Driver shortage? Based on the feedback I’m getting on Facebook, many drivers feel there is no such thing. I had posed the question – why, with unemployment so high, with so many people looking for “good” jobs is there a drivers shortage? The answer has to be that there really isn’t a shortage or there actually is, but people are not willing to leave their families for 3-6 weeks or more at a time working for minimum wage despite the “great” benefits offered by the trucking companies. I’m not sure which it is, probably somewhere in the middle.
I do know for a fact that the carrier I used to work for needs drivers – especially ones with a Hazmat endorsement, can operate in Canada, has a TWIC card and doesn’t have a problem going to New York City. Other than the typical $75 extra borough – Canada pay, maybe an additional $.02 per mile additional for Hazmat, the pay is the same for any other new driver without all those bells and whistles – about $.38 per mile. If you acquire a million miles, let’s say being employed with them for 11 years, you will receive about $.43 per mile and that’s it. Same health insurance, basically the same truck, a week more vacation – your “seniority” means nothing. If you compare that to, let’s say, an entry level job with the CSX railroad, you will be making about 50% more (that’s with overtime) with far greater benefits/perks with CSX or, for that matter, any railroad company, than any trucking company. The same holds true with a job in healthcare or technology.
There was talk many years ago about America going to a 4-day work week. Yeah right. The “powers” that be were never going to let that happen. In 2011, truck drivers should be starting at $.50 a mile, not $.32. Recall what I said yesterday about APU’s? Well, trucking companies can’t even equip their trucks with a decent refrigerator – freezer for their drivers health. I love seeing a brand new KW or International just being delivered, then two hours later a new driver pulls it off the yard with a $10 Styrofoam cooler strapped to the front seat with ice sloshing around in it. They don’t want drivers idling to keep them comfortable or being able to safety keep healthy food in their truck. I say we take the refrigerators out of the trucking company owners homes and let them try living without it for a few weeks.
Whether there is or isn’t a drivers shortage, turnover remains high – extremely high. I wonder why? Gee, what a mystery. Oh yeah, the lifestyle isn’t for everyone. What hogwash. OTR should have been replaced by regional home every week or two weeks a long time ago, just like the $.50 per mile starting pay. Why can Netflix raise their rates up from about $9 to $16 and get away with it? Trucking sales executives say they operate on slim margins and fierce competition. Nonsense. Are the trucking company owners buying smaller boats, or corporate aircraft or less mansions? Of course not.
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again – it is not about safety, it is not about the driver, it is not about the drivers family, it is not about home time, it is not about respect, it not about the best truck – it has everything to do with shareholders and management compensation. I’ve had more than one trucking company president tell me they not running a welfare state. The goal is profit. The goal is to keep the company solvent so “they” can pass it along to “the” son. Werner is the prime example of this.
It is amazing however, that a company like CSX and United Parcel Service and to some extend Federal Express can still profit, while providing their workers with a better than average wage, great benefits and a few good reasons for their employees to hang around. Trucking companies still don’t get and I don’t think they ever will.
If you liked that post, then try these...
No comments:
Post a Comment