The Driver Shortage Myth

I envision a future where the govt has a conscription draft for truck drivers due to a national security concern of having no food on the shelves and anarchy in the streets. As the hard working baby boomers retire and the millennialis become the only gen to be driving trucks expect us entitled millennials (including me) giving the middle finger to the low wage occupation of trucking.

 

You have a solid understanding of the situation

 

that's right, your the future of the trucking industry. back in 62 - about 85, trucking was doing good. then all of the sudden about 2010 the flow of people that say, " I can dwive a twuck", jump in the industry, and NOW, the trucking insurance companies are having to pay up A LOT MORE, costing the carriers big money.

 

im looking towards, MONDAY - WEDNESDAY, local, and I will let them know, DO NOT ask me to work Thursday Fri, and definitely not going to happen Sat, and Sun. wife and I , have 2 social security, 3 pensions. we waited for full social security, benefits, actually wife waited till 70. a lot more money.

 

The younger fresh, greenhorn, newbie, or what ever there called, will not see social security. but if they look closely at there paycheck, gov. takes out mucho money for social security, and that goes into my pocket, thank you.

 

I went to a few walmarts up near where I used to live, the shelves are empty, the people don't give a crap and one of the workers blamed it on the trucking shortage, which I had to ask the manager what is going on, Walmart makes their money not off of things being cheap but the logistics system that does automatic reordering for the stores - and he said they may be closing these stores soon, there are too many super stores in the area so they are looking for people's complaints to see which one they will keep open.

 

Sorry, but I can't find the most excellent thread about the driver shortage that was posted within the last few days. It linked an article where research into the driver shortage was done.

What the researchers found was that 551,000 NEW CDL drivers became truck drivers within the last year. The VAST majority of them started pulling dry vans, some pulled reefers, but VERY VERY few decided to pull flatbed, tanker, bulk pneumatic, end dump, side, dump, bottom dump, etc. etc.

Nobody wanted to get a job with any of the "Three D's": Dirty, Difficult, and Dangerous.

The conclusion of the research is that there IS A DRIVER SHORTAGE in certain sectors of trucking. I've seen it myself in the oil industry. It's why I am often asked to park my own truck and go drive a customer's truck from point A to point B, because they flat out don't have enough drivers. Tankers, bulk pneumatic, oversize and/or overweight, sand chiefs, pumps, mixers, cranes, etc. etc.

Driver schools prep graduates to get a CDL and go pull dry van for a mega. It's all about the glory of the open road. You don't hear much about higher paying jobs where you get to take a big rig and go play in the mud, nor do you receive any instruction about how to do that.

Meanwhile of those 551,000 drivers that went through the process of getting their CDL, how many quit the industry because all they saw was the OTR dry van side of things? The disrespect and the low pay?

Think outside the box (dry van). There's sectors of this industry that are begging for drivers. The pay is better. Home time is better. You are given respect and appreciation for what you do.

Yes, there's a driver shortage. There's a shortage of drivers willing and able to get dirty. I played in the mud when I was a kid. I get paid to play in the mud today.

 

The people that pay $600 for a wrench have other options besides slavery to keep food delivery happening.

 

Just offer the millennials avocado toast & knit caps. They seem unable to resist those. Oh, and put an "i" or "cloud" in the name and they'll pay companies to work.