Trucker Shortage....bullshit?

hijoshiki

New Member
This country holds 10 million CDL's, we would have all the truckers they need.

After doing some reading turnover is 95% per year.

We need 3.7 million truckers.

Is it that trucking is just too brutal on the body and we need to come up with more sane solutions instead of having humans subject themselves to downing gallons of caffeine and junkfood only to feel trashed trying to keep up with demand?

I listened to a couple of older men today ramble on about how the younger people are lazy, expect too much and so on. I naturally interjected(being the asshole I am) and pissed them off when I told them you guys that are 80+ had it too damn easy....graduate from highschool, get a job with a lifetime pension and call it a day. Today's kids are fucked with this gig economy and progressive credentialism and employers that don't give a shit or show any loyalty at all. Most of these old guys had unions. I know because both of my parents worked under these conditions and my father was a union leader and both are still getting nice pensions all these years later.

Have we reached a point where we're just gonna have to stop treating humans as machines and expect that they can do the job, but at a saner pace. The old ways of doing things don't work if 95% drop out after the first year.

Most of these talking heads are complaining that people aren't continuing on without questioning a system that is mostly broken and in need of repair.

It would seem that if you allowed truckers to work for say 3 days a week and have the rest of the week off they might be able to use more of those 10 million CDL carriers. Instead truckers can expect their dispatchers to keep grinding them down to the point they quit. And the economist will keep spewing bullshit that we need more when we already have a shit load sitting on the sidelines with a bad taste in their mouths.
 
Having a CDL is an easy job and you can make a livable wage. Literally the only requirements is a clean driving record, clean urine, and a valid CDL. There will never be a storage of truckers.
 
Having a CDL is an easy job and you can make a livable wage. Literally the only requirements is a clean driving record, clean urine, and a valid CDL. There will never be a storage of truckers.
I know that judging by the 3 times more CDL carriers than there are drivers out on the road.

Looking into the matter the OTR drivers seem to have a very high dropout rate.

It's a problem that needs to be addressed because driving 11 hours, sleep 10 hours and get back up to drive another 4 hours within 24hrs day after day is gonna cook lots of people.

Truckers when they first start are rode hard and used up quick. And if you add in the hours of unpaid time the wages aren't all that great, they come out to like $10/hr of being stuck with that vehicle.

High suicide rates are also not uncommon among truckers, but it all comes down to what you demand and will tolerate. Truckers just need to tell their companies to piss off I'm going home for 3 days each week or 6 days every two weeks.
 
As far as I know it's mostly shitty OTR jobs for mega carriers that have that high of a turnover and are going unfilled. And it's no wonder with being expected to work 70 hours a week, sleep in a truck every night, and only be paid like $1000 a week.

I do think the overtime exemption should be done away with along with some of the pay systems where you don't get paid for all of your time.
 
Hopefully in the next 20 years self driving trucks will take over. I know they have them but there still needs to be someone in the driver seat. We already have the technology but the current society/roads isn’t ready imo.
 
Hopefully in the next 20 years self driving trucks will take over. I know they have them but there still needs to be someone in the driver seat. We already have the technology but the current society/roads isn’t ready imo.
Not a chance you're gonna have thousands of pounds out on the road without a driver.

The tech sector is selling a big bag of bullshit, we've seen these trucks in highly controlled situations, that's not a reality for drivers.

I'm not a trucker, but I can say it's one of the most dangerous jobs there is. These dudes have serious responsibility and the road conditions, weather, wind, no place to park and sleep.

Sure you could have self driving trucks if you're out in the desert delivering a 6 pack of beer, but no way they're gonna be doing that in a highly congested area with 80,000 pounds.

The road systems would have to be radically transformed for commercial traffic so the trucks and the rest of us are separated if they wanted to create an autonomous grid of some sort to transport goods.
 
Dude the whole supply chain shortage is bullshit.

If it was real, then companies wouldn't be showing profits DOUBLING YOY for 2022. It's insane. NVidia says they have to raise prices because chips are so hard to come by and so pricey, okay well they profits doubled just like their prices. That is an extreme example, but you look all over the place. They say "oh we are having such a hard time because we actually have to pay people over minimum wage. It's such a tragedy" meanwhile their profits raise by 25% in a fucking quarter. This is just another case of the big businesses and oligarchs of America fucking over The People who work our asses off to make ends meet.

