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Showing Original Post only (View all)A Twenty Year Truck Driver - I Will Tell You Why America's "Shipping Crisis" Will Not End [View all]
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Lets start with understanding some things about ports. Outside of dedicated port trucking companies, most trucking companies wont touch shipping containers. There is a reason for that.
Think of going to the port as going to WalMart on Black Friday, but imagine only ONE cashier for thousands of customers. Think about the lines. Except at a port, there are at least THREE lines to get a container in or out. The first line is the in gate, where hundreds of trucks daily have to pass through 510 available gates. The second line is waiting to pick up your container. The third line is for waiting to get out. For each of these lines the wait time is a minimum of an hour, and Ive waited up to 8 hours in the first line just to get into the port. Some ports are worse than others, but excessive wait times are not uncommon. Its a rare day when a driver gets in and out in under two hours. By rare day, I mean maybe a handful of times a year. Ports dont even begin to have enough workers to keep the ports fluid, and it doesnt matter where you are, coastal or inland port, union or non-union port, its the same everywhere.
Furthermore, Im fortunate enough to be a Teamster a union driver an employee paid by the hour. Most port drivers are independent contractors, leased onto a carrier who is paying them by the load. Whether their load takes two hours, fourteen hours, or three days to complete, they get paid the same, and they have to pay 90% of their truck operating expenses (the carrier might pay the other 10%, but usually less.) The rates paid to non-union drivers for shipping container transport are usually extremely low. In a majority of cases, these drivers dont come close to my union wages. They pay for all their own repairs and fuel, and all truck related expenses. I honestly dont understand how many of them can even afford to show up for work. Theres no guarantee of ANY wage (not even minimum wage), and in many cases, these drivers make far below minimum wage. In some cases they work 70 hour weeks and still end up owing money to their carrier.
https://medium.com/@ryan79z28/im-a-twenty-year-truck-driver-i-will-tell-you-why-america-s-shipping-crisis-will-not-end-bbe0ebac6a91