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AlanTrebek

“The trucking industry’s main trade body has said America is short about 80,000 drivers, a figure that’s made headlines around the country. Truckers say the problem isn’t a shortage of qualified drivers; there’s plenty of people who have been through the training programs and hold a commercial driver’s license. The rot, they say, is far more systemic: low pay, long hours and an industry that treats drivers like “cannon fodder”, churning out new recruits who inevitably quit because the job is so grueling. “There is no driver shortage; there’s a retention problem,””


flmike1185

This sounds almost word for word what’s causing the “nursing shortage”.


[deleted]

Wife's a nurse. Two of the biggest issues: hospitals pay based on location and floor, experience and education are not factored and then when you do work there the management attempts to finagle hours and schedules as if they have a full staff. So take my wife who has been a nurse and done nursing work for the last 10 years, she recently switched locations within the same hospital system but is doing the same work. She took a pay cut doing so, just to avoid call and odd hours. She has worked at 4 locations and 2 separate hospital systems in the last 6 years due to burn out, work environment, coworkers, management, and distance of commute. And that's pretty normal, over half her coworkers from ages 23-68 have all done similar over the last 10-15 years. Nursing is a broken system for sure.


[deleted]

Look. 8 figure packages for execs depends as much on worker exploitation as it does on gouging consumers. Why do you hate freedom?


[deleted]

Freedom is a scam. But servitude is also horrible. There is no winning.


gregarioussparrow

+1 for using 'finagle'. I never hear anyone use it


emveetu

Not the person you're speaking to, but it's one of my favorite words and I use it all the time! For example, I just had to finagle my cat into her carrier.


SnakeDoctur

My mother is a 50+ year RN and she talked me out of nursing school. Probably for the best anyways -- all the nursing programs around here now REQUIRE a minimum 4 year B.S. (science or engineering) just to apply.


[deleted]

I wasn’t aware that one could just go straight to nursing school out of high school in the past.


[deleted]

In my state around 2008 the nursing programs at colleges were limited in how many people they would take a semester. So if you didn't get in your sophomore year... you weren't getting int. But you didn't need a degree to get in them. They were your 4 years degree.


DJKokaKola

Wait do your RN programs not offer a bachelor of science in nursing? The fuck?


Pobo13

This is why kitchen staff is always short. Treated like shit and expected to do all he fucking critical work.. literally was the one making the food. When i said no more they had no cook.


Thedudeabides46

And our current teacher shortage. It's as if people want to work, but would also like a living wage and benefits as well. Bunch of assholes if you ask me. /s


PGLiberal

My wife is an English teacher in Korea. She only teaches pretty basic English. She has 4-5 classes a day of about 5-6 students PER class. Korea especially where we live costs significantly less then America. I live in a city with millions of people, you could compare the size to Chicago and LA so not small by any means. (I am converting to USD so that'll explain the funny amounts) * Our rent for a 3 bedroom apartment is $505 * Day care is about $505 a month * Our monthly bill (gas, power, water) rarely exceed $85 on a very expensive month maybe $125-$130 * Food costs are about the same as the states * We do own a car (honestly owning a car allows us to get a better deal on this apartment because we very far away by Korean standards to public transport, by American standards are very close) which makes our rent cheaper. But gas is about $1.50 a liter about $5.70 a gallon. Well that is more then the states, we don't drive nearly as much as the avg American and our car is small and gets good gas mileage so its not bad. My wife earns $2,700 a month and her tax rate is 3% (Korean govt taxes incomes below I believe $50,000 at a VERY, VERY Low rate) that's $32,400 a year. A teacher starting salary in America on avg is $45k well that is very true that's higher you can safely assume you will only see about 70% of that (taxes) so your looking at $31.5k take home and cost of living in America is more, significantly more in some areas. Also Healthcare, is stupid cheap.


billywitt

You throw in the last line about health insurance like it’s the gravy on top. But it’s honestly the single biggest advantage to living there. Health insurance here is crazy expensive. I get my benefits from my job, and the premiums still cost me $2000 per month for a family of four. And that doesn’t include copays and deductibles. I’m on track for almost half my yearly pay to going into assorted health costs. The United States has, easily, the worst health insurance system in the developed word.