Honestly, the trucking system is fucking stupid anyway. What we should have is trains for long distance transit (like some shit gets shipped from LA to St Louis). Then once it gets to St Louis, local truckers take over. The truckers then can be home most nights, they aren't pressured into driving insane hours and doing meth so stay awake. They may take those goods from St Louis to Carbondale, or Evansville Indiana, or whatever. The point being, this would be so much more efficient. It would get so many trucks off the interstate highways--reducing the strain on our infrastructure like roads and bridges (and making driving more enjoyable for normal cars. It would make the job much safer for the truckers themselves (and everyone else on the road around them!) Lastly, it would (or at least could) be SO MUCH MORE EFFICIENT.

I don't give a shit if my package takes an extra day or 2 to get to me house because of this system (if it even would--I don't know, I am not a logistics expert). This could drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and possibly streamline our whole logistics system. Like I said, I am not an expert. Maybe I am wrong. I just feel that a system where eco-friendly trains transport things between primary points, then truckers pick up and distribute to the final destination, could really benefit us long term.

Just my thoughts I've been kicking around in my head. I just have always thought this model where we have these relatively tiny trucks taking shit from place to place is so silly. Maybe trains aren't the best way, idk. Maybe there's a better way. I DO NOT think that self driving trucks are a better way. Fuck self driving trucks (and cars, for that matter)

I work in IT security, imagine a scenario where Russia or some foreign adversary has managed to compromise the self-driving system. Not unlikely, to be honestly. They decide they are going to make all the self-driving trucks crash at the same time. They veer into oncoming traffic, they run right into houses and buildings, they mow down pedestrians in cities. It would be horrific. Of course the logistics companies wouldn't be held accountable. There's no driver to be held accountable. The software creator perhaps? I doubt it. Regardless, there would be mass panic and a complete loss of trust in automated vehicles. Not to mention likely tens of thousands dead and even more injured. People would start trying to loot the trucks, there would be total chaos for a while and it would be essentially impossible to contain because it would be spread out throughout the entire country!

So yeah, I think trains are a solid route to take. Update our train infrastructure to follow a hub-and-spoke distribution model, as I described above.

With the GOP (and some democrats) pretty much united against spending money on infrastructure, it seems highly unlikely that this will happen. It's insane that there's so much resistance. Infrastructure spending is proven to return very highly and create good jobs.
Anyway, I may have gone off on a bit of a tangent. Regardless, there is no supply chain shortage. This trucker shortage is bullshit too.

This is simply a tactic that companies are using to crank up prices and try to increase their profits and line their pockets. They see other companies blowing up their revenue by double digit percentages and they want in on that...fucking capitalism run out of control. That's the way shit goes nowadays :(
 
I agree that trucking should be kept to short routes no more than the length of one state. Each state would have perhaps several ports for trains to drop off shipping containers.

I watched a train double stacked yesterday with shipping containers so they're moving goods, but I don't think our ancient rail system is really set up to handle the load for a growing population.

As for profits. Those that run the show will use any excuse possible to raise prices.

Doesn't matter what it is. Covid, supply chain, oil, lumber, war is the newest one. Only takes just the mention of something to be used as an excuse and those that sit at the top know what to do.

The most dangerous of inflations are the cost of rent. For those that rent, the horror stories of rent suddenly going up by 25-100%. Sure they'll use the excuse that tenants didn't pay during Covid which might be the case for some of them, but the vast majority of tenants were paying their rent even if they did miss a few months during the lock downs which is to be expected.

The other thing that inflation brings is the hit with taxes. State and County revenues are up considerably thanks to inflation and this is draining people in a way they probably don't realize.

Those like myself that have money invested are doing fantastic. Those working for a living are screwed if they're in the bottom 40% and they will become poorer and poorer. With education costs rising, cost of living rising, health insurance going up. The system is set up for the top to remain on top and those on the bottom to suffer in quite as they will be told they have no excuse for their lack of achievement thus leading to more despair.

When you see the New Supreme court pick you see the lineage of privileged even in her as her father was an important lawyer, she a graduate of harvard. Her husband a 6th generation Harvard graduate. It's these same old legacy fucks that are ruling our country. It's like George Carlin said "it's a big club and you and I ain't in it".
 
