Posted on 05/11/2014 7:19:52 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
You wouldn't think that the old saw, "Good help is hard to find," had anything left to it, what with last week's unemployment report out of the U.S. Department of Labor showing unemployment in America is still 6.3%. The fact that hourly wages in America grew a measly 1.9% over the past 12 months tends to suggest there's little slack in the jobs market, too.
(After all, if it was hard to find good help, wouldn't it stand to reason that employers would be paying through the nose to attract workers?)
In one industry, they may have to: trucking.
Help wanted
America as a whole may be slogging through 6.3% unemployment these days, but according to industry analyst FTR Transportation Intelligence, there's currently a 4.3% "driver shortage" in the trucking industry today — a negative unemployment rate.
Bloomberg Intelligence reports that there are currently 235,600 unfilled trucking jobs across the country, which is 43.4% more job openings than at this time, last year. FTR predicts that this number will increase by a further 61.4% before finally peaking at the end of 2016, blaming new federal regulations that went into effect last summer that restrict the amount of time that driver's can sit behind the wheel. The new rules require that drivers take 34 hours off between work weeks, including two full nights of rest, and cannot work more than 70 hours in any given week.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Operating Costs have definitely squeezed a number of truckers but the demand is certainly there. Some people also say it’s one of the more dangerous jobs out there. Line Hauling Petro probably gives it that reputation.
I think lumberjack is the most dangerous job and truck driver is second. Many people consider police officer to be dangerous, but it isn't in the top ten. But when they are seriously injured or killed on the job it is usually from a traffic accident.
If the job were really "High Paying", driving schools wouldn't have to lie to get people into their schools, companies wouldn't have to lie to get drivers to drive, and drivers wouldn't be quitting by the truckload every day.
I understand how drivers are paid. When markets are allowed to function, problems are resolved. What about doctors’ waiting rooms. I don’t get paid for waiting. Should I demand regulations and more bureaucrats so I can have more regulation to make me “happy” (it won’t make any difference in waiting times)?
What’s your solution to drivers at times making less than minimum wage? The driver shortage hasn’t changed anything. The trucking companies obviously don’t care. How will the market correct the issue?
Liberals always telegraph their next move: This one says, More Mexican truck drivers are needed (at a cheaper cost, of course)”.
I don’t get it either. How can the govt say that unemployment is down, but keep extending unemployment benefits. Total contradiction within the same sentence, yet nobody ever challenges them on it. The perfect catch 22 if I ever saw one.
I get how it is calculated, but challenging it:
take out all the younger than 18 and the over 65 crowd. Then take out all the folks who have given up. The other contradictory statement is that you have to show that you are trying to get a job to continue to receive benefits.
I can tell from your post that you are sincere and concerned, but I can’t provide a primer on microeconomics here. When market forces are allowed to work, they always work. They don’t create utopia, but they produce a hugely better result everywhere at all times than bureaucrats. In my relatively free state just about anybody with a CDL can make $80k-$120k hauling drill pipe, etc. In fact, a family friend just started doing exactly that after years of hauling for a freight forwarder.
There are also lots of other kinds of unfilled jobs in the O & G industry that require little or no experience that pay very, very well. Markets are still working partially in the O & G industry, and the results are far better than in more heavily regulated industries.
Don’t you have some info on the big money to be made in trucking?
The real irony is that the average American believes that corporations/businesses pay these taxes/fines. They just don’t get that only people pay taxes.
My son tried truck driving. He hauled cross-country for a large company. However, his loads tended to be strings of “drive 100 miles, unload and load. Drive 50 miles, pick up a little more. Drive 100 miles etc...” Near his time limit, he would get a warning from the company computer that he had XX minutes to park before the company killed the engine by remote control.
Since he was paid by the mile, and limited in duty hours, and his time not moving counted against his duty hours, he was hauling in $200/week after food. He always slept in the truck.
The good routes went to guys who bought their trucks from the company and needed cash to pay the company back. If you didn’t want to go into debt for $100,000+ before driving, you got routes that didn’t come close to paying minimum wage.
He quit, got a job doing security, and tripled his income (with overtime, he likes to work) with a LOT more time at home. He’s also never taken drugs, is in the National Guard, and knows how to show up on time and work until the job is finished.
THAT is why the jobs go begging. The government wants to give the truck driving industry over to Mexico.
Also, this line from the article:
“At trucking companies from YRC Worldwide to Swift Transportation to Werner Enterprises, this works out to a perverse requirement that they do “less with more.” Moving goods from Point A to Point B now requires that trucking companies hire more drivers — but work them less.”
My son worked for Werner. He hated them. Less time working = less income. His paychecks were sent to my house as his permanent address, so I saw what he was taking in. And in one 2 month period, he made it home one time overnight.
Is it government regulation or just the industry in general. It seems like regulation to me, but trucking’s always looked like a bad business to me.
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