Driver Shortage

Sure there is a lack of parking, if a driver is only reliant on sleeping at the PFJ, Love's, TA/Petro; or if they are hellbent on running only specific hours of the day.

 

But when megas hire based on a 90% attrition rate. It pretty much proves his point.

 

True enough. So if theres a retention issue, why wouldn't there be a shortage?I tend to believe there is a shortage but for other reasons. There is population growth in USA. There is also far more commerce than there ever has been, and I think that has exceeded its capacity. You have too many businesses, too much demand for products, not enough workers in any industry. I think it's shortages all across the board. The baby boomers retiring a little sooner than anticipated didn't help the cause either.

 

There’s not a shortage it’s how drivers are treated. Period!!!!! I run three weeks hard, I should be entitled to go home for four days without someone bugging me to come back after a 34 hour reset. But that’s what they do. Every time! Make me feel pressured to take almost zero home time. Then some weeks I get out on the truck and I end up sitting for more than 24 hours because of something they screwed up or a bad load or whatever. And they don’t pay me for it. And I’m sitting there thinking I could be home right now. it’s terrible and they force drivers to constantly look for greener pastures. Some find those greener pastures and some just bounce from job to job a few times until they get burned out on it and quit for good.

 

Don’t mind me asking but what exactly do you do?

I lost two drivers just before Christmas to gig work. Both bought a car for the work, one a Tesla and the other a Lincoln, they are doing the Uber/Lyft/crypto binary trading (while doing the ride sharing) and one doing micro working when at home and the other is doing the day laboring thing on the weekends. They rattled off a lot of other little things that net them change in the cookie jar, which add up to good coin at the end of the week.

One of them in the last month cleared (after taking out taxes) twice as much as he made driving a truck and the other is close to that now. The first one said at this pace he will end up making almost twice of what he made driving for me (which was twice of what he made driving for the previous company) and if he focuses more on trading, he may make three times as much. His goal is a million after taxes in five years which he will make that.

 

You don’t even need a CDL anymore. I see people doing box trucks, pickups, and making money. There’s a couple on YouTube that fired their drivers, got rid of all their fleet, got a box truck and are OTR with it. Last video they made over $28k in a week before expenses.

 

$28k in a week with a box truck?
post the YouTube link.

 

Being that you are GETTING INTO the business, this assessment is based off of lack of experience. Anyone tells you it is not a skilled job has not driven.

Try backing a 70 foot vehicle into some of the shopping centers, stores, markets in the refrigerated market that were set up for box trucks but the new company that repurposed a store without thought that they use full sleeper and 53 foot combo to get into same hole that didn't get upgraded. Or. Try squeezing a trailer in a hole at a Georgia Pacific yard where you can barely squeeze a soda bottle thin way between each trailer with minimum room for a decent set up. Try driving through multitudes of weather safely in one trip. Hell even with satellite views now days it's still takes quite a bit of talent to figure out where to go to get docks, ramps, drops to new places. Approach it wrong and now you have to find a place to pull a U-turn and try again. Get back to that statement when you drive through some of the mountain towns where the road routes were originally set up for horse and cart during mining booms. You are tasked with negotiating those lanes then have to figure out how to take turn in an intersection hoping a 4 wheeler is observant enough to see your predicament and will back up off the white line a bit to allow room for the trailer.

Sorry. Definitely hit a nerve a bit there. But the truth remains there.

I work for a mega. I do see a lot of bright eyed and bushy tailed folks come in expecting to run like Snowman from Smoky and the bandit. Or they here about all the old stories they hear from veteran drivers about the truck stop antics and all the things they get to see and do, not realizing that at a mega efficiency and running is priority. New scenery, yea you get that, as you drive past it. Most new folks get hit hard with that reality. Then the "resets" - going in they are thinking 34 business hours. Not consecutive hours (which is a bit of BS) . Then add in dispatcher or DTL or whatever monicker they get throws in there. Some are worse than the customer wanting to blame the driver for everything including their own EFF ups. Instead of finding solutions first. Annd yes, pay and social life both can be lacking. That's why it takes certain personality types to handle the industry. Owner operators have their own headaches to deal with, one I am not likely to try. Im honest with myself. I can't barely keep up with grocery receipts, owning a business is not in my future. Plus I don't want the head ache. I'll sacrifice some pay to let someone else do all that. As long as I keep perspective on why numbers why I am making less than them.

 

Lol that was supposed to be $8k.