Corporate concentration has been increasing over the past 20 years...large businesses buy smaller businesses decreasing competition...then the big companies get together and conspire and collude to raise prices in order to increase profits...they'll blame anything and everything except themselves...a year ago a 32 ounce bottle of Gatorade sold for $1.19 in my area...last week it was $1.99...that is close to a 100% increase!...for a frigging bottle of water with salt, food coloring, and flavoring...what a frigging scam...everyone needs to boycott this crap...can you imagine every person in the USA not buying Gatorade for a month!...if the price did not decrease then you would know for sure you are getting screwed by big business...these big companies are making record profits in spite of their so called supply chain issues...I say bullsh#t...
 
Corporate concentration has been increasing over the past 20 years...large businesses buy smaller businesses decreasing competition...then the big companies get together and conspire and collude to raise prices in order to increase profits...they'll blame anything and everything except themselves...a year ago a 32 ounce bottle of Gatorade sold for $1.19 in my area...last week it was $1.99...that is close to a 100% increase!...for a frigging bottle of water with salt, food coloring, and flavoring...what a frigging scam...everyone needs to boycott this crap...can you imagine every person in the USA not buying Gatorade for a month!...if the price did not decrease then you would know for sure you are getting screwed by big business...these big companies are making record profits in spite of their so called supply chain issues...I say bullsh#t...
The other problem is those on fixed incomes that are too old or unskilled to reenter the workforce. If you're 80 years old, this isn't good.

If you're on a fixed income with the current rate of inflation, that's a disaster.

The only people that can keep up with inflation are those who are invested. If you actually work they will never pay you enough to keep up with inflation unless you're one of the lucky members of the "professional" class where you will be immediately bumped up in pay while all the rest of the workers are left to wallow in poverty. Those workers left out will ask why they don't get a raise and will be told to piss off or worse yet fired so they can send more money up to the top.

And people wonder why there are so many people in this country that have lost their patriotism, loyalty towards the nation. If a nations people are bending you over and having fun at your expense why on earth would you give a shit about any of those people? That should be the real question. Why would any of the bottom 50% give a shit about defending a system where they're getting fucked.
 
one of the issues with the truckers is many kept leaving for companies offering a sign on bonus, stay until they get that and then rinse and repeat.

A lot of the truckers for wholesale for gas/convenience/grocery quit and went to Amazon
 
There is not, and has never been a shortage of drivers, however, there is now and forever will be a shortage of people that want to live like indentured servants to be polite, no man is willing to work for what can sometimes accumulate to less than minimum wage some weeks, delivering to receivers that will not let them use the bathrooms but feel free to use their trailers as another wing to their frozen warehouse at the expense of the driver if O/O, or spineless company if not. Truckers get treated as less than human quite often, both by where they deliver to and who they deliver for. I know of drivers doing reefer that are made to sit for up to 72 hours at times before getting offloaded by the greasy ass organization that calls themselves lumpers. Driving reefer can be a lose lose operation. Oh shit, BTW, reefer = refrigerator loads. Not that reefer lol.
 
There is not, and has never been a shortage of drivers, however, there is now and forever will be a shortage of people that want to live like indentured servants to be polite, no man is willing to work for what can sometimes accumulate to less than minimum wage some weeks, delivering to receivers that will not let them use the bathrooms but feel free to use their trailers as another wing to their frozen warehouse at the expense of the driver if O/O, or spineless company if not. Truckers get treated as less than human quite often, both by where they deliver to and who they deliver for. I know of drivers doing reefer that are made to sit for up to 72 hours at times before getting offloaded by the greasy ass organization that calls themselves lumpers. Driving reefer can be a lose lose operation. Oh shit, BTW, reefer = refrigerator loads. Not that reefer lol.
There are videos on yt that show this to be true. When you add it up the hours it's minimum wage for those that do longer route trucking.

It's got one of the highest drop out rates of any job I've seen, 90% in less than 3 years.

3 times more CDL carriers than what is needed to supply the nation with truckers should tell anyone that something is very wrong with the industry.

So when there's a problem you fix it. America doesn't fix problems, it just goes on pretending there isn't one.
 
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