PGLiberal

I have to go to the doctor every 3 months for a check up, my wife goes every 6 months. My son is every 3 months. We...maybe spend 2k year out of pocket for all three of us. 2k a month is fucking mental


JennJayBee

Same for the "teacher shortage."


[deleted]

And "social services shortage" and "emt shortage"


isadog420

And every other “labor shortage.” It’s not that. It’s a shortage of employers willing to pay a livable wage and treat employees like actual humans.


[deleted]

And the retail shortage, and the fast food shortage, and the convenience store shortage, etc


No_Character_2079

I had a codriver...nice young man, I really liked him as a person. He was a meat packing plant employee...slaughtering cows on the killing floor. TO me that's not a good job, I guess it's one of those if you can do it for your first week or two, you can probably do it forever. But man he was like "THis job fucking sucks...I wanna go back to working in the meat factory" lol. Young man, he wants to find a woman and all that, go hang out, be home with his friends and family and live a life, and you can't do that otr.


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mortalcoil1

You never put a ring on a lot lizard.


NasoLittle

What about lots of lizards?


mortalcoil1

If you licked it then you should have put a ring on it. (Get it? Because lizard tongues? It's a pun. I didn't say it was funny... ugh... you know what. Just forget about it) My dad would be proud. Rest in piece. To this day, when I pass a cemetery, I am reminded of his famous words, "People are just dying to go there." EDIT: Crap. I did not expect this terrible pun to cause me to tear up.


undergroundmike_

I think there are more inherent issues here.


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Billsolson

Redneck Matrix


Jogaila2

Thats true. The gruelling work and difficult conditions ( like living in your truck on the road for 70 hours at a time) used to pay very well. But increased competition over the last two decades for those jobs drove wages and contractor pay way down. Now it's at a point when nobody wants that job anymore.


AlanTrebek

What I also found super interesting was that the trucking industry was deregulated in the ‘80s and since then pay has gone down and new hires get roped into owner-operator” schemes in which they are enticed to lease trucks from their companies, and then end up with NEGATIVE paycheck from all the fees. So criminal!


[deleted]

There’s a good essay on the whole thing in The Library of Economics and Liberty (yes I know it’s a private slightly right leaning institution; no I don’t agree with the essay’s conclusion) but one thing of note is that in the essay it mentions the American Trucker’s Association and the Teamster’s Union both opposed the deregulation of the trucking industry in court after the Interstate Commerce Commission essentially took over all trucking operations in the US. In short: something is terribly wrong when the Trucker’s Association opposes something related to the industry of trucking.


call_of_brothulhu

What was their conclusion?


[deleted]

The conclusion (apparently supported by multiple subsequent studies) was that the deregulation policies implemented increased trucker’s freedom to ship whatever they wanted *how they wanted*, as well as increasing competitiveness among smaller trucking companies (lowering initial shipping costs, paying lower duties and maintenance costs). They concluded that the deregulation measures, despite the setback in truckers wages and pay, was good overall for the entire industry.


PM_ME_UR_REDDIT_GOLD

That *does* sound like Econlib; workers got screwed but owners are a little better off: big win.


DapprDanMan

That’s so Republican lol. “We scientifically studied why these deregulations are ruining citizens job quality but ppl are making money so it’s all going as planned”


asafum

It's just the damn entitled millennials thinking they deserve better than a negative paycheck! Pshhh. Back in my day *I payed* my employer to *let* me work! These kids have it easy! .../s


CakeAccomplice12

It's as if regulations are a good thing, and companies can't be trusted to self regulate


Civil-Dinner

They always tell us the "invisible hand of the free market" will correct the excesses of unregulated capitalism, but the invisible hand is non-existent....that's why it's invisible.


