The US truck driver shortage

originally posted by: seasonal

originally posted by: toysforadults
a reply to: seasonal

Yea that's the thing. They see someone as a Millennial and feel they don't deserve better money then when that Millennial doesn't want to work for a pittance after paying 5k to get a license and going to school for six months they blame them for being lazy.

Go on Glassdoor and read some reviews about trucking companies.

I tell ya I have worked with some millennials and they dont take shLt.
Hats off, to them. I put up with a little-but holy cow, I have seen situations drop that make me laugh, managers that deal with us genX skilled trades guys start to say the same things to mills that they say to us and boom. Human Resources gets called in. Funny stupid managers.

This is a good thing though. We have been on the internet our entire lives and we see how the rich benefit from our labor. We are putting our foot down and demanding more.

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.

a reply to: toysforadults

Billions stars there is no way I could agree more

-share the wealth, don't give it all to the workers, but be fair. And if not then a union should force the company/corp to do it.

originally posted by: toysforadults
a reply to: introvert

Unemployment is incredibly low and we simply do not have enough people to fill the positions we have. To combat that, wages will go up but that means the costs will be spread to the consumers.

I'll believe it when I see the wages increase.

They will have to go up and the trucking companies will have to become more attractive to potential drivers. But it will cost all of us at the stores.

America relied on cheap labor for too many years and we may reap the consequences of that soon.

a reply to: seasonal

You know I tried working in a machine shop and ran into the same problems. They didn't want to pay. I out produced the entire warehouse in a month on a lathe and stopped because people weren't making more than 18 an hour.

a reply to: seasonal

The first thing I do when I work for a company is talk to the older people and see what they think. If they are miserable day in and day out, not making enough money have old beat up cars, look tired and stressed out I quit.

Why not avoid that future for myself?

originally posted by: seasonal


Free market will solve this.

Pay'em and they will drive.

Apparently, "pay'em and they will drive" -- the premise of Zaph's OP (something has to give) -- will fail to deliver the equilibrium needed to balance supply and demand.



a reply to: Zaphod58

Are there 'first-adopters' to these self-driving trucks? Just how far away are they from hitting the roads and freighting cross-country?

I did some work early in my career costing out the low-sulfur diesel and a couple other diesel transportation-related regulatory costs...with boots on the ground, how much have regs (you mentioned a few [e.g. sleep apnea reg] I had zero knowledge of) dampened the incentive to become a truck driver?

I know nothing of trucker unions, outside of what was portrayed in the movie "Hoffa", are unions still a thing, if so, do they have any teeth?

Is this the beginning of the end of what was once a staple of American culture and its economy? Thanks in advance.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I used to drive big rig; loved it. But then returned to the O&G industry as an analyst, (wife forced me out).

Kept the license live as long as I could but eventually the regs washed me out. Biggest problem here in Texas is you have be drug free to drive for so many of these companies. There's a lot of people of qualified age who could be driving , but they have little incentive to work. Its easier to live with Grandma with her SS check, collect their own disability check, and smoke weed all day than it is to work for a living.


Eventually, the self-driving trucks will fill the gap I suppose. In the meantime, its all about inflation, and yes, we're already seeing shortages at the grocery store and the gas stations.

a reply to: BeefNoMeat

Maybe you saw this?
www.livetrucking.com...

a reply to: TonyS

Its easier to live with Grandma with her SS check, collect their own disability check, and smoke weed all day than it is to work for a living.

Can't blame them. Why work for what feels like nothing when you can make the same amount of money with better quality of life on the government?

a reply to: BeefNoMeat

They claim to have driven one empty across country, but the vast majority of them are driving local routes for testing.

a reply to: BeefNoMeat

Is this the beginning of the end of what was once a staple of American culture and its economy?

