Fair to assume the driver shortage is real?

Did you happen to read the whole thread?
I don't believe I complained. Interesting view on the "shortage" though.

 

I haven't seen a lot of finger pointing or blame placing in this discussion. I've seen people discussing what they have seen from the trenches.

I'm working with our recruiting department, and can tell you that if we had 100 applications for every available seat the recruiters would be dancing in the street. Heck, if we had TEN apps we'd be happy! the fact is we are having a heck of a time finding qualified drivers to fill our trucks. Part of it is the fact we can't compete against the wages offered in the natural gas industry (which is still doing very well, grrrr). Add to that we are having an issue with drivers retiring or moving into other positions with other companies (lease purchase or local driving or similar), plus the usual knuckleheads we have to let go for screwing up, and yes. We are seeing the effects of a shortage. And I'm hearing the same from other carriers I talk to on a regular basis. It's not e-logs, no matter how much we want to blame them. It's not over-regulation. It is, quite simply, not enough new people coming into the industry who want to drag tarps or throw chains and straps when they can just open a set of doors and back up. Add in the fact that we don't train rookies straight out of school, and you begin to see the problem.

I need drivers with a minimum of three months experience with clean records and a willingness to get dirty and work on a flatbed. And I can't find them. That, to my mind, equals a shortage.

 

So raise the wages. If you offered 75 cents a mile you'd probably find drivers.

 

And have to padlock the doors inside a year if the rates don't come up. Rock and a hard place situation.

 

You must be receiveing some applications otherwise a few of you recruiters wouldn't be there.So why are you turning down the applicants?Your company is one knotch above a starter company simply because you don't have training and only require 3 months exp..So would the pay have anything to do with why you can't find the drivers?

 

We only have two full time recruiters, so there isn't a lot of space to trim there. Plus, they are hustling as fast as they can on the apps we are getting.

As far as why we are turning down applicants, there are a few reasons. A lot of them have spotty driving records, load claims, stuff like that which are immediate job killers in the flatbed side of things. Remember, a load claim on a steel load can cost a flatbed company up to 1 million or more. Steel freight is pretty cheap to haul, but those coils are very pricey.

Another issue is too many drivers coming back in with a year or two out of the truck. Our insurance does require somewhat recent experience. I don't know the exact time frame, because we can sometimes slide a really good driver under the radar.

Another reason is applicants in areas we are already saturated in drivers for. Can't guarantee a driver hometime when I've got 20 drivers in that area and can only depend upon 15 loads. We've actually had to turn down very qualified drivers for just this reason.

Our current pay rate starts at 0.48/mi or 27% freight revenue at 3mos-1 year, with increases up to 0.50/mi or 30% depending upon experience. Our pay may not be the top of the industry, but we certainly aren't bottom of the barrel either.

As far as being one notch above a starter company, I can see where it appears that way but in my experience we are a bit higher than that. We dropped our experience requirements about a year ago (before I started here) in response to the lack of available drivers. But we do need strong, solid drivers who don't need babysat every step of the way. We ARE an e-log company, it's true. But on the other hand, there's no "fuel routing" or required routing or any of that crap. The driver gets the load information (pick up times and location, delivery times and location) and is expected to get himself there all by himselfsomes. These days, that is considerable freedom for the driver.

Personally, I'm at a loss. The company has, as far as I can see, done everything they can to be a desirable place to work. Certainly I'm happy here as a driver and fully intend to retire from Builder's in 30 or 40 years (or when they drag my corpse outta the truck, whichever happens first). I can say from personal experience that dispatch does make an attempt to get to know the drivers on a personal level, the company does keep the driver's needs and the driver's family in mind, and they WANT the driver's to succeed.

Am I a Builder's cheerleader? You bet your bippy! And proud of it. Do I want Builder's to get good solid drivers? Absolutely! We may not be the best outfit on the road today, but it's not due to lack of trying.

 

Thank You for braking it down in detail.How long have you recruited for this company?Many if not most companies are in the same boat you are but because their insurance turns the applicants away they can't find the drivers.I'm back to looking for a job,have an interview tomorrow with a Petroleum company.My mvr is clean as well as no csa points or violations.But the flaw I have is a long work record.I told this company that and his concern was my MVR.Do you all worry much about the work record?I'm finding more and more companies could care less just get thru their insurance company.

 

Patty, I'm not a recruiter per se. I just try to work with the recruiting department because we are looking very hard for drivers in my particular area. These are just the issues that have come up in conversations between myself and the recruiters in Memphis. I'm quite sure there's a lot more that goes into it. I do know we look at the work record to see if a driver is a job hopper or someone likely to stick around for a bit.

I can tell you that I KNOW it costs us around $5,000 to bring a new driver into the fold. So we are certainly interested in getting that investment back on a new driver, and according to my contacts in the Safety Department it takes about six months to do so. So, our sign on bonus takes six months to pay out fully. It's an incentive to the driver to stick around at least long enough to cover the costs of bringing him on. I'm willing to bet the same holds true for most if not all carriers. Where we differ (in my opinion only) is we want the driver to stay past that six month period.

I KNOW from talking to the upper management types in Memphis that the company reeallly wants to bring the turnover rate down. At last guess, we are somewhere around 101% turnover per year. While we will never get that rate down to zero, we definitely want it a heck of a lot lower than it is. Every driver I keep from one year to the next is a significant savings to the company, not only in terms of recruiting costs but in truck maintenance costs, load claim costs, fuel costs, and so on. The big boss knows experienced drivers are solid gold, and the best thing for the company's bottom line. All of upper management, all of Safety, and all of dispatch know the same. Experienced drivers get the job done, and experienced drivers who know our system and work according to our rules (which are stricter than DOT, it's true) are easier to dispatch, know where to go and how to run the truck profitably for themselves (and for the company as well).

As for me, give me twenty five regional true professional drivers in the Pittsburgh area and I'll take over this town! Which is why both I and the company are working very hard on the recruiting end around here.