Inflation Hits 7.5%, Highest in 40 years

It is just that particular load. I have a contract for it.

 

Nice!
Many contracted loads usually are hard to change by that much.

 

Well, there are 2 choices. ..price hike or no load. I like the guy and we have a good relationship and I just told him straight out that my rates have to go up because my costs have gone up and he didn't fight me over it. I just said straight out, I have to have more money or I can't haul them, you'll have to find someone else.

 

What will be difficult for company drivers is the choice to stay at a company they like and get a paltry raise (such as a $0.01 CPM yearly raise, which is common for OTR drivers) that doesn't even come close to covering inflation (especially in times like this), or jump ship just so they can get a cost of living raise and not an actual raise.

You would think these OTR companies that are short on drivers and having trouble retaining drivers would just give raises that cover the official inflation as well as giving the drivers a raise on top of that, but that's not what happens. So as a result drivers have to switch companies just to get a cost of living raise, much less an actual raise.

To be fair this dillema exists outside of the trucking world too and is rampant in many industries, where it's better just to switch companies every few years to get actual raises instead of staying with the same company for life like my granparents generation did back in the day.

I know it's going to be a tough choice for me at the end of 2022, because I like the OTR company I'm with but that tiny $0.01 CPM yearly raise that I'm going to get isn't even going to cover inflation, much less being a raise itself. Add to that the sign on bonuses most companies are offering. Going to be a tough choice and I'll have to reevaluate at the end of 2022 and I"m sure a lot of OTR company drivers are feeling the same way.

 

At this point rates are down everywhere for the next month or so, thinking to just sit it out like always. But who knows, they may as well never come up.. till election.