Is there any wonder?

It's the standard big lie being floated on both sides of the border. There isn't a lack of drivers, just a lack of drivers that don't want to drive crap trucks for crap wages.

I know quite a few old school drivers, with more than a million safe miles that can't find a gig locally in BC. Biggest reasons are, companies can't treat them like cheap slaves, and they only speak English.

 

@Canucklehead hit it on the head, lol. Good drivers cost companies real money, not because they get into a lot of accidents, but they demand fair pay for work done and due to experience, deserve very high rates.

It's usually easier for a company to hire a bunch of new, inexperienced drivers out of school for 35 cpm than it is to find a quality driver for 45 cpm and hold onto them.

 

You're certainly correct about that. I've never quite understood it personally. If I was a business owner, I'd rather hire 10 quality, experienced drivers that I KNOW I can count on, as opposed to going through several drivers every couple of weeks, or months. Additional orientations, drug tests, physicals, training, paperwork etc etc. Just seems like paying #### rates just to get cheaper drivers, resulting in a revolving door would be much more of a headache and in the end, you would think it comes out to a wash in regards of the bottom line. But apparently not, because that's the model "MOST" companies use. Obviously I'm not a business owner so apparently that model works for said companies, but common sense would lead me to believe paying a bit more would not only make life a lot easier, but would also offer piece of mind that the work will get done in a safe, timely fashion buy QUALITY drivers, without having to second guess the guys pulling the loads. Oh well.

 

Well I'm a few years away from the technical retirement age. But I may want to be on the road from time to time after that. My wife says I get a little antsy after a month without being on the road lol. But the last thing I'd want to do then is drive one of the new company trucks, with weak motors and lousy jakes. I'll probably keep my truck which has the best of everything, egr deleted and removed, no def or whatever other emissions crap nowadays, great owner/op horsepower and torque, killer jakes, and no governing for me ever. So maybe I'll hire a driver for 5 days per week, and drive it myself for 2 (unless I have to take it into the shop). I'd run an ad stating that he should have at least 20 years of experience, excellent verifiable references, no accidents for the last million or so miles, speaks English with zero accent, perhaps a previous owner/op himself, and knows how to chain up, and drive an 18 speed stick. For that he'd get a decent wage, decent truck to drive, and paid fully and on time. I'm old school myself, so I'd be a dream boss.

 

BC and Ontario are horrible, even Bison and TransX are finding it hard to go work there, due to the number of undercutting scabby outfits; firing warm foreign bodies at cheap freight.

They can have it tho, plenty of work everywhere else in Canada and EVERYWHERE in the US. I haven't been into Ontario in over a year, and since I got off the Dedicated Alberta to Vancouver stuff, maybe 2-3 times into Vancouver Metro.

The US has also had enough, they have had enough of this complete lack of English and driving or backing ability coming across the border. Humboldt also really shook things up, I had a Wyoming DOT officer tell me that "A Humboldt scale incident, will not be allowed to happen in Wyoming". Montana has also been out in force, if it has Canadian plates; its getting stopped. Haven't seen a Syndicate, Rig Logistics, CPX or Day and Ross truck cross into the US thru Montana in a while. People Express and Lightspeed seem to be getting less common. H&R has made a resurgence down south, with almost 100% German/Russian and British drivers. Yessir, it's getting interesting.

Like I keep saying tho, TONS of good companies who will treat a guy right out there. Just a bit harder to find, since they actually pay their drivers vs. paying Marketing, Recruiting and Management Talent.

Finally convinced a buddy to leave Bison, and he went to work for ERB / K-Dac. He literally called me the other day almost in TEARS, over how happy he was, how little stress he had, and how he felt he wasted 5 years driving under those conditions.

 

Kudos to mt and wy if only we could get the same scrutiny up north here

 

The reasons i know of are eld mandate, low pay, no accessorie pay, new trucks are dumb, auto trans are not desired by drivers, and jumping through flaming hoops for that imaginary bonus pay, I almost forgot loss of per diem deduction, and no health insurance offered at most places I've made money for.
As soon as Sept 1st roles around I quit.