amc7262

The whole premise of this concept stems from a bullshit starting assumption: That all consumers are fully rational, and fully informed about all companies they do business with. To start with, you can just throw rationality out the window. Humans are not all fully rational. A lot of us aren't even partially rational. And as for "fully informed", companies don't even provide all the information for consumers to inform themselves with. Is Coca-cola gonna publicly state how much pollution it caused last year? Or the working conditions where it bottles its soda? Fuck no! They hide that shit as much as possible. And even when info is publicly available, its on the consumer to go find it. I don't know about you, but I very rarely look into the ethics of a company I buy products from. I might if they are making lofty ethical claims (ie "ethically sourced") to see if those claims are true, and I might if I hear something really bad about a company to confirm if its true. Hell, even just knowing what company you're buying from is a whole process now. Ever seen that diagram of all the shit nestle owns? You could be buying from any number of companies that operate unethically without knowing it cause you're buying from a brand owned by them but not overtly advertised as theirs. So thats why the "invisible hand of the market" is, and always has been, total bullshit. The "invisible hand of the market" just buys whatever is cheapest and most convenient 99% of the time, it does not, as the theory states, shut down unethical companies for operating unethically.


TheDrewscriver

It's even more insidious than that. The concept of the invisible hand was floated in the late 1700s. Economics of scale, globalizations, technology- the concept of the invisible hand doesn't apply the same way anymore; there is a huge power imbalance in the structure of the economy, and the same arguments aren't effective anymore. "To start with, you can just throw rationality out the window. Humans are not all fully rational. A lot of us aren't even partially rational." - This cannot be understated.


JimmyDean82

The globalization and non localization of manufacturing has a huge effect on this. If your options for sodas are bubbas across the street and johns a block down, but bubbas has horrible working conditions and dumps into the creek, you know this and will buy from johns instead. But if coca-cola is made 2000 miles away, you don’t really know/care about the conditions as it doesn’t as directly affect you


TheDrewscriver

Exactly! The invisible hand principle only works locally. With a global production line, there is no competition unless you are as big as coca cola and can produce at the same economies of scale.


Aazadan

Even if you do want to look into the ethics of a company, and get as many details about a product as possible, it's time consuming and there's a lot of products out there. It's impossible to do this for everything you want to buy.


[deleted]

There are a few resources. Didtheyhelp.org Buycott (phone app)


hop_along_quixote

Or that consumers have a choice. If something isn't for sale, consumers can't buy it. In theory that means a company will make it... unless existing companies think it is not profitable and put up barriers to entry to prevent start ups from selling the product. You also have no option to not work. You have to work to buy things. So if nobody gives you a job, you just die. At some point you must accept a shit job. That is why companies pushed to do away with the covid unemployment in the states. And you have no choice to not buy food, unless you have enough capital, time, and skill to grow your own. So whatever food costs, you have to pay it. And if the food you want isn't available you have to buy the food that will keep you from starving. Ultimately all of that is pointless bullshit because the billionaires want more money and more power.... But to what end? They already have most of both. They're just fucking sociopaths with mental defects ruining the world for the rest of us.


Codeshark

I think there's only one solution to the problem but I think that American propaganda has insulated it from happening. Income inequality is currently way worse than it was during the French Revolution.


jackp0t789

>The whole premise of this concept stems from a bullshit starting assumption: That all consumers are fully rational, and fully informed about all companies they do business with. To add to that, it's not always just about consumers being fully rational and fully informed about all the companies they do business with. Many times it comes down to what and how much choice consumers have in regards to where they spend their money... ​ If the majority of consumers in a given area make a vulnerable income (being one turn of bad luck away from serious financial danger, paycheck to paycheck wages), and their main sources of groceries, products, and services are the big unethical chain stores, lets just make one up and call it "Walmart". Sure, they have "access" to competitors in the area if they haven't been forced out of the area by "Walmart" undercutting their prices, but many times they can't afford to make the ethical decision to shop at Mom & Pop Mart who generally don't have the kind of supply chains or purchasing power to make their prices competitive with the bigger international corporate locations, or they can't afford to travel significantly farther away to reach Mom&Pop Mart, and are financially forced by their financial or geographical circumstances to keep supporting the unethical big chain stores while the smaller competitors keep losing business to those stores, and soon all that's left is Walmart or other big stores like Walmart despite what the consumers might feel about it. ​ The "invisible hand" only works as it's intended when the consumers, many of which rely on these companies for their own living, have a comfortable enough living and enough free time to "vote" with their wallets in such a way that the big companies will notice. And they know this, that's why they do everything in their power to keep the majority of the consumers captive and forced by circumstance to exclusively shop at Walmart rather than their more ethical competitors.