Dude that ship has sailed long ago. It already feels like a foriegn country to me and its only going to get worse. Now I'm seeing some decal of a phrase in Arabic script on back windows of trucks and SUV's and lots of them and that is along the TexMex border. Whats weird is that on the opposing back corner they have sayings in Spanish.......go figure.

a reply to: toysforadults

I don't blame them, they are totally unmotivated and realistically speaking, their educations are so bad they got no future except maybe as meat for the militar grinder.......that is if they can pass the physical.

originally posted by: introvert
a reply to: Zaphod58



Unemployment is incredibly low and we simply do not have enough people to fill the positions we have. To combat that, wages will go up but that means the costs will be spread to the consumers.

The food industry, which is of course tied to the trucking industry, stands to see huge increases.

In the food industry, yes, but in the freighting industry, those workers have a much higher probability of benefiting from technological progress (i.e. GPS made freighting much more efficient than a bigger oven or sharper knives would make a food industry employ) and nullifying that additional cost by providing an equal measure of value-added. If continued technological progress in the form of self-driving freighter trucks is realized, truckers' wages are likely to stagnant in comparison to the food industry labor force. That seems to be the issue; truckers "see the writing on the wall" and until the truckers' labor market finds an equilibrium -- after pricing in the self-driving trucks -- too small of an incentive exists for new entrants to break into the truckers' labor market.

originally posted by: TonyS
a reply to: BeefNoMeat

Maybe you saw this?
www.livetrucking.com...

I haven't seen that. Thanks for the link!

originally posted by: TonyS
a reply to: BeefNoMeat

Is this the beginning of the end of what was once a staple of American culture and its economy?

Dude that ship has sailed long ago. It already feels like a foriegn country to me and its only going to get worse. Now I'm seeing some decal of a phrase in Arabic script on back windows of trucks and SUV's and lots of them and that is along the TexMex border. Whats weird is that on the opposing back corner they have sayings in Spanish.......go figure.

Well, that sucks. I hadn't noticed much of a change but I'll take your word. As a kid, I loved when we pulled alongside an 18-wheeler and the sis and myself would pantomime pulling down to get the trucker to blow his horn. That never got old!!

originally posted by: BeefNoMeat

originally posted by: introvert
a reply to: Zaphod58



Unemployment is incredibly low and we simply do not have enough people to fill the positions we have. To combat that, wages will go up but that means the costs will be spread to the consumers.

The food industry, which is of course tied to the trucking industry, stands to see huge increases.

In the food industry, yes, but in the freighting industry, those workers have a much higher probability of benefiting from technological progress (i.e. GPS made freighting much more efficient than a bigger oven or sharper knives would make a food industry employ) and nullifying that additional cost by providing an equal measure of value-added. If continued technological progress in the form of self-driving freighter trucks is realized, truckers' wages are likely to stagnant in comparison to the food industry labor force. That seems to be the issue; truckers "see the writing on the wall" and until the truckers' labor market finds an equilibrium -- after pricing in the self-driving trucks -- too small of an incentive exists for new entrants to break into the truckers' labor market.

That is an important aspect as well that must be considered. In the short term, I do not see it playing much of a role though. As far as "value-added", that seems to be a common phrase used in which to justify increased prices.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Out of curiosity is their a push and encourage the industry to hire more women and minority drivers?


I know the tech for self driving is not there yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if this doesn't push it ahead and possibly be here within 10 years?

Amazon is also dangling their feet into the fedx and ups goes, so I wonder how that will also impact the industry.

a reply to: interupt42

www.geek.com...

But, according to reports from onboard drivers, “the vast majority of the driving was autonomous,” with “hours at a time with no disengagements, and when they did occur they were usually only a few seconds” long, Rodrigues noted.

originally posted by: toysforadults
a reply to: seasonal

You know I tried working in a machine shop and ran into the same problems. They didn't want to pay. I out produced the entire warehouse in a month on a lathe and stopped because people weren't making more than 18 an hour.

Problem #1, outperformed the entire warehouse....Don't work in a warehouse (smell of bezos) .



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