Truck driver turnover - why so high?

It's called artificial turf because it's a fake green grass!

 

I actually agree with him, as far as driving goes, truck drivers are the best there is.

Good post Wedgie

 

At least American truckers are taught what a safe distance interval is and how to read speed limit signs .

 

Sorry...I didn't mean to leave you Canadians out...


But the fact remains that CDL drivers are much more tested and regulated than the average person in a Toyota.

 

in my opinion there are a number of things, first is pay, most of what's available is #### pay. most policies on detention pay that I've seen are hard to get and if you do get it it's like 30-50 bucks for a whole day. if your truck breaks down you don't get paid as most companies don't offer breakdown pay. the sign on bonus is also a crock. they say 1500 dollar sign on but what they don't tell you is they pay it in installments. which means it could take up to 1-2 years to get it all. another problem is hometime, to make money you need to be on the road 6 or more weeks as a company driver. to make this short in my opinion the problem is pay, hometime and not properly educating new drivers on what it's really like.

 

Not true at all. LTL drivers that are home every night and regional drivers that are home every weekend make more than OTR drivers.

 

They sure do...Much more...

 

LTL does typically make more than an OTR driver. Especially if you add up sitting and time spent away from home. Dedicated runs do too most of the time. I do know some owner operators that make really good money. My friend who works for Landstar makes more than me. The most money I ever made in trucking was at North American Van Lines in 1999. I wasn't home much and sat a lot but I made a killing! Oversize, household goods, heavy haul, cars all used to pay pretty good, don't know if they still do. The amount of work and home time ltl has it by a long shot.

The high turnover is due to the life style change you have to go through. Most of the high turn over comes from guys in their first year. They fall for the glamor and other lies the bottom feeder companies put out. They get free training and are committed to 1 year of misery working OTR in teams usually and gone for 6 weeks at a time. All that while making enough to barely eat. Once you get that year you can go get a real job. Trucking is not for everyone though.

 

I doubt the top 10% owner operator comes close to touching the salary of the average ltl driver when everything is figured in.

 

But they are probably more happy.