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America has a truck driver shortage

washingtonpost.com

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Re: America has a truck driver shortage

#281

Post by adrianN »

ams6110 wrote: post #31
inglor wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This, not a single word about automation and self-driving trucks in the article but every person I talked to that considered this career path* has mentioned automation as a reason staying out of a field. A lot of people value job security really high. I agree with the comments saying that if the pay was higher then there wouldn't be such a shortage and the fact that is generally true. That doesn't mean the market alw…

TFA did touch on this, the comment was that self-driving trucks are a long way off. And I happen to agree that they are a lot farther off than people think. That last 10% of functionality needed to be safe on the road in non-normal situations such as construction zones, traffic accidents, ice, heavy rain or wind, is going to take a long time to achieve

If a lot of people think that they're not so far off that's a lot of people who'd rather not become a truck driver only to be displaced by a robot in ten years.

Re: America has a truck driver shortage

#282

Post by corodra »

fffdg445 wrote: post #280
pkaye wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just like in the software field, there might be a multitude of reasons women might not go into that industry including sexism and not being encouraged by family/society. Some of the industries that women work in can be just as bad in their own ways.

There are plenty of reasons for not going into tech besides sexism, yes. I've actually always aid exactly that: women are too smart to become programmers. Maybe things have improved a little, but in the old days, programming meant sitting in the basement without natural light, staring at a screen most of the time. Yes, there are meetings, but meetings also suck. These days, maybe it is not the basement anymore, inste…

Are you socially intelligent, emotionally stable and like having interesting conversations about a wide gamut of topics that don't involve tv shows and games?

I know what career field you SHOULDN'T enter!

Re: America has a truck driver shortage

#283

Post by [deleted] »

geezerjay wrote: post #261
twothamendment wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last mile can be some of the least fun part of the job. Getting in and out of town in traffic in a city you haven't been to, waiting hours or a day for someone to load it unload your truck. Other than trying to keep up with the dispatcher who forgets you aren't driving a racecar, the open road can be the nice part of the trip.

I'm assuming that in a logistic chain the last mile bit can and should be done by local companies.

[deleted]

Re: America has a truck driver shortage

#284

Post by jacquesm »

wavefunction wrote: post #237
jacquesm wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Those with gas-powered cars (mostly taxis) could still get fuel (it goes to the gas station through pipes That's interesting. So the gas stations have compressors?

I think they mean compressed natural-gas rather than petrol. Many fleet vehicles run off of CNG in the Americas and elsewhere.

Yes, I understood that. But those stations are pretty rare and typically need a (quite expensive) compressor to turn the gas in the pipes into CNG if it isn't delivered by truck. (Former gas station owner here...)

The other option would be LPG (Liquified Petroleum Gas), that too is usually delivered by truck.

Re: America has a truck driver shortage

#285

Post by gambiting »

corodra wrote: post #279
gambiting wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do American trucks not have tachos? In EU it's impossible for a truck driver to speed or work more than 8 hours a day - if the truck moves even a little bit in the period when the driver is supposed to be resting, that means stupid fines for the transport company, and that's because everything is recorded by the tachometer behind the dash.

Independent trucks don't. Company trucks do. However, the company does not get fined, the driver does, personally.

I see. There is no such distinction over here - if you are carrying goods commercially, you have to have a tachometer, full stop. Also, while the driver can be given a ticket for certain things(speeding mostly) working over hours or any issues with the truck will result in a massive fine for the company(one of the trucks carrying goods for us was fined in Germany recently for 2500 Euro because one side had a small bulge - that's not acceptable). The police also took copies of all tacho recordings for weeks prior and can issue further tickets if any discrepancy in working hours/speed is found.

Re: America has a truck driver shortage

#286

Post by corodra »

gambiting wrote: post #285
corodra wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Independent trucks don't. Company trucks do. However, the company does not get fined, the driver does, personally.

I see. There is no such distinction over here - if you are carrying goods commercially, you have to have a tachometer, full stop. Also, while the driver can be given a ticket for certain things(speeding mostly) working over hours or any issues with the truck will result in a massive fine for the company(one of the trucks carrying goods for us was fined in Germany recently for 2500 Euro because one side had a small bu…

FYI, by independent I mean a guy buys a semi-truck and trailer, has his own little company and hauls loads commercially. By company, we're talking about 50+ employee operations. There's a whole bunch of contractors, "owner-operators" that are independent. Qualcomm, who has a gps and digital log system, is in nearly every decent sized company trucks. Also the trucks I ran were throttled to 63. The throttle ranges between companies. Independent guys, obviously, don't order their trucks throttled. The companies do it for insurance reasons.

But yea, there are also ways that the Qualcomm doesn't "work". Thus, we "have" to run paper logs.

Re: America has a truck driver shortage

#287

Post by apexalpha »

corodra wrote: post #279
gambiting wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do American trucks not have tachos? In EU it's impossible for a truck driver to speed or work more than 8 hours a day - if the truck moves even a little bit in the period when the driver is supposed to be resting, that means stupid fines for the transport company, and that's because everything is recorded by the tachometer behind the dash.

Independent trucks don't. Company trucks do. However, the company does not get fined, the driver does, personally.

>However, the company does not get fined, the driver does, personally.

America vs Europe in a nutshell.

Re: America has a truck driver shortage

#288

Post by fiblye »

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…

>It’s not likely the military where you are doing something decently important. You are wasting your life to ship clothes for the Gap or frozen pizzas.

I was never a truck driver, but my father was. He was in the military for about 7 years, then got discharged for a severe injury. He worked as a truck driver for about 3 years, then did all he could to rejoin the military and upon doing so never went back to truck driving. This was about 20 years ago, but seeing how messy employment in America is today, I doubt treatment or working conditions for drivers is much better than it was then.

Re: America has a truck driver shortage

#289

Post by codeismylife »

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…

Curious as to why this cargo cannot be transported via the railway system if it is such a tumultuous endeavor to use the road especially in a geographically vast USA.

How well developed (or undeveloped) is the rail network in the states? Is it equipped to handle this cargo and if so, why do businesses turn to the road network instead?

Re: America has a truck driver shortage

#290

Post by fiblye »

EGreg wrote: post #259
dimensi0nal wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can UBI exist without statism?

Voluntary redistribution of wealth by a cryptocurrency. Look at groupcurrency.org

People could voluntarily distribute their wealth today if they wanted to. Few do. The crypto meme won't be changing that.
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