$70,000 For A Part-Time Driver: Delivery Companies Desperately in Need of Truck Drivers

Nation and State ^ | 05/02/2021 | John Kingston of Freightwaves,

[sport]

True and the hell with CDLs and enhancements. The People are aiding and abetting in the systematic and total destruction of their own Country. How? By voting in droves for God hating and American hating Democrats such as Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. I know and understand that the Democrats with the help of the Republican Party stole the election and Vice President Pence abdicated Oath he Swore with his hand on a Holy Bible before God. But what is an Oath this day and time? That was then and this is now. It is time to move on. To me President Trump will always be my President and Vice President Pence will always be a back stabbing traitor.

[cyclotic]

My son, who I discussed earlier pulls down about $50K, works hourly and is home every night.

An owner operator grosses far more than $80K a year. I met one once with a truck payment of $1500 a week. My company paid an O/O to make a regular run from the East Coast to Dallas. $5400 a week.

[crz]

10.4

That is called a transfer company and it is a very efficient way. Why? Because the drivers are familiar with their area and roads so they can deliver better.

The regional drivers get their dedicated runs so that they know the roads and the conditions of those roads.

Like you said, the terminals should be every 800 to 1000 miles apart and the distribution should happen from there to that area. That would make the dedicated run two days to, and two days from, that terminal for the transfer drivers. So..a company would have six or seven, or more, terminals across the country. They can then, bid on the fuel and have the fueling docks AT those terminals. Mechanics, etc.

ABF and a few others do that and I have never heard a ABF driver bitch, and matter of fact, I know a couple who have retired from there...they stayed with them that long.

[old curmudgeon]

Thanks for that.

That is what I envisioned when describing what I think will be the future of trucking.

Either that or they will not get good drivers and will end up with very expensive and dangerous robotic trucks.

It is interesting how people will sometimes spend many times for a solution to a problem what it would have cost to cure it using a known and proven cure.

The trucking industry is in danger of falling into that trap now.

[crz]

Schnieder, JB Hunt, and a couple others have home terminals, But they do not have regional terminals like they should.

They insist on long haul and will NEVER get drivers because of the dispatchers who insist on getting the drivers out on the road and KEEPING them out for 5 weeks or longer.

Then they constantly have to baby sit rookie drivers that use GPS for directions. They end up in residential streets stuck in somebodys yard trying to turn around. Case in point..the el tram in Chicago..how many drivers ended up wedged under that thing trying to deliver.
Local drivers wouldnt have that problem in a transfer system. They know the routes and how to get around.

[old curmudgeon]

I know what you are saying. I pull a 40 ft. horse trailer, not commercially.

I have a few stories of my own. Like the front yard in IN. Narrow narrow road that slowly petered out.

But there is always a solution for those who will think.

Small truckers should do what the Ace Hardware members do. They have survived against the big box stores by joining together.

Small truckers should form an organization where a trucker drops his trailer at a member terminal and picks up a trailer there going home. Or if it is an overnight trip and ordinary cargo, unload it and reload the trailer with stuff going home.

Like railroads. Like me, you have sat at many a railroad crossing and watched boxcars going by with the name of some railroad that is located a thousand miles away.

I realize the idea has problems, but there is no problem worse than having no driver to move a desperately needed load.