Projected driver shortage to tripple by 2026 but companies keep closing?!

I agree with your post
These carriers do not pay well
Enough sometimes the turnover
Is extremely high and nothing works

Not bonuses, sweet automatics
Not gps, free cell phones that
Type messages like a bad poem
With fragmented thoughts

I have taken up writing haiku
Like this one about turnover
The driver sees the issue
And he does not stay

 

One company, I was bottom man of 218 or so.

6 months later they posted a new roster senority. Top 15 never left their spots. They would have to die to move up.

I was in the top 30 or so. The rest of the 226 were replaced.

That's around 195 drivers replaced. In 6 months.

Maybe the mounds of precomputer paperwork on all of them for everything finally burned the company down I don't know.

In the 7th month I was gone. Replaced. In the 14th month the company was gone.

 

If you want to understand the trucking industry, the economy, war and peace, etc the first step is to stop wasting your time consuming the mainstream media. They have their stories written/produced months and years in advance. All they generally do is wait for someone or something vaguely related to that story to happen so they can insert the specific names of people and places and announce the story like they discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls. The MSM can't tell a jumbo jet from a dragonfly but that doesn't stop them from announcing their pre-written story with lots of Authority (TM) and serious head nodding.

 

In my experience most of the newbies blame the poor choices they make on the industry after "ignoring the warning signs, climbing over the fence, and getting into the tiger cage" so they can pet the big kitty.

For example, "I've been fired by 15 fast food restaurants, the court says I owe $80,000 in child support, I only smoke dope on days with a "y" in them and I was wondering should I start driving with Western Express or lease a truck from CR England?"

 

Just not enough money to stay out on the road for so long and live that hobo\nomadic lifestyle. Throw in e-logs, never-ending government regulations, more restrictive medical cards, increased traffic, lack of parking, dealing with numb-nuts dispatchers\crooked brokers, all the working\waiting\driving for free etc, etc, etc.

There's guys grossing over $100k at the LTL carrier I work at and they're home every day/night and off every weekend. OTR wants to pay thousands less to live in a fiberglass box and put up with all that nonsense, c'mon!!!

 

Thanks for this response. To me this is the real key to the issue. There's a lot of different factors that need to be weighed when talking about driver pay. Trucking companies obviously aren't in the business of hiring and paying drivers, they're in the business moving freight. So what we need to know are couple of things related to the core business:
1. How much is the customer paying up front to get their freight shipped?
2. What are the operating expenses / margins for a given shipper? <<<< This I'm sure is shrouded in "trade practice" secrecy for every company and is a virtual black box for anyone on the outside.
3. What percentage of the above is being paid to drivers?

The answer to question #3 is of course the paramount concern to any and every driver to the point where it evokes visceral responses that encompass everything from political opinions, views on the subjective mistrust of the mainstream media all the way to people's intrinsic perception of the fundamental nature of capitalism and it's relationship to labor.

It's clearly an issue that strikes a nerve and appears to have no easy or immediate answers.

 

Question one. #### little. They will qoute a hungry trucker .60 a mile if they can get him hooked.

Question Two Margins are BS for shipper. A giant warehouse with 200 truck docks taken care of by three human pickers a shift and a dock boss plus a fix it man does not move very many trucks fast.

In the 60's Companies hires high school kids to empty trailers and reload them cross dock by hand called term "Break bulk" for pretty good wages for partying etc. Once they evolve past 21 off to trucking school they went already VERY familiar with this industry.

Question Three. Very little.

I once caught one of my steel loads paying 2.52 to Eck Miller in Indiana back in the 90's before I was thrown out of the restricted printer room that I was exploring one night out of boredom waiting for morning light for dispatch. I earned somewhere in the 30's I forget. Knowing trucks need 1.20 they probably banked a bit. Times however many trucks. If I understood their company structure, there was a billion dollar family backing them so... money is nice but not the drivers. they are replaceable.

Cass Index for the USA sees van and reefer around 1.85-2-24 average by zone across the USA. that's not bad. But it's been that way for decades constantly under cut by big brokers stuck with crap loads everyone wisely reject.

Except Mr Hungry Volvo out of Chiraq USA.

Once the big brokers are run out of the industry in a few years Amazon and Uber intends to raise rates to 5.00. Take it or leave it. When a buyer for NYC needs that Beef out of Liberal KS or see half his city having no meat to sell that week, he will pay it and price it accordingly.

 

Thanks for the response!

It'll be interesting to see how the rates change overall and the money flows if that happens. Amazon and Uber aren't exactly known for their liberal pay and labor practices as they relate to ground level employees. Also, big monopolies have been historically bad for consumers and workers alike.

 

They may face a breakup sooner or later when the big brokerages refuse to pay lower and lower rates to try and protect market share. Then go out of business.

 

A second thought.

Broker houses employ people who are committed to earning say 150K a year for essentially making phone calls as fast as possible.

If the brokerage is forced to hire say new immigrants or hire call centers overseas at 20,000 yearly per employee they will save some money and endure a while longer.

I think ultimately it's bad for the USA. Trucking rolls our Land and way of life. Without it? We have no society within several paydays.