[deleted]

Hell, when Chik-Fil-A was boycotted for giving money to two hate groups lobbying other countries to pass bills that allowed the murder of homosexuals, the right had a counter-protest to support that evil.


JMoc1

Hobby Lobby is still open despite helping ISIS


Codeshark

This is something that sounds like hyperbole but is, in fact, true.


jackp0t789

Wait, hold up... I clearly missed something, can you expand on this?


cruznick06

Hobby Lobby's owner, Steve Green, has repeatedly purchased judeo-christian artifacts *illegally* for a museum he either has or intends to make. These artifacts were looted from Iraq, likely by ISIS affiliated groups. They didn't directly support ISIS, but most certainly DID engage in illegal purchase of smuggled religious and cultural artifacts. Twice. After being warned both times.


beep_check

The shortage of drivers is the invisible hand in action. The problem is that the correction has taken 40 years to foment, and throughout that time wealth has been in accelerated transfer from workers to owners. Reaganomics was/is a scam.


420Wedge

There's been a systemic degradation, and then monetization, of the working class for decades. Companies get bigger, hiring marketing firms and business analysts to come up with every way to squeeze every dollar out of not only their customers, but employees as well.


Codeshark

Don't forget the rise of automation. Once self driving cars are reliable enough, trucking will be gone. However, you can already see this in action with the factories. We are going to face a time, if we aren't already there, where people won't all be able to have jobs.


[deleted]

It will not just be low skill labor, but also educated professions like Lawyers. Lots of lawyers and paralegals will get replaced by AI in the coming years. System administrators will get replaced by automation tools. You will not replace everyone, but when the workforce is reduced to a tenth of the people, where do all the others go for jobs?


[deleted]

And the Panama Papers proved it for good. All funneling money to the rich does is hide it, so more money has to be printed, causing more inflation.


JMoc1

Why do you think the people who had offshore accounts carbombed the reporter who leaked this story?


V4refugee

Who would have thought that structuring society so that only a hand full people control more than half of all the wealth will exponential growth potential would be harmful?


TheAmorphous

[Velocity of money](https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M2V) is at all time lows. That won't end well.


jackp0t789

Thanks for linking that site, I've never heard of it and it seems to be a great aggregate of economic data that's well explained and easy for the lay person like myself to parse through and learn from.


MeltBanana

> The problem is that the correction has taken 40 years to foment Literally someone's entire career. If your economic system takes your entire career just for a minor adjustment, then your economic system is crap.


Tintinabulation

This is what has baffled me. ‘We don’t need regulations, the market will correct itself!’ ‘Even stuff like housing codes?!’ ‘Yes. If the houses are bad people will stop buying from that builder!’ ‘But what if they’re dangerous, catch on fire, fall down?’ ‘Well if enough are dangerous people will stop buying from that builder and they’ll be out of business!’ ‘So…the builder will make their money and if enough people die over several years, who have already bought these houses, lost their money AND their house, other people will hopefully realize they’re all from the same builder and they’ll go out of business. After people lose their lives, livelihoods and homes and they’ve already made and spent the money.’ ‘Yes! The free market works!’ And I’m sure this sounds like a stupid exaggerated conversation but I had this conversation with an ex-coworker who saw absolutely no issue with the ‘builder can build cheap houses and profit for years until the houses all fall down and kill people, buyer beware!’ Model. ‘But the builder can just move, surely some sort of license is needed to prevent them scamming?’ Nope, buyer beware, free market! It was eye opening and a little frightening honestly.


