University of Arkansas Student Gathering Insight on Driver Shortage

I am a driver's wife that spent a while OTR with my trucker husband. He and I talk about some of this.

There is a driver shortage because the industry doesn't give enough incentive to drivers. They have to face weather, other drivers's carelessness, DOT, and a dozen other things on the road. Sometimes, their shipment is late or they get hassled wherever they are picking up or dropping off. Dispatchers are notoriously ignorant (most have never been a driver and have no clue about what happens out there). Drivers are sacrificing home time and there is a high divorce rate among them. Along with that, companies are routinely cutting driver pay or asking them to drive equipment that should not be on the road. Drivers get little respect, few benefits, and a lot of hassle. Many guys just feel that it isn't worth it.

I dislike many things about the industry. First, my husband and his coworkers bust their butts every day, going out on those roads without knowing what they will face. They are in a dangerous profession. Anything could happen to them, and they take their lives in their hands every time they get behind the wheel...someone else's stupidity could end up causing great harm. Every day I hear about yet another accident where a trucker is injured.

Second, dispatches often have no clue. They have never been over the road. They schedule appointment times too closely, causing the trucker to be behind the eight ball again. There was only one of my hubby's dispatches I liked, and that was because the guy had been a driver before becoming a dispatch. He knew the score out there.

Was there a golden age for drivers? I can't answer that one. I just know that drivers deserve more respect than what they get. Maybe someone around the industry longer could give you that answer.

What has pushed drivers away? Back, once again, to lack of respect in general, along with the other things I previously mentioned.

The industry needs to make driving worthwhile. Drivers need more respect, less hassle from law enforcement, and companies, better pay and benefits, and just a better working environment overall.

 

I believe the respect was lost when everyone started (To paraphrase...) leaving human waste in the parking lots of the truckstops and progressed outwards from there. Personally I did not start running into human waste in trucking until roughly the later half of the 90's

Truckers as company drivers have absolutely no say in delivery appointments. Other people make promises or appointments that are very difficult to keep. Most people cannot barely be at a doctor within say 15 minutes of their appointment across town or downtown a hour away. And here we are maintaining appt times 3000 miles across a Nation to the 15 minutes.

If you are late, you are fired. It's that simple. Many dozens fill the orientation trailer each week ready to take over your truck. Drivers are a dime a dozen. .30 a mile? Sure. Don;t forget that .30 was a fantasy back in the 80's And companies think they can still pay .30 today? almost 40 years later? HA.

Dispatchers by and large are pretty difficult. Many have not driven. The few who are any good have had a certain amount of years out there on the road preferably within the same company they are now dispatching for.

As far as the injury and death that is possible on the road, I don't get into that too often. However... there has been a certain number of times that life was indeed at risk, moments from very severe injury or death including mine and that of spouse and god only knows how many more strangers and their children. I tend to remember those children in my path best.

One vehicle, a older SUV had broken down in Akron on the freeway eastbound downtown. They were trapped by 8 foot construction barriers to both sides and had no place to go other than to sit in that right lane. I don't think they had presence of mind to risk coming through the sunroof and jumping over the wall, 8 feet is too far for children on the other side. They were truly trapped.

I come along at speed, roughly 65 or so in a ungoverned tractor trailer, this was about 1993-1994 time period. There they were in front of me with three kids looking at me in the rear glass window in the back. 4 cars were next to me. I did not think much of the situation at all and did the one option open to me. Police man was on my tail. I slammed on the brakes watching the distance fall between me and that SUV very quickly and the speedometer not falling to zero fast enough. You can stop a semi in about 7 seconds if done right, but here the smash is going to happen in 4.

The 4 cars popped out from the left I watched the speed drop to just about 28-29ish mph which was what I wanted in order to introduce very severe and heavy lane change onto my tires while loaded. So, I horsed her over in the left lane, the right front fender and steer tire missed the SUV not by much, maybe even tapped it (I would never feel that...) and the trailer was still a problem and I added some wheel to force that thing left. It slammed into the left wall and I got it back straight more or less.

The very last thing I saw in that right mirrior was a intact SUV with a police car standing on his nose in a emergency stop buried in my own blue smoke. But I did not care because I was not the one to kill those three kids and their parents that day.

It worked out well, some damage to the tires which were duly replaced at the truckstop before too long at some expense and yelling later that day. But they can yell all they want. I never heard them knowing they would REALLY scream if I killed 5 there in Akron.

Just another day in trucking. There would be many more like that one. Stories are built on that.