The US labor force participation has flat-lined at about 63% for the last 5 years. So compared to 2 decades ago, there are about 18-20 million working-age Americans who simply don't work.
Posted on 06/29/2018 11:27:49 AM PDT by Titus-Maximus
LAKE MILTON, Ohio - Bob Blocksom, an 87-year-old former insurance salesman, needs a job. He hasn’t saved enough money for his retirement. And trucking companies, desperate for workers, are willing to give him one.
Age didn’t matter, they said. If Blocksom could get his “CDL” - commercial driver’s license - they would hire him for a $50,000 job. One even offered to pay his tuition for driver training school, but there was a catch: Blocksom had to commit to driving an 18-wheel truck all over America for a year.
So far, that has been too big of an ask for Blocksom, who doesn’t want to spend long stretches of time away from his wife of 60 years. “The more I think about it, it would be tough to be on the road Monday through Friday,” he said.
As the nation grapples with a historically low level of unemployment, trucking companies are doing what economists have said firms need to do to attract and retain workers: They’re hiking pay significantly, offering bonuses and even recruiting people they previously wouldn’t have considered.
But it’s not working. The industry reports a growing labor shortage - 63,000 open positions this year, a number expected to more than double in coming years - that could have wide-ranging impacts on the American economy.
Nearly every item sold in America touches a truck at some point, which explains why the challenges facing the industry, including trucking companies rapidly raising prices as they raise wages, have special power to affect the entire economy. Already, delivery delays are common, and businesses such as Amazon, General Mills and Tyson Foods are raising prices as they pass higher transportation costs along to consumers. A Walmart executive called rising transportation costs the company’s primary “head wind” on a recent call with investors.
(Excerpt) Read more at savannahnow.com ...
Over regulated and under paid. Bad combination.
Pay has to be right. Higher costs will mean higher costs of goods. When you have an artificial floor (minimum wage) you’re pre-determining the starting point for all goods & services.
If Blocksom could get his “CDL” - commercial driver’s license
Not sure I want to be on the same highway with an 87 year-old truck driver,
> Who will do these jobs?
People who think they are getting paid enough. Supply, may then meet demand.
They’ve enjoyed over three decades of low wages.
WAAAAH WAAAAH WAAAAH! Time to adapt.
I can retire in a little over a year. I’ve thought abut leaving the downtown office to become a truck driver. But the risks and number of hoops you have to jump through make it not worth it for less than a couple hundred thousand a year. Assuming I’m driving someone else’s truck.
They are getting destroyed by draconian (aka fascist) regulation.
My grand-daughter’s boyfriend was driving his truck with one of those third “drop axles” and was cited for either not using it or using it when he shouldn’t (I forget which). He doesn’t make all that much money a year (maybe $35k). The ticket was for $3,500.
Now 40 years ago...
That’s one of the other by-products of illegal immigration, Americans thumb their noses at this kind of work because of the stigma that such jobs are only done by illegals. Add in welfare that makes them not have to do such jobs, and well, here we are.
The US labor force participation has flat-lined at about 63% for the last 5 years. So compared to 2 decades ago, there are about 18-20 million working-age Americans who simply don't work.
They want Mexicans to drive. That is why NAFTA lets drivers across the borders. OF course Mexican drivers can drive in the US, but US drivers are killed and robbed in Mexico.
Talk to ANY OTR driver and they will end this story really darn quick...low pay, long hours, on the road for weeks at a time. Required fleet lease backs....you name it.
Not sure I want to be on the same highway with an 87 year-old truck driver,
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Yeah, that’s scary.
One point of Electronic Log Devices was to limit hours in a truck thereby creating a need for more drivers. It has created a nightmare.
(We see record sales of trucks built before 2000)
“Who will do these jobs? “
A company VP who used commercial drivers told me that they mostly used old men as younger men either could not pass the drug test or they had legal issues (lost their license or significant violations) that ruled them out. I see signs all over the more industrial areas of town advertising, “Hiring CDL’s”
Incidentally, I went to Quest to have some blood work. There was a parade of tree cutters coming in for their, apparently, weekly piss tests. A friend suggested that at least some of them were on probation. But one group arrived in their truck with the shredder in tow. They all trotted in, peed and left. Surely they weren’t all on probation.
One of my renters was a retired long-haul trucker. His old company called him up and made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. So, he’s back on the road.
Does anyone know if this chart takes in account the aging of the potential working population?
Trucks and drivers are no monitored 24/7 when on the road by the DOT. Any cop can check the log and insurance will base rates on it. Even If you are 2 miles from your destination, but DOT rules say "stop" - you now must stop and rest. its been equivalent to about a 15% reduction in capacity when this electronic log went live earlier this year.
Unless you are using third world help, where the US government will give them healthcare, food stamps and housing and thus the companies like Amazon don’t have to pay well.
Can you describe what the purpose of those third axles is?
Millions that no one will employ either. I walked into three places this afternoon that are hiring on line and inquired....they were not interested in an old fat white guy that only speaks English.
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