Fair to assume the driver shortage is real?

There is no shortage of incompetent drivers. Those are generally the guys that have to job hop to find their next one or two thousand more per year. The shortage of guys with a good attitude, an IQ over 110 and the coordination to handle a rig correctly is real. This pool of drivers is the one companies are competing over.

Know where you stand compared to the other drivers at your company. Put in 3-4 years if the pay is right. Only move on when the next gig has major advantages over the current job. As the pool of good drivers increases because the pay is getting better, the slobs, hillbillies and ghetto trash will be left in the cold. For now though, this pool of drivers have work but are the first to get their miles cut when things slow down.

 

They have been preaching driver shortage for as long as I can remember. As long as the indentured servitude exists with the mega carriers it will never change. Drivers enter the industry and quit 6 months later. Some move on to better driving jobs and many leave and never come back to it and continue to search for the Monday through Friday day job making $60k/yr with no college background.

 

From what I read on here Walmart is a driving job to shoot for.

Lately I've been hearing a lot of recruitment ads on the Sirius for Walmart drivers saying they have lowered their requirements.

That tells me the driver shortage may becoming more of a reality or Walmart is no longer as good a place to drive as it once was.

Which is it?

 

Anytime they yak about drivers retiring and no 20 year olds are looking at OTR jobs, it's nonsense.
Most new OTR drivers are around 40 years old.

 

The whole industry is built on turn over. Retention is the problem most trucking companies have its not shortage. Trucking is the fast food worker on wheels. Not much difference in pay from McD's to Burger King. Same work at both places. If you don't like McD's go to work for Burger King. Ya haven't lost anything by doing it. Same with most trucking companies. Can you flip burgers? Ya hired. Got a clean CDL? Ya hired. And both value you as a human about the same. Hell I would say the burger place puts more value on you. At least ya get a uniform, a free meal or reduced one when you work. A mile is a mile and burger is a burger.

 

I'm confused.

 

Any major nationwide moving company has a driver shortage. It's one thing finding a class a driver with a clean driving n criminal record.
Add on that the ability to pack load n deliver household goods with out destroying them. I've got 20 years in and I'm done. I was making more
money 10 years ago. I got my tanker n hazmat endorsements and I'm not going to miss the moving industry

 

If you add in all the expense of training new drivers, advertising for drivers, the cost of getting them to orientation, back ground checks, and all the other expenses associated with driver turn over. Hell companies could save money by just going ahead and raising driver pay by 20 cents or more. I guess you can't get tax cuts, write offs, and government welfare money for themselves if they kept drivers and paid a wage to keep them.