The US truck driver shortage

give a formulated tax cut for businesses that raise their wages. make the formula work by figuring out the rise in federal taxes from each paycheck, to correspond in unison with the cut in the business's federal tax. set limits and restrictions for the level of income and the degree of responsibility, capped before rising to the level of upper management...just a thought

Being that this is a political site that used to be about conspiracies....

Could the "shortage" have anything to do with the recent change (+/- 5 years) of allowing foreign (Mexico) carriers into the country?

Could this be a similar exercise to the IT industry (my sector) of claiming vast shortages to meet demand in a push to increase H1-B visas to bring in cheap labor? In this instance, foreign carriers would be expanded within our borders meet the "demand", i.e. save costs for the shippers.

A note about paying more for transport - it's not always up to the shipper - the person who's product is being transported. More times than not the logistics of transport are handled by a 3rd party brokerage, which even then can get passed to another broker. With each pass of the order (carrier carries X product for shipper), the broker takes a bite.
Everyone wants a piece of the pie.

my 2c

a reply to: TXRabbit

No, a big part of it is the over regulation, including the ELDs. Drivers that used to cheat on their paper logs and made a couple thousand a week are suddenly forced to run legally, and can't make as much money. So they're leaving for other work. Drivers are retiring, and younger people that would come in and replace them are hearing about how they can't make a decent living, and how bad the pay is, and lose interest in the job. There are a lot of factors. Most Mexican companies are still just running around the border areas, with only a few running into the US.

originally posted by: Zaphod58

The biggest problem is that it can cost almost $3,000 and take a month to get your CDL,only to go into training with whatever company hires you. While training with them, your pay is barely enough for you to live on. You then go out on your own, barely prepared, and don't make much more. Now you have all these stories about self driving trucks coming, and the incentive to I into the field isn't there.

In accordance with supply and demand, if there is a shortage, then pay should not be barely enough to live on.
Wages should be going up for truck drivers then.
Or perhaps shareholders and management need to take a paycut and pass it onto their workers.

I'll bet they are all for open borders to get some of that cheap labor in this country.

a reply to: Zaphod58

That makes mucho sense regarding the time-restrictions. Also a factor, at least from what I see here in DFW are the routine shake-downs by the local PDs of any type of truck. They bring them off the main drag and into a parking lot where their vehicles and I'm guessing paperwork are gone over by a couple of "road-safety enforcement" officers with a fine-toothed comb. I'm guessing their just filling up a shopping cart of violations and fines. Have you experienced this?

a reply to: jacobe001

They should be, but they're not. Instead we have things like the Pilot Flying J trial where they screwed drivers out of millions of dollars in fuel rebates. And more and more regulations piled onto us, without any change in pay.

a reply to: TXRabbit

I personally haven't, but I constantly hear the stories about it happening to other drivers. I've been lucky to hardly ever get inspected, and when I have, I've made sure the truck was in good shape, so the only violations I've ever had were the trailer, which we change just about every load. It happens a lot in some areas. There's even a meme that makes the rounds that has a DOT officer inspecting a truck that says something to the effect of, "Hold on, I haven't found a violation yet, but I'll keep looking until I do".

a reply to: Zaphod58

i think the answer is dirigibles.
what's old is new again?

Sorry mate but all to many people in our country are clueless about supply chains, so when stupid rules are passed they cannot be bothered to care till it has an effect on them directly.

a reply to: Irishhaf

And far too many people don't give a damn about truck drivers. We're equated with serial killers, pedophiles, and more. I got told that I was number one the other day by a guy that passed me after his lane ended merging onto the interstate, and when I stayed in tight on the vehicle in front of me, he backed off and waited until there was enough of a gap to pass me on the right and cut me off, just missing hitting us. Day in and day out.

I would love to see a trucker strike. Three days into it, people would realize how important we are.

originally posted by: GBP/JPY
Overall it's a ro that does it out there in traffic....I can't take the stress of rush hour on lbj or tite residential with cars parked on both sides in Seattle.

A major reason I packed it in. I-5.....

a reply to: Zaphod58

Instead we have things like the Pilot Flying J trial where they screwed drivers out of millions of dollars in fuel rebates.

At least the Browns will always stink the joint up like a Flying J's restroom -- gives new meaning to the phrase "Taking the Browns to the Super Bowl".

a reply to: introvert


I think we are in for a spell of real inflation. The chickens might be coming home to roost.

a reply to: Salander

that's why they want to raise interest rates so bad but the easy money market doesn't and can't have that

it will kill the banks because no one is saving money but no one is saving money because of low interests rates (and they can't afford to)

a reply to: Zaphod58

I am with you, wife has a few family members that are independent truckers its a rough life and the idiots on the road in the US make it harder.

A strike might be whats needed to alert people to the problems.

originally posted by: seasonal
a reply to: toysforadults

This is one sector of the economy I can say still really does have a lot of opportunity however. Although companies like Swift and Mcabe and all these other giants really do a bad job of training and taking care of their employees.

If you can weld, machine by hand, move machines, plumb, trouble shoot, build a staircase from scratch, change brake pads and rotors and understand how it all works and are not afraid of getting dirty you can make $30 an hour as a skilled trades man.
No one wants to do this work.

Where man? I'm in Sarasota/Tampa area, and they paying $15 and hour for super top notched welders who've been in the game for 15-20 years. Machining jobs are paying around 11.50 on the high side, and I actually had the job of building staircases, spiral ones even, from scratch and then driving out there and installing them too, and that paid me $9.50.

$30 an hour? Maybe in New York????

Everyone wants to pay a wage that doesn't even pay one bill and they're asking for full time and it still only pays one bill.

If only here in the U.S. they hadn't dug up most of the railroad tracks. There used to be two different lines that went through my little town in Southern Illinois. Both lines are long gone. And whatever was carried on those lines is, too. We also used to have a train depot here in my town - for passengers. That was a BAD idea getting rid of that form of transportation.

a reply to: TrulyColorBlind

Warren Buffett bet big time on rail freight, buying a controlling interest in Burlington-Northern, some time just after they thought it was a good idea (for 2nd time — dry mill and wet mill ethanol is virtually the same tech as was after 70’s oil crises) to grow corn for transportation fuel. He’s been proven right...

Sidebar (cause you mentioned you’re from the Illini State and y’all had a pretty famous senator): Many things can be attributable to the Union/North’s win in the Civil War, their rail infrastructure superiority doesn’t get its due, IMO.

a reply to: SRPrime

Same in PA dude. The unions can get you more money but I actually chose not to join the carpenters local because the pension fund is about to go bust and you work for a few months get laid off for a while find a new job at a new company

Not to mention I have to take a huge pay cut to start an apprenticeship

I hate to say it, bc it’s some greedy # going on but the trucking companies are just squeezing the last bit of profits from the old model. They will pay more eventually bc drivers will decrease in numbers and then that micro economy will start over, probably led by an industry disrupter, then a lot of the old trucking companies will go out of business. The free market will fix this issue. But it could take years to dismantle the aged status quo.