Truck companies scramble to find enough workers!

[yortsed snacilbuper]

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Despite a national unemployment rate topping 8 percent, trucking companies are struggling to recruit and retain enough drivers.

The shortage dates back to the years leading up to the Great Recession, when well-paying construction jobs were plentiful and the industry had problems finding replacements for all of the veteran drivers who were retiring. That there remain hundreds of thousands of driver vacancies today -- four years after the real estate bust -- speaks in part to the waning popularity of the profession.

Read more: link

[Ilsa]

1. Where I am in South Texas, the community

college is offering truck driving school certifications, licensing. There is high demand for commercial drivers with the explosion of business in south Texas. (The booming business and heavy trucks are also tearing up the roads and highways, but that's another post.)

[4dsc]

2. Low wages and insurance companies to blame

I know for a fact that many truckers are leaving the industry because of low wages. And with the new CSA rules many more are just saying "fuck it" because its not worth the hassle to be on the road any more.

Not to mention that insurance companies now want most employees(read truckers) to have clean driving records or they won't get hired. Take this one instance out of the equation and there would be no trucker shortage.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

3. cause they pay shit and make you fudge the books

I used to be a broker, and I ran 3 trucks daily. My drivers were okay, they each did one run a day, we paid for the truck, fuel, repair and permits. They were also paid by the hour, not mileage.
Most of the other drivers I talked to where only paid for the miles they drove, and they better make their appointments or they would be sitting on their own time waiting to be loaded/unloaded. No excuses either. traffic, breakdown, didn't matter.

If they really wanted drivers, they would train them for free instead of making them spend $4-6000 (for-profit loan company's manna) before they can get the job.

The only ones who made a good wage were long-distance. A week or more on the road at a time wreaks havoc on the home life. Most of the older guys had pictures and stories of the family to tell me, and how they couldn't wait to get off the road and go home.
the loners liked it, but frankly most of those guys gave me the 'creeps'

We need less drivers and more Railroad workers, trucking shit from one end of a continent to another is just stupid. At least use rail, it's cheaper and cleaner.

[JoeyT]

4. A lot of the companies that can't find employees aren't even that good.

You foot the bill for your own truck, repairs, and permits.

So it's a $4-6000 student loan and a $200,000 truck.

[Populist_Prole]

8. trucking shit from one end of a continent to another is just stupid. At least use rail, it's cheaper

Bingo.

I can't think of a more inefficient, illogical way to transport stuff than long ( trans-con ) distances over-the-road, though many trucking companies do use intermodal/piggyback on flat cars.

[Lugnut]

10. Time sensitive produce can't go by rail.

Strawberries would be rotten on delivery if a truck didn't haul them. My son was an independant produce hauler for years. He's now hauling frozen food into the New England states. Grocery businesses don't carry a lot of stock because of cash flow and storage issues and shipping by rail is too slow.

[pstokely]

5. They can't find enough cheap labor

They'll be begging for H1 visas soon

[Populist_Prole]

7. They're greedy assholes

I remember reading a Wall St Journal article ( yeah yeah I know, but it was just laying on the breakroom table and I was bored ) about that very subject. Of course they quoted the management mouthpieces and they basically said, in effect: "We really need drivers badly, but we can't afford to pay them commensurate with that need" They couldn't even entertain the notion of cutting into the profit margin even the slightest bit to offer more pay to attract workers. Typical capitalist corporate assholes. Always preaching the market this and supply & demand that, but only when it fattens the wallets of pinstriped pinheads. ( stereotypical waspy smug corporate nerd voice ) "We can't pay them that kind of money...it's not like they have MBA's or something....Harrumph harrumph harrumph"

The article went on to say that the only real way of increasing their profits were to seek more favorable regulation....basically rent-seeking. That and basically making it yet another job "Americans don't want to do". More visa manipulation.

Thoroughly despicable assholes.

[treestar]

6. Being on the road must suck

Unless it's a local job - I've heard of people having to be away from home all the time, so that's why it would suck as a job.

[BlueJazz]

9. 2 of my customers are former Truckers and they said (quote) "Fuck that shit"..

"You work like a tired mule".
"In some states, the cops hate your guts and treat you like you're a piece of human garbage"
"The company wants you to lie all the time"
"You have to put up with dumb-ass drivers"
....and many, many more things. (they told me)

I'm sure there are some truckers/jobs that are not that bad but as for me...Shit No!...
I've heard way too many horror stories about driving for a living.