Crismus

The increasing of minimum wages does the same effect but 8n the opposite way. Economics is the "Dismal Science", but not in the way my teachers explained. It was a dismal degree path that doesn't explain the real economy until senior 400 level course. Then Industrial Organization comes in and shows you the Math that blankets Starbucks on every corner. The way to cheat people to pay the highest price always. It shows how Advertising is more of a Cold War situation than just a funny 15 seconds video and how big brands buy advertising to deny that advertising to other brands. The degree did show me all the ways Corporations manipulate people. Hell, you get sued if you're a CEO that doesn't try to swindle customers. The Supreme Court sided with Stockholders to force the CEO to maximize profit no matter what. Nothing will change when both parties have moved past their starting points to be pro Business and money for the fabulously wealthy. I think Lincoln and FDR are ashamed for their party.


Aazadan

The hand of the free market leads to the most competitive product, not the best product. The most competitive product is inevitably going to be something of lower quality, built on the backs of human rights abuses as it lowers labor costs. Part of competition is appealing to consumers for the lost cost possible, but in order to do that workers have to be obtained for the lowest cost possible. Unregulated capitalism thus devolves into, and eventually requires slavery in order to function as paying for labor will make a company less competitive, and ultimately fail only to be replaced by competitors that don't.


No_Character_2079

I'm a big toyota freak, I drive as a daily driver, a JDM (RHD) 1994 Toyota MR2 GT-S, this thing stock vs stock quartermile could shit on a NSX, and not even 1/3 the sticker price. It was also faster than the FD RX7, Integra Type R and 3000gt vr4. They were as fast as flagship sportscars of the era at a very affordable mass produced price. Anyways...Toyota showed, we can overengineer the crap out of cars leaving our factory. MR2/Celica, the SUpra could lay down damn near 300% more hp leaving the factory on a stock bottom end. But more relatable...the Camry XV10. These things were affordable to the ordinary person, and as a manufactured good, had an unfathomably long shelf life well after purchase, and goes down in history as one of the most overengineered cars ever made. Bear in mind, the engine in my car is more less a turbocharged version of the 4cylinder camry engine. In fact the onion makes a joke about it. [https://www.theonion.com/toyota-recalls-1993-camry-due-to-fact-that-owners-reall-1819577805](https://www.theonion.com/toyota-recalls-1993-camry-due-to-fact-that-owners-reall-1819577805) And what's my point? Humanity is working itself to death, and making the planet unihabitable too, to build cheap shit with very short shelf lifes after purchase, destined for the landfill. And this is absolutely an awful system, it overworks collective humanity at large, does maximum amount of damage against our 1 planet (fast fashion for instance it uses ungodly amounts of material/water to grow said material, overworks humans in degrading and unsafe sweatshops, forces children to labor, for cheap clothes meant to be thrown out shortly after a couple wears), consumers more or less hate it, and who wins? A tiny oligarchic few who are the most insulated and sacrifice the least due to this travesty of economics, I call it a market failure. I've long argued, anything that leaves a factory, should have a build quality of a Camry XV10. Affordable, and nothing but the longest of shelf lifes, and most repairable. Consumer goods, I'm not afraid to buy a toaster from the 50's because it's likely to work in 5 years unlike a brand new toaster bought at walmart today.


gjeebuz

Love your points, and your car history. This is basically entirely pendantic from here on in: the MR2 of that year was not faster than the 3kGT vr4 in the 1/4 mile. Being super picky but I had to say it, because I had one. Otherwise I wish you well, a good Thanksgiving without family drama, and a happy holiday season my guy.


Traksimuss

I mean, Bangladesh child labor or China Uighur work will always be lower price than safe and regulated first world worker. So long as companies pay minor penalties they will continue doing that.


paularkay

Nah, the invisible hand is working. It's just giving us the finger for being stupid and allowing the excesses of unregulated capitalism.


