THERE IS NO DRIVER SHORTAGE (?!)

Part of take care of yourself in trucking is learning what questions not to ask, finding an answer to a situation you see developing long before it develops, and showing everyone you are happy & pleasant, and hard working so they don't watch you like a likely trouble-maker.

Nobody enjoys more giving the "I not going to take this Baloney Sandwich (BS) one more second" speech more than me. But only a very few things are worth quitting over right now. If you don't give that speech & you get answers from other employees you might be able to make a small mistake, not obviously stick it to the company, and have the situation work more in your favor. If you have a trouble maker reputation then everything bad will be interpreted by the company as deliberate or sabotage, etc. Who needs that. Enough ambiguous & unexplained things will happen you need to foster a "good worker bee reputation" even when you are getting tired of certain things. I'm definitely not an expert about trucking or people but I've seen experts in both and experts do thing different than the average Joe. I borrow that expert behavior someone else worked hard to learn so my life is easier than if I acted in line with my temper and burned down a village over 5 cents of trouble. Others have their strategy & maybe theirs is better.

 

There’s never been a driver shortage. That’s the medias and the.. megas theory.
There a driver retention problem. They’ll spend money to get you in the seat, just to screw you over in a second.

 

Most new drivers don’t take their CDL seriously. What I mean you’re in a transition from driving a car to a tractor. A lot of new CDL drivers try to drive the truck like a car. For instance they miss their exit, instead of being patient and going to the next exit they end up panicking and bust a U in the median. I’ve seen this with my own two eyes had to slam my brakes on the interstate. They get into too many accidents which leads them to getting pretty much disqualified from getting hired anywhere. Another thing is getting speeding tickets in the truck or in their personal vehicle. It’s no big deal to speed to work and get a ticket for going 20 over as a non CDL driver but it sinks a truckers career pretty quick. Get too many speeding tickets and you’ll be back to square one. Also at my job a lot of drivers are getting caught up with drugs. I’ve moved up probably 5 spots in seniority in the last 6 months to a year at my job cause of drugs. 100k+ year job and they still risk it.

 

Exactly. And there's a pay problem. Pay drivers more and they might stick around. Some can be bought, so they'll keep at it even though the company has gone heavy on micromanaging and put in nanny cams, but gave the drivers more pennies per mile. Others won't put up with today's crap and turn in the keys. I think Artur pay scale is; the more control they have over you, the more per mile you get paid. The media makes it sound like this is a 6 figure job & all you do is kick back and hold the steering wheel & wonders why no one will do it. Someone asked me if I made low 6 figures, I said go talk to that owner operator over there.

 

You could pay drivers ½ a million dollars yearly and we'd be having the same conversation. Pay has increased since I've started driving in 2010. The issue isn't the pay. The issue is more of a psychological issue than a pay issue in my opinion. The first time a driver misses a family event, birthday, Christmas, etc, that's what causes drivers to quit. When drivers don't get revered like they think they should, they start complaining about work conditions, lack of respect etc. The lack of respect is some of our own doing but that's another conversation. The micromanaging, cameras, etc, WE did that to ourselves. Truckers don't act right and then want to get mad because companies make the decisions that they do. Going back to my original thought, drivers want the pay, and it is good money to drive trucks, but they want it on their terms. Who went to who for a job? Also, many drivers complain about low pay. It's not that trucking is low pay. It's good pay for a job that really isn't that difficult. After talking to drivers over the years, I think the narrative of low pay is passed by drivers who overspend on material things, or drivers that have a lot of debt, family obligations, things of that nature. You can make a living, even a good living, but many truckers come into the game having never seen 1000 bucks in a week, and they rhino they've arrived. They spend so much on frivolous things, then say the pay is too low.

 

Understood, but there's some companies that don't pay worth a hoot. I saw an ad for a driver who must have a spotless driving record, spotless PSP, minimum 2 years experience, and they'll start you out at 0.43/mile. Hard pass on that! I'm old enough to remember JB Hunt's "Industry leading pay of 0.37/mile" back in 1997, and 28 years later, here's some outfit offering 43 cents. Also, look how many companies are paying percentage. No pay in deadhead (23% of 0 = 0) and we all know how cheap the freight rates are.

 

There's no shortage on drivers just good drivers. With goo

d records I was told today

 

There's no shortage on drivers just good drivers. With goo

d records I was told today

 

My last employer had stacks of applications from “truck drivers”. None of which could qualify even the lowest of standards. Most without any grasp of the Kings English.

 

Ye

a depending on where you go to school they'll be honest or just kinda shoot ####. I definitely picked the right school as they've been upfront and honest even though I have a lot of obstacles