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America has a truck driver shortage

washingtonpost.com

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Re: America has a truck driver shortage

#201

Post by mcguire »

ams6110 wrote: post #76
jbob2000 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are increasing compensation, but the job is so shit, and so demanding on time, that it's still not worth it . I'd want to see $500,000 a year before I put long-haul trucking demands on my body. The industry has labour problems that aren't related to pay. Nobody wants to sit outside a business for 6-8 hours, earning 0 dollars. Solution: Fine deliverees by the minute. Over-policing of truckers. Solution: Lower fin…

Yes but there are people who don't have the same point of view as you. There are people who like spending a lot of time by themselves, for which trucking has an appeal. I know people in the trades who say things like "you couldn't pay me enough money to work in an office."

The people to whom truck driving is attractive are probably already driving trucks.

Re: America has a truck driver shortage

#202

Post by oconnor663 »

anoncoward111 wrote: post #188
MisterTea wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The guys I meet who are pulling in good money are all union vocational workers. We're talking dump trucks, cement mixers, sometimes roll off (dumpsters/skips), and the holy Grail: heavy haul. I know a guy in New Jersey who works for a well known hauling and rigging company. Makes 130k/yr. Small shop of a dozen guys, no one makes under a 100k, and home just about every night. But good luck getting into those shops. Cr…

This is one of the main reasons I am so heavily in favor of UBI, even though I am quite the anarchist if we are talking about idealism and not pragmatism. There IS money being made out there by large firms and small firms alike, but it is absolutely NOT based on merit or skill at all. Whether a business is a failure or a success is 99% based on the relationships and contracts it forms. Typically, unskilled managers a…

> There IS money being made out there by large firms and small firms alike, but it is absolutely NOT based on merit or skill at all.

That's a pretty broad generalization. I'm not sure I know how to frame that question in an answerable way, much less that I know the answer off the top of my head.

Re: America has a truck driver shortage

#203

Post by rwallace »

corodra wrote: post #88

At a rough point in my life, I was a truck driver for CR England and Knight Transportation for a few days short of 7 months. You don’t start at 80,000 a year. That’s such a lie. You make about 600 a week to start, roughly, depending if you get enough miles. You don’t get the good routes, staying in well populated areas like the i5 corridor, at first. You stay in the middle of no where Arizona, North Dakota, etc. You…

Damn, that sounds bad :(

What exactly is the back pain from? Outsider's perspective would expect that since it's mostly sitting, at least your back should be okay. What am I missing?

Re: America has a truck driver shortage

#204

Post by ocschwar »

MisterTea wrote: post #192
CapacitorSet wrote: post #182

I hope that the "shortage" of drivers will lead companies to prefer shipping by rail, which is much less polluting, easier on the workers, and more efficient.

I miss the days when the train delivered things to my door step.

The last time someone used an 18 wheeler to make a long haul delivery to my door step was 18 years ago.

It's been small utility trucks ever since, driven on short hauls, by people who might well live walking distance to my house.

A train would never deliver to my house, but to this day there are still unused train slips leading to factories around my urban area, and in Europe there are plenty of shopping malls that have a train slip as well as a truck loading bay.

Re: America has a truck driver shortage

#205

Post by corodra »

rwallace wrote: post #203
corodra wrote: post #88

At a rough point in my life, I was a truck driver for CR England and Knight Transportation for a few days short of 7 months. You don’t start at 80,000 a year. That’s such a lie. You make about 600 a week to start, roughly, depending if you get enough miles. You don’t get the good routes, staying in well populated areas like the i5 corridor, at first. You stay in the middle of no where Arizona, North Dakota, etc. You…

Damn, that sounds bad :( What exactly is the back pain from? Outsider's perspective would expect that since it's mostly sitting, at least your back should be okay. What am I missing?

Compressed discs mostly but you start to learn what muscles in your back really need full body movement regularly or that weakening starts to kick your ass. Without some expensive surgery that I still can't afford, I've been fixing it with a weight lifting regiment. I'm lucky, a friend is a physical therapist. So, I just owe him beer.

Even have a year of hard dedication to dealing with it, I still "feel" it and get some flares. As long as I'm always careful about my posture when doing things, I can mitigate it. Like, I don't pick up my keys by bending my back, I have to crouch or I risk getting a flare up of pain for the next day or two. But before trucking, I never had to be "thoughtful" of my back.

Re: America has a truck driver shortage

#206

Post by corodra »

InfernalLogic wrote: post #179
MisterTea wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The guys I meet who are pulling in good money are all union vocational workers. We're talking dump trucks, cement mixers, sometimes roll off (dumpsters/skips), and the holy Grail: heavy haul. I know a guy in New Jersey who works for a well known hauling and rigging company. Makes 130k/yr. Small shop of a dozen guys, no one makes under a 100k, and home just about every night. But good luck getting into those shops. Cr…

I'm making way more money now as a dev contractor... but I do miss a lot of things about my 9-month stint in the IBEW. There were definitely dirt bags in the union, but there were more guys who had a real interest in taking care of their union brothers. That, and coming home tired with dirty hands felt way better than finally deciding to shut my computer off and go hang out with my family.

Well yea, inspectors of any agency are terrified to fuck with the IBEW lol. They only do so when they have their shit squared away.

I love how on big job sites, they would have their reps, banners and make sure all their guys have IBEW bling to ward off inspectors like garlic for vampires.

Re: America has a truck driver shortage

#207

Post by RickJWagner »

As a 28 year coding veteran, I sometimes dream about the life of a truck driver. Hours on the road, seeing the country go by, seems like a nice change.

But an article like this one brings me back to reality. I guess I'll stick to coding for a while longer.

Re: America has a truck driver shortage

#208

Post by xapata »

corodra wrote: post #88

At a rough point in my life, I was a truck driver for CR England and Knight Transportation for a few days short of 7 months. You don’t start at 80,000 a year. That’s such a lie. You make about 600 a week to start, roughly, depending if you get enough miles. You don’t get the good routes, staying in well populated areas like the i5 corridor, at first. You stay in the middle of no where Arizona, North Dakota, etc. You…

> simple math

To be fair to the logistics people, predicting demand is difficult. Also, long supply chains suffer from the "bullwhip effect" which can cause extreme misprediction at the tail (source) of the chain.

Re: America has a truck driver shortage

#210

Post by ehnto »

Industry races itself to the bottom with cheap labour and terrible conditions, surprises itself that no one is interested anymore.

Unfortunately it's the good companies and drivers that find out their industry was swiped from underneath them first. It happens in farm labour markets too.

Bigger companies start undercutting with cheaper labour and worse conditions, the smart people leave the industry all together because the writing is on the wall, and those companies willing to pay for good people with reasonable work conditions have no one to hire anymore.

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