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America has a truck driver shortage

washingtonpost.com

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Re: America has a truck driver shortage

#241

Post by dmortin »

furgooswft13 wrote: post #72
Karishma1234 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By your logic entire concept of labour shortage is outrageous because any shortage will clear with high enough price. But for any job such as that of Truck drive the market value of that job is only X. Paying more than X would mean you should look for alternatives and get out of that business. As the truck diver salaries go up cost of everything that relies on transportation also goes up marginally. Suddenly the stru…

> Truck driving as an occupation would be pretty much extinct in next 20 years as self driving trucks I doubt it. Once off the highway trucks, given their size and ungainliness, have to perform maneuvers and general rule breaking to get around that I doubt any computer would be able to manage safely in 50 years at the very least. I've said before that self driving vehicles will be a great boon to truck drivers in the…

Truck drivers will still be needed off the highway, but their salaries will also be reduced if they have to drive, e.g., for only 10-20 percent of the way.

They will only be helpers for the self driving truck, not the main drivers like today.

Re: America has a truck driver shortage

#242

Post by rootsudo »

fjsolwmv wrote: post #235
corodra wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you. Got to love folks who think a "startup" can save the world when they have no clue how the real world works. They totally missed the fact that truckers earn peanuts. So add more cost on top of a meal they can't really afford to begin with? Maybe an iPhone app can help truckers? Totally save the poor with iPhone apps. That's an idea...lol.

Truckers can make extra money delivering meals to other truckers.

Ubereats for Truckers! Genius!

Re: America has a truck driver shortage

#243

Post by azernik »

rgbrenner wrote: post #4

If you're an employer and you cant find employees, the answer is virtually always to increase total compensation. Theres no reason $80k is the top end of the pay range for any job. The economy does not price jobs based on prestige, education level, or some other signal... that's a judgement made by certain people about what they think a job is worth.. not the market. The opinions of people about the worth of a job ar…

And if that doesn't work, improve working conditions - more time off, lower stress, etc.

Re: America has a truck driver shortage

#244

Post by refurb »

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…

Isn't the ability to develop business relations and close deals a skill in and of itself? That pretty much describes sales skills perfectly.

I know this is NH, so skills are viewed as technical with all other skills regarded as "unnecessary fluff", but at the end of the day business is built on human relationships, so I'd argue the ability to make and maintain relationships with the right people is one of the most important skills one could have.

Re: America has a truck driver shortage

#245

Post by rootsudo »

Implicated wrote: post #79
jacobkg wrote: post #41

I hired the same company to move my car across the country then back four years apart. The same man drove the truck. He told me he expects the company will shut down in another decade or two as it’s too hard to find good reliable drivers who want a long term trucking job. It’s a family run company with a stellar reputation and they aren’t interested in short timers

I'll be shipping a car soon - have any contact details you can pass along?

Be careful, this is the worst of all shipping. The car is never shipped until it's fully loaded.

Make sure to pay extra for a top slot, and go on youtube. Everyone who owns a luxury car despises car shipping companies.

uShip used to have a decent program where people will do it for about $400-700 with no wheels touching the ground. You need proper registration and title work though.

Re: America has a truck driver shortage

#246

Post by Bombthecat »

corodra wrote: post #205
rwallace wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 s…

One doctor said ( forgot who it was ) that back problems is the next generation cigarette Problem.

Re: America has a truck driver shortage

#249

Post by xapata »

corodra wrote: post #211
xapata wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

A particular load I'm talking about, Seattle to LA. I remember this because I threatened to make a formal complaint about this and got my shit together for it. Roughly 1100 mile haul. Industry standard base time is 55 mph. Some states limit trucks to 55mph even if it's a 70mph interstate. Also, you aren't driving 55mph going up a mountain with a full load. There's a reason why there are truck lanes on mountain passag…

If it's any consolation, I once was told that I needed to complete a project in 4 months, by myself, when the customer had been promised a team of 6 working for 1 year. I'm sure many engineers have been pressured into attempting similar things, their jobs on the line.

Re: America has a truck driver shortage

#250

Post by somberi »

A related read (1):

Things I found interesting from the article:

a. Approximately 150,000 Sikhs (my edit: Sikhs are a subset of Indians and to a smaller extent Pakistanis) in trucking, 90% of whom are drivers.

b. Those numbers are growing rapidly, with 18,000 Sikhs entering the industry in 2017 alone.

c. Sikhs control about 40% of trucking in California.

d. (In the US and Canada) - A network of Indian truck stops is spreading along the main routes, serving some fine daal and naan bread. (My edit: Sikh highway food is a cultural bookend in India and it is whimsical to see this transported to the Rockies)

e. Earnings of $42,000, or about $20 an hour, a sum that may dwindle after expenses. Annual turnover rates within firms hover around 90%.

f. The American Trucking Associations warned of a shortage of 50,000 drivers by the end of 2017, rising to 174,000 by 2026.

d. The median age of the private-fleet driver is 52;

(1) - https://www.economist.com/united-states/2018/05/03/an-all-am...

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