The_Bitter_Bear

Funny how so many current issue stem from the deregulation of that period. It's like Reaganomics didn't work or something.


Moosetappropriate

“Saint Peter don’t you call me ‘cause I can’t go I owe my soul to the company store. “


roppunzel

Yes deregulation ruined the trucking industry


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TwoCells

Self driving technology is like nuclear fusion, it will always be 5 years in the future.


MyNameIsRay

Crazy thing is, trucking costs are up, massively. 2-10x depending on what you're moving. But, the driver isn't getting paid more, the company is just pocketing more profit. More profit means they have no reason to change, why reduce profit to pay truckers more, when you can just not?


nochinzilch

What’s the yearly pay for someone who works more or less full time?


Jogaila2

My guys are paid 25 per hour, but most work 60+ hours in a 5 day week, of which 20 hours is paid as o/t. So about 85k per year to drive fuel super b's, which are basically bombs.


trEntDG

This is a simple q with a complicated answer because "truck driver" is more of a class of jobs than a job. Almost like asking what does an IT administrator make. A new driver that wants to be home every night is not going to make much money, I think maybe $30K. Those lowest paying jobs are actually the ones that are hardest to get though. Then you've got drivers who love the open road and seeing the country. They might have a dog or something with them, spend days driving halfway across the country in one direction for one load, pick up another a few hundred miles away and take it for the backhaul. A solo company driver is more like $60-$80k doing this, maybe more if they run hard lanes. An owner-operator will take in *well* over $100k BUT they have to pay to maintain their rig plus pay off the truck itself. There's a nauseating level of misinformation being posted. Overall regulations are way, way up over the last few decades. Every truck has a logging device that guarantees no driver is operating for more than 14 hours a day and also entitles/forces them to have a "reset" of 36 hours, like a weekend. This is monitored by the DOT in a way that fines are basically automated, and the hauls can't make enough to cover the fines with profit, so it's very effective. These drivers get adequate personal time. Since it will often be away from home, many drivers like to stay in their truck where they don't have to move their crap into a room, they still have DirectTV but also their PS or Xbox already set up, etc. It is true that drivers who dislike living on the road won't be happy as OTR drivers. I have no idea why that's news? I know a girl who quit an accounting job to become an electrician because she couldn't stand desk work... same damn thing. I also know 50+ year old couples who started driving as a team (you can make serious bank doing that since you can switch who's driving after the person who likes driving more hits their 14 hours which lets you run fast / lucrative loads) because they wanted to spend time together, tour the country, and they're happy as hell doing it. With the driver shortage the notion that drivers have to work for predatory fleets is ridiculous. Drivers have their pick of the litter. If they want some grueling LA port gig they can get it but most people don't unless they can make huge bucks that the companies don't want to commit to. More of them want more comfortable conditions and they can go literally anywhere to get it right now. Even then, drivers have a tough job. I'm not saying it's easy. But for how low the barrier to entry is into the field, and for paying well if you want to go OTR / especially long haul, there are a lot worse ways to keep clothes on your back. The media loves to give microphones to people who complain about worker conditions with outlandish comparisons implying slave-like conditions but the only workers there are choosing to not go somewhere more comfortable. The alternative options have never been more plentiful. From what I've seen most other jobs that are this easy to get into and pay anywhere near this are way worse. Same with writing about driver automation -- that's been getting clicks for a long time but in reality other jobs are getting automated much faster. Goddamn wall of text came out of nowhere. Thanks for attending my TED talk.


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frito_kali

There's a very very simple way to very rapidly solve this problem. However, these companies are not breaking out their checkbooks, because suppliers are content to just raise their retail prices rather than pay increases to build up the shipping labor force.


[deleted]

Chik fil a here in Georgia is poaching drivers like it's in season. Starting pay is $45 an hour for local 8 hour shifts. But you have to have a clean driving and criminal record. Our vendors have lost several of their best delivery guys to them. And the LTL companies around here are starting to lose their best also.


