The Driver Shortage Myth

Discussion in 'Experienced Truckers' Advice' started by Thane, Jul 16, 2018.

  1. oldtrucker66

    oldtrucker66 Light Load Member

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    How many miles per week does the average mega driver drive now?
    More or less than 2300 miles?

     
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  3. Fold_Moiler

    Fold_Moiler Road Train Member

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    #### it even got me. 20k in student debt and driving a mixer lol. 20k isn’t bad but I regret it, I’d rather have 250 a month in the bank.
     
    metallifreak10 Thanks this.
  4. Canadianhauler21

    Canadianhauler21 Heavy Load Member

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    I work at a mega and would be lucky to get 1800 miles a week.
     
  5. Rubber duck kw

    Rubber duck kw Road Train Member

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    Seriously? How do you make any money, it a local by the hour job or what?
     
  6. Canadianhauler21

    Canadianhauler21 Heavy Load Member

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    No hourly pay. 0.44 per mile.

    Most of what I make comes from detention pay.

    Make more from detention pay than I do driving. Kind of sad really.
     
    okiedokie Thanks this.
  7. Rubber duck kw

    Rubber duck kw Road Train Member

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    Yea that's kind of pathetic, they pay decent for detention though I'm guessing.
     
  8. roadtech

    roadtech Medium Load Member

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    I've been hearing "driver shortage" for years , but agree with many here about wages . I see companies wanting to pay what I made 25 years ago. The profession is not attracting younger people . I think I just read somewhere that the average CDL holding truck driver is 53. That's how old I am and I've been driving for 31 years. I don't see many younger people driving trucks anymore except for recent immigrants,or some country boys who grew up with a family tradition in trucking.
    I am friends with some company owners and they are hurting for drivers. One friend has all custom large car Petes with new trailers ,home everyday work and average pay around $1500 a week and can't find anyone ,and the ones that do apply are goofballs with horrible driving records , job history's etc. I know a few that lost a bunch of drivers due to ELD 's and DOT harassment. I've been personally chased down and inspected and checked out
    4 times in the last week here in NY State by DOT because of some size and weight blitz they've been doing this week. All new DOT cops getting their rocks off chasing you down on the highway and pulling you over like your a bank robber.It gets old after a while.
    With ELD's ,driving facing cameras,satellite tracking.micro management and piss poor pay for the work and amount of hours and time spent away from home,many of these companies brought the driver shortage on themselves treating drivers like a necessary nuisance . Now when they're sucking wind trying to bring new blood into the industry they're raising pay a little but they would really squeal if they had to pay journeyman style hourly wages to drivers with experience and have to compensate them for layovers and meals on the road while the driver is conducting business for the company like any other professional trade does.Trust me there would not be a driver shortage then. Some Drivers are also to blame for treating it as some dead end job and conducting themselves like slobs and and just going through the motions doing the bare minimum to get by with no pride in their work. You get what you pay for. I don't see any UPS parcel drivers complaining,and last time I checked UPS had a waiting list to get hired full time.
    UPS is the king of micro managing ( I worked their for UPS almost 5 years as a supervisor and driver back in the 80's ) and they're a strict outfit ,but I know a few of there drivers who have been there over 20 years and make over
    $100k .
     
    ChevyCam, mitmaks, okiedokie and 2 others Thank this.
  9. oldtrucker66

    oldtrucker66 Light Load Member

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    You can look up the actual miles on form MCS-150.
    Example: In 2017, Swift drove 1,816,140,546 miles total and employed 20,530 drivers. That comes to 88,462.76 miles per driver per year or 1,701.2 miles per week.
    (@STexan averaging 2300 miles per week - the figure you wrote - would be a 35% increase over their 2017 miles. With that in mind, I do not know exactly what is meant by "2300 miles per week".) @MSGahir @Rubber duck kw
    The thing to keep in mind is the "average driver" does not drive 52 weeks per year. Not only do you have days off for vacation, illness, etc, with high turnover companies, new drivers are not very productive in orientation and training. By this I mean on MCS-150 they increase the driver count while at the same time do not contribute toward total miles driven.
     
    Lepton1 Thanks this.
  10. STexan

    STexan Road Train Member

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    The point is, if a lot of companies maximized ALL their driver’s available time [to the extent that would be considered doable] we could park 30% of the trucks, get rid of the worst 30% of the drivers, improve truck parking availability by 30%, and boost pay for the remaining drivers by 30%

    The point is many carriers want far more capacity than is needed today or tomorrow. I guess they’re afraid they will lose if they have to scramble and play catch-up tomorrow, so they just keep everybody miserable today.
     
    Lepton1 Thanks this.
  11. Rubber duck kw

    Rubber duck kw Road Train Member

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    If they would turn thise of us smart to know when we're tired lose and let us drive they'd see what can be done in a week. I know a guy who does 5000 mile weeks during the cattle run and that's only running 6 days a week.
     
    John B. Hood Thanks this.
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