the debate continues about driver shortage.

I feel it is kinda created. Company starts out with X amount of drivers and equipment. Rates are good. Company increases equipment to compensate for more work. Now company needs more drivers. Also don't forget that the old hands will be retiring soon too.

There are many reasons no matter which way you look at it. Wal~mart doesn't have enough drivers to service all its customers. So they hire on contractors to pick up the slack while continuing to search for qualified drivers that meet their standards.

 

The problem I see is that the mega carriers built their business models around low pay with high volume - not in terms of miles for individual drivers, but in terms of loads booked. Short, cheap loads + low cents per mile = no retention. None of this is new, but with more companies putting more and more emphasis on lease/purchase programs, that leaves the bad loads to be covered by company drivers in a forced dispatch system - just my observation, and it could be wrong. L/P drivers typically make more money for the big carriers. Maybe this is an unintended consequence that senior managers can't really deal with. They're making record profits, sure, but even a $.01 for every driver at any given mega carrier will fundamentally change the way the company operates.

 

I think there is mainly a shortage of tanker/hazmat drivers. Many drivers I speak to say they don't want anything to do with hazardous chemicals or driving tankers plus, the oil fields have taken a lot of the OTR tanker drivers away from the major carriers.

If you look online, almost every major tanker carrier has ads up on a constant basis. I also truly believe there is a shortage of good drivers for vans but only because the pay really isn't that good for the time you have to put in, and the new rules and regulations are making OTR trucking even more unappealing than it already is.

 

Good quality drivers? That's a hard find nowadays. I'd say that probably only a 3rd of all drivers are quality. Someone asked in another thread what makes up a steeringwheelholder. A better question would have been, "What are the characteristics of a quality driver?"

 

I'm beginning to think for some companies they do have a driver shortage.I got an automated call yesterday from transport America and get textes every so often from companies.

 

The mega carriers with their low milage pay and long days on the road and their propensity to hire inexperienced drivers will always have a hard time retaining drivers. They have been crying about a driver shortage from the beginning. One can train all the drivers one wants but as soon as the reality of the hardships and low wages sets in they are gone and the cycle continues.

At the other end of this are companies that only hire experienced drivers. My employer has had an opening for a class A driver for over a year now that is still unfilled. This particular job starts at 75k and you're home 2 days a week. I've seen drivers come in for interviews yet none were hired. Can't pass the drug test, fail a background check, and so on.

 

That job anywhere near Michigan? lol

 

That's not really true. They've made the business decision to keep their fleets at a certain size and to meet certain demands. It's not a lack of drivers that meet their standards. If they had the ability to run every single load themselves, they wouldn't. Contracting out is part of their business model. Their own fleet may slowly grow but they're not looking to cover everything with their own fleet.

My company does the same thing. There are certain types of runs that they want us, their own drivers to do. For the others that don't fit a certain criteria, we contract them out.

 

I'd like to know the answer to that one too southpaw