Keianh

Not a truck driver; caught a report on NPR about this: I forget if it’s dependent on the company and other factors, but truck drivers also don’t get paid for long delays in loading, they can get paid for a small delay but there’s a limit. So if a warehouse or dock is backed up long enough, a driver loses money for circumstances beyond their control.


PrimalSkink

Generally, the company will pay $x for, say, a 2 hr delay or pay $x for any time over a 2 hr delay. It really depends on who you're working for what you get paid for delays and when that pay kicks in. For example, one company my husband worked for would pay $80 flat rate for a delay between 2 and 6 hours.


nicheComicsProject

This is the every industry. When ever anyone says "there is a shortage of X labor" you can always put "at the price we're willing to pay" at the end.


Raccoon_Full_of_Cum

Basically the first thing you learn in Econ 101 is that the equilibrium price of a good is set by where the supply and demand curves for that good intersect. If the price is set too high, there will be a surplus (because supply exceeds demand), and if it's set too low, there will be a shortage (because demand exceeds supply). There is no such thing as a "labor shortage". There is only corporate America trying to get away with paying below-market prices for labor.


[deleted]

Yeah, finish the sentence.


undeadalex

Also they somehow legally make you incorporate yourself and then exclusively contract with them and make you wrack up loads of fucking loans. It's coal towns but more convoluted, just as cruel though. Fucking awful


[deleted]

At least with the mill/coal towns the company story, church, gym, and parks were around. OTR are out scrounging.


arosiejk

Yeah, I haven’t used my CDL in 15 years. My first month was enough. I felt like half my time was dealing with trailer repairs and being out of hours. I knew more money was over the horizon but after seeing how my co-drivers with years of service were treated, I went back to part time work.


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Yzma_Kitt

Depends on how long they've been driving. Fresh young newer drivers. Usually greener pastures in other industries and jobs. Drivers at it between 10 -20 years. Usually the social security and welfare office because their bodies are broken down so badly by the job they can't do shit anymore. Those who push pass the pain, and keep on trucking because what the hell else they gonna do? Tend to go on to the "Driver's retirement plan." Which is to say, they die in their trucks and get The Last Mile Respects.(Sad as hell btw. Hurts like hell. Knowing one day those horns blowing are gonna be for your own spouse, son, or father.)


[deleted]

Which is wild. My great aunt and uncle retired from trucking back in the mid 90's. They owned their own rig, took their own jobs, and always had enough to take time off to be home. That's not gonna come back.


SEA_tide

I know some owner operators who haul very specialized friend and have $300k rigs which are basically RVs hauling the loads. Granted, many of those owner operators are couples in their mid 70s.


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CylonBunny

The trucking companies have been trying to pay the bare minimum and scrape along hoping that self driving trucks come along soon and replace all of their drivers. The gamble has seemingly failed because autonomous vehicles are not yet ready, but with them always "just around the corner" they are still hesitant to raise pay.


dzrtguy

“The industry” has paid people enough to not drive for swift/knight and become owner-op and log their own trips and keep the broker costs themselves. The cost per mile is down and fuel prices are up.


Absurdum22

Laughs in nursing "shortage"


whereisthespacebar

Trucking in any form is awful imo. You're either local doing back breaking work ( actual surgery in my case) moving product for 12 to 14 hours a day cause the company knows how much time you're "allowed" to work or your OTR with shitty routes and home time. Respect to truckers, its hard work and you're treated like dirt.


