienced drivers. So companies were telling drivers "Oh if you haven't been OTR in the past how ever many years. Then you have to start at the bottom of our pay scale."

That was just pure B/S in my book. But ppl were dealing with it because they needed a job. However even with some OTR companies today. They advertise that they don't care how much experience one has. Because if you come to the company everyone starts off at the bottom of the pay scale.

Cheap labor is the name of the game for a lot of these trucking companies. But I say no to those kind of places. If a company wants a driver to live in a truck for a week plus, and be away from family and friends. And miss out on anniversary, graduations, kids first steps, a child's birth, etc. Then the company should be paying $1000 p/wk at a bare minimum.

But even if the pay was consistent. The whole aspect of always being gone doesn't set well with some families. I've heard the war stories about cheating and divorce. But some drivers just don't know how to go home.

 

It's not a drivers shortage. It's a shortage in pay. The pay has been the same for years. You want a pay raise, move to another company. It's never going to end.

 

Ya this just about nails it.

You can only put up with so much BS before enough is enough. Money isn't everything, being told originally when you got hired "our fleet only hires the best of the best" then get micro managed, slowly start taking away all the perks, and start throwing in all the BS so called safety crap IE cameras, on guard, blind spot detector, and so on and so on.

Seems we aren't trusted anymore and expected to miss out on more personal time at home for the good of the industry.

 

Oh Henny-Penny. A driver shortage? I might find my Walmart run out of my Cherrios or some other cheap Chinese crap. I better call my Senator, better Tweet my President. We got to get these mega training companies some more subsidies and tax breaks stat., before something drastic happens!

 

When you consider most of the megas work on a business model that expects about a 55% utilization of available power equipment [and driver HOS], the idea they may have problems keeping up in a sustained economic upswing is a real concern.

They'd rather keep a 1,000 under-utilized drivers than expect 750 drivers to get out there and hump it week after week. And the reasons for this attitude or numerous, from all sides.

 

A decent news story but I find a few minor reporting issues and inaccuracies.


You need more [escalated] pay increases to retain good drivers who've proven themselves but the idea you're can raise average starting wage for a typical OTR driver to say - $65k/yr is going to help the situation and bring in a "better class" of driver is just wrong. All that will do is bring on more bad drivers, faster. All the money in the world is not going to make you any better at the job if you just suck at it.

And another thing ... the busier and more over-crowded roads get each year, the better you have to be at the job to make it to the new year, alive and with no marks against you. That aspect alone is a HUGE reason the industry can not keep many drivers long-term. And there is no easy fix for this. It is what it is.

 

I don't think there is a driver shortage per se. The turn over rate in today's trucking world is horrible. Some drivers get booted from the industry because of health reasons ( I am one, I retired but Epilepsy & Diabetes forced me out). Some get booted because they were an accident waiting to happen and unfortunately it did. (more then once) Still others begin to see that $$$ promised was just a fraction of what they actually got. And then there are the drivers that simply got tired of all the BS and took their CDLs into local jobs and got off the road. Just to keep replacements in these seats year in and year out takes thousands of drivers going through these drivers mills. <<< that's the real drivers shortage in my book!

 

This is very true, but in the eyes of corporate trucking, the fact remains ... they can't get enough meat through the doors to keep with the rate of business increase (improving economy), along with loss of drivers for all the many various reasons as you stated. So there is in fact is a "driver shortage" when you look at it from the boss's perspective.

 

I can't disagree. I will add that If the economy improves over the next few years as some say, it will only exacerbate this part too.