What to do about the driver shortage?

Be nice to drivers, we are not robots. Seems like the CEOs and dispatch don't ret care about the drivers or they don't have any clue what it's like for the drivers. They all say we care about safety and the drivers but they don't.

 

There is no shortage of drivers, never has been. There IS a shortage of drivers willing to steer some MEGAs fleet spec POS truck around for what they think is a fair wage. There’s lots of good drivers out there. You just have to give them a decent truck and pay them. And an LTL driver, be ready to pay them LOTS. A driver that holds their own in that game, you know, bumps docks, beats feet and looks after the freight. That driver is worth their weight in gold.

 

First of all, there is no driver shortage. Period.
You were a company driver for three years? Think about how you would want to be treated.
It's not rocket science. Treat your drivers like human beings. You don't have to coddle them but treating them with a certain amount of respect and recognition for what they go through every day will go a long way toward retaining good drivers.
Management gets the kind of drivers they deserve. That's always true.

 

Customers can waste as much of the truck driver's potential earning hours as they like and there is virtually no cost to them. Small and medium trucking companies are not going to "drop the hammer" on customers causing huge delays. Trucking companies would set their mothers on fire to get even the worst customer in the industry. There is not enough truck parking. Good luck fixing either of these without spending money.

 

When trucking companies and customers stop treating truck drivers like disease carrying rats more drivers might stick around. Challenge your company CEO, or you, to visit each of your customers and use that customer's bathrooms provided for truck drivers. Ride with a driver for a day and experience what it's like to have some former felon security guard yell at him for not knowing that customer's procedures before he arrived.

 

Trucking companies determine driver pay based on what do customers pay for shipping. What are our expenses for providing equipment and drivers, how much is leftover, and how much can we spend of what's leftover but still keep our expected profit. Driver pay and conditions is an afterthought once the fixed costs are accounted for.

 

It’s almost comical that one would have to do analysis. The driver shortage schtick is so overdone that it’s hard to take anyone serious that is attempting to get to the bottom of it. Really, what more can be said in this thread that hasn’t been said a thousand times before? Best of luck getting it figured out.

 

Shortage of good qualified drivers should be the thread titile.

 

Last time I got fired,,30 years ago from a company id been with 3 years I got a phone the next day "if you apologize you can have your job back". I told them to pound salt. No shortage of jobs then or now