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America has a truck driver shortage

washingtonpost.com

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Re: America has a truck driver shortage

#221

Post by macintux »

lopmotr wrote: post #185
TheCapn wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a simplistic view of shortages of labour markets. Just taking trucking as an example, many jurisdictions have safety standards drivers need to meet. If "half the truck drivers vanished" tomorrow we'd have an absolute shortage until labour could be spun up to account for the supply demand. It's also overly simplistic to believe that trucking companies can infinitely raise wages to support demand. People/busines…

How are you defining shortage? If half the drivers vanished, then half as much stuff would be shipped by truck. What's the problem with that, other than things would be worse for people? Is there a correct amount of truck driving that should happen? Are we currently at that correct amount? Have we ever been?

By your logic has there ever been a shortage of anything?

Re: America has a truck driver shortage

#222

Post by andrei_says_ »

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…

In other words, shortage of people willing to forego having a personal life, are expected to speed/break the law daily and risk losing their job as a part of doing their job, are verifiably destroying their health long term in order to do said boring menial job for long hours in exchange for low to medium pay.

Of course there’s a shortage. If pay was 200-300% higher and drivers could afford to work 2/3 of the time and get adequate rest/healing/family time, the shortage probably would not be so severe.

Re: America has a truck driver shortage

#223

Post by [deleted] »

andrei_says_ wrote: post #222
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…

In other words, shortage of people willing to forego having a personal life, are expected to speed/break the law daily and risk losing their job as a part of doing their job, are verifiably destroying their health long term in order to do said boring menial job for long hours in exchange for low to medium pay. Of course there’s a shortage. If pay was 200-300% higher and drivers could afford to work 2/3 of the time an…

[deleted]

Re: America has a truck driver shortage

#224

Post by mnm1 »

PedroBatista wrote: post #161
FLUX-YOU wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what? AI only being useful on highways is still useful -- if not still far off. Off-ramp the AI trucks into a huge ass parking lot where a human does the last mile(s).

Fair point, but most of the time that last mile is a very long mile ( double digits ) and includes many hours of waiting to get loaded/unloaded which can also be just a few minutes and once they're done they want you out of their property ASAP. Driving on the highway is not the only significant part of the job, far from it and I suspect some people are very enamoured by their dreams/greed mixed with the holy tech, ju…

Since the last mile is still less than a hundred miles, however, it changes the job immensely from a long distance one to a local one that more people may want to put up with. Assuming the technology actually develops enough to be adopted, of course.

Re: America has a truck driver shortage

#225

Post by georgemcbay »

jacquesm wrote: post #195
whatshisface wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe this is a startup opportunity, take food from local restaurants and rendezvous it in bulk at truck stops.

You'd better research how many truckers would be able to afford it first.

Don't worry, we'll just launch it in San Francisco market first while we build out the technology and raise funds, we'll scale it up everywhere else later!

Re: America has a truck driver shortage

#226

Post by reilly3000 »

fred_is_fred wrote: post #98
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…

Interesting what you said about I-5 vs middle of nowhere. As someone who has to drive from Denver to south east Texas a few times per year for family stuff, I'd almost always rather deal with an empty great plains highway than traffic on I-5. There are downsides, mainly food and hotel choices of course.

Ya the middle of nowhere I-5 is still damn dense with truck traffic and water rationing political signs. I’ve made the trek top to bottom many times and I have very little love for central CA.

Re: America has a truck driver shortage

#227

Post by reilly3000 »

whatshisface wrote: post #141
haloux wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similar story here. My brother drives the I-40 route from West Texas to Arizona. He had a short stint doing City of Industry to Stockton. Hated every second of driving through LA, Grapevine and anywhere north of Bakersfield. Food choices are pretty much the same considering you can't venture far off the interstate and its rare that there's anything good _right_ off the five.

Maybe this is a startup opportunity, take food from local restaurants and rendezvous it in bulk at truck stops.

The biggest startup opportunity is in truck parking. Learn about it. There is money there for anybody with a tenable solution.

Re: America has a truck driver shortage

#228

Post by pkaye »

corodra wrote: post #198
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…

I'm loving reading all these folks talking economic reasoning on this situation. Look, I'm a developer for a DOD contractor. I'm roughly not an idiot. Smartest cat in the room? Nah, there are plenty of folks I look up to that make me look like a toddler playing with his crayons. But in general, I'm not an idiot. Came from a blue collar background, so actual dirty work doesn't scare me. I'm the guy my friends ask for…

> Yea, talk is cheap. I love the one article from a few months back about there aren't enough women doing truck driving. Hmm... maybe they're not stupid. Think of that? What woman is dumb enough to "enjoy" all of that?

Are you going to apply that theory to software development also?

Re: America has a truck driver shortage

#229

Post by corodra »

pkaye wrote: post #228
corodra wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm loving reading all these folks talking economic reasoning on this situation. Look, I'm a developer for a DOD contractor. I'm roughly not an idiot. Smartest cat in the room? Nah, there are plenty of folks I look up to that make me look like a toddler playing with his crayons. But in general, I'm not an idiot. Came from a blue collar background, so actual dirty work doesn't scare me. I'm the guy my friends ask for…

> Yea, talk is cheap. I love the one article from a few months back about there aren't enough women doing truck driving. Hmm... maybe they're not stupid. Think of that? What woman is dumb enough to "enjoy" all of that? Are you going to apply that theory to software development also?

Not sure that I follow. Can you explain?

Re: America has a truck driver shortage

#230

Post by kr4 »

georgemcbay wrote: post #225
jacquesm wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'd better research how many truckers would be able to afford it first.

Don't worry, we'll just launch it in San Francisco market first while we build out the technology and raise funds, we'll scale it up everywhere else later!

We'll raise some Xmillions seed round and if this doesn't work out, we can always pivot :p
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