Posted on 01/26/2022 5:36:01 AM PST by Kaslin
I work professionally in a field that is directly impacted by the issues described here. For years I have refused to accept the whole “truck driver shortage” nonsense at face value.
If the supply chain is broken well then who needs more truckers (except calipornia).
Don’t they wear turbans these days?
how many of y’all remember the tv ads for truck driving schools?
i wonder if they went the way of those little nursing schools?
i believe all that truck driving data disvuises all the damn i-or non-repaired tru ks being driven by manuel, juan, jose and their krewe?
At a high enough pay, there will not be a driver shortage.
That said, I would be uncomfortable with an 18 year old new driver behind the wheel of a tractor trailer. I would be much more comfortable with pairing a young driver with experienced driver for the first few years of apprenticeship, which defines “apprenticeship”.
Only in PRC (Politically Repressive Canada), I believe. Od course, that may have changed in the last few years.
In North Carolina, I was a school bus driver at 17, with nothing more than basic Driver’s Education and the ability to work a manual transmission. I could tell you stories about how this dim bulb figured out a school bus was not a sports car, but fortunately no one was seriously injured.
I don’t see a problem. There are hundreds of thousands un-vaxed, illegals just waiting to get a CDL and motor voter registration.
Younger, less experienced drivers hauling massive loads across state lines in all weather conditions. What could possibly go wrong?
I do too. As a lumber broker we have directly been impacted by the driver shortage over the last several years.
Generally, most truck drivers are underpaid.
Even today, in many places in the country, companies are paying between $22-25/hour for a truck driver.
It is a hard job. You are away from home.
However, when I ask the owners/dispatchers of actual trucking companies they all state the same reason as to why it is so difficult to find drivers:
THEY CAN NOT PASS A DRUG TEST
This is especially difficult in states like OR where ALL drugs are legal.
Why is this a concern for the owners of trucking companies?
A new tractor costs between $160K-200K.
The trailer being pulled cost another $75K.
The product on the trailer maybe worth another $100K
So, IF you were that owner of a trucking company would you want to be responsible for the liability insurance on a driver that can not pass a drug test when they are in your very expensive equipment.
I have been in the trucking industry since 1968. I have done everything from driving to owning and had my own company for a while. The working conditions in the industry are real disincentives for fresh blood to enter the industry. Trucking companies have allowed shippers, receivers, and brokers to abuse and exploit drivers for so long that it is now an accepted practice to keep drivers waiting in line for a load 2,4, 6 or more hours (no pay). I could go on and on about how screwed up the industry is, but until the companies unite and cure the abuses, there will be little draw to enter the industry.
What about beefing up the freight rail infrastructure to move more goods “intermodal”, making more trucking more intrastate and intra-regional and less very long haul.
I think that is not attractive to many industries, including retail, where “just in time” has been the goal for EVERYTHING. And, while freight trains can carry more goods in weight per mile, I imagine getting the trains loaded with the containers, the miles per hour that trains can travel (currently averaging only about 38 miles per hour), and the fewer end-to-end points trains travel (compared to the many routes of multiple trucks that replace a single train), shipping remains focused so much on using the trucking industry.
This trucker issue is subterfuge to force quick acceptance of driverless trucks. Now that 5g rollout is underway, the permanent solution will be overnight long-haul trucks, graduating to daylight in short order. Humans will be last mile delivery. They are proposing 18yo so the accidents increase, leading for a cry for more automation. No logbooks, no breaks, no downtime . . . it’s the next perfect solution.
“However, when I ask the owners/dispatchers of actual trucking companies they all state the same reason as to why it is so difficult to find drivers:.....”THEY CAN NOT PASS A DRUG TEST”
Unfortunately, it is just a guess but maybe why the drug test factor is so big in finding truck drivers has to do with the population cohort of who is attracted to being a truck driver - why do so many attracted to that work have drug issues.
And, I know the full drug issue is more than just illicit drugs.
I have a nephew who has been suspended from driving a long haul truck more than once for a drug issue - he’d ignore taking his diabetes drugs and doing so would affect his blood sugar levels, resulting in problems driving. His employer required diabetes blood tests from him before every run and demanded to see he had his prescription drugs available for the length of a run.
When he was younger he had the other kind of drug problem - illicit drugs, and I think the length of that experience chemically altered his brain wiring, especially in critical decision making.
Up until last year, my son was prevented from crossing state lines as a professional trucker due to his age. It’s a stupid law.
A 19 year old trucker in Texas is no different than a 19 year old trucker in Rhode Island, but the Texas kid has an opportunity to get a job and the Rhode island kid doesn’t.
We live in a small state. My son moved to Michigan so he could get a driving job in a big state. When he was taking his CDL class, he couldn’t even drive out of state in the Driver Ed truck with an instructor.
At the least, the DOT directive should be changed to allow young drivers to go to any state contiguous to theirs.
The problem with the rail industry is that over the last 35 years I have been a lumber broker the railroads have abandoned hundreds of sidings around North America.
For example, back in the 1970’s almost every larger lumber yard had a rail siding. Railcars shipped from the west coast or Canada back east or down south. The serving carrier would spot the flatbed or box car at the customers siding. Even if they only received one railcar per month or less.
Starting in the 1980s the railroads started abandoning lower volume sidings. Especially, after deregulation went into effect. So, a lot of the smaller volume yards had to start purchasing by truckload delivery. Reload facilities sprang up in most major cities. A reload unloads the railcar and then delivers to the customer by truckload.
Even several sawmills in more rural areas like North central Idaho no longer have rail service. I purchase from several sawmills whose rail service was abandoned in the last 25 years. They now have to truck their lumber to a place where it is loaded on rail car.
When you start adding all these extra origin reload and destination reload charges, in many cases it is cheaper to just truck directly to the customer.
The railroads really do not like making the milk run to fill up a train before it heads south or east.
They much prefer picking up 100 cars loaded with coal in WY and bring the entire train to the port of Tacoma. Same thing with tankers full of oil. The entire train goes from ND to the refinery without stopping. This is the type of business the BNSF, UP, CN, CPRS all love.
How long ago was that? Bus drivers must have a CDL with Passenger endorsement. 17? My CDL required me to be at least 23 and pass a DOT physical. It didn’t take long for trucking to ruin my health. Long hours, no physical activity, and truck stop food put 35 pounds in me in short order.
Thank god I got out when I did.
My kid that I mentioned in post 17 runs flatbed semi’s for a lumberyard and occasional truss loads.
Of course he passes the drug screening. The yard hired him based solely on a recommendation from a former boss. They bought him a brand new tractor trailer rig when they hired him.
I’ve told him that especially during the lockdowns, he had the most important job in the family. By delivering lumber to jobsites, he was keeping hundreds of men employed.
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