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).
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?
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 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.
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.