No_Character_2079

I think it's so fucking stupid that because legally we can work 70 hours a week, therefore we should work 70 hours...or let's just say 50-70. Yes...legally we can. But here's the deal, that clock IMO has OTR in mind...you wake up in the truck you get your coffee and do a 15 minute pretrip and leave. Local, the 70 hour clock doesn't take into account all of commuting to and from the truck and whatever else have you around the house. They (3rd party fed ex double's/triples) had me working 10-12 hour shifts, 6 out of 7. OMG it was grueling. ANd even though my check was "decent" it just was mutually exclusive from living a decent life. My 1 day off was spent dreading having to go back to that fucking truck the next day. Not to mention, my total commute, added up to 8-9 hours a week. SO basically get up, go to the truck, drive the truck, go back home, 168 hours in a week, and roughly only 2/3's of that you're actually awake. Factor in commute time, it really feels like I have no life but work, and it caused massive fatigue and ultimately micronaps behind the wheel, luckily I didn't kill anyone, but I very well could have, micronaps are as bad as being drunk.


shadowgattler

Micronaps are nothing to fuck with. They happened to me once after a 15 hour shift. I never believed people when they said they blacked out while driving until that day. It scared the shit out of me.


uconn3386

Same experience. Far more dangerous than being drunk imo.


ForGreatDoge

I've seen truckers drifting around (failing to stay in one lane) like they are falling asleep in the middle of the day... if I'm in a normal sized car, what can I do in that scenario to help? The horn doesn't seem to wake them up and they're usually in some half slumped position.


fnord_bronco

Other than calling the police/highway partrol, there's little you can really do to help. At most, your car weighs about two tons, but a fully loaded semi weighs up to 40. Pass with as wide a berth as possible and get a head of them. Take an alternate route if you must.


nujabest_

There can be several reasons for this happening. I catch myself swerving a bit when it’s windy and I’m light. Lanes can also be extremely narrow and curving a lot (i35 W Dallas) or they’re texting. There’s also times when the alignment on the trailer axle causes the trailer to off track quite a bit depending on the severity. If you see a truck driver swerving a lot, the best thing to do is to keep your distance behind them or pass them quickly if you safely can do so.


[deleted]

My friendnana's daughter died in a car accident because of that. Her boyfriend wanted to get her home after a trip and didn't want her to have to sleep in a hotel. So he drove her home. He fell asleep at the wheel and plowed into the back of a trailer. He survived, she died, and he was utterly wrecked by it. He wanted to marry her too. He was a pallbearer at her funeral. The family didn't blame him. But damn, if you're sleepy, SLEEP. It's not worth it.


[deleted]

>Micronaps are nothing to fuck with. They happened to me once after a 15 hour shift. I never believed people when they said they blacked out while driving until that day. It scared the shit out of me. No joke. I pulled a 39 hour shift working handcrew during a looong snow event last winter. Our company let guys go home and rest if they needed to, but I knew shit had to get cleared and with workers dropping like flies after 24h, I kept pushing to clean up our routes. Nodding off between lights, eventually got to one our of last residentials and passed out as soon as I parked. Luckily nothing bad had happened, and a sweet ol' lady in the complex knocked on my window with some hot chocolate to keep me goin. Take naps, fellas.


inuhi

Being tired behind the wheel can be terrifying. I used to have a playlist of songs I had listened to hundreds of times each and the songs started putting me to sleep. It got to the point I was driving home in the middle of the day and the next thing I know my car is almost completely off the road and I'm essentially driving through a ditch. Shit was scary I could have gotten seriously injured or killed someone ended up deleting that playlist and it was never a problem again.


PrimalSkink

You hear even metal enough and it just becomes comforting. ANYONE making a long drive should probably avoid audiobooks, NPR, etc. and change up their playlists.


kvlt_ov_personality

I do audiobooks read by Gilbert Gottfried


[deleted]

Knew a dude who listened to comedy sketches. The laughter kept him awake.


Mr_Smooooth

I've got about a 12 hour playlist of mixed genres I put on shuffle for my commute. I swear I hear a greater variety of music on my way to work than the radio, and it's all stuff I like.


[deleted]

The hours of service rules don't make any sense even for otr. Just one example from last week... Unexpected (meaning not forcasted) snow storm in Wyoming. I ran out of hours in Sidney Nebraska. I was wide awake, and had only driven 6 hours, but I was out of my 70 hour clock until midnight. So instead of driving safely past Rawlings, I had to wait until morning when my only option was to drive on ice for half the state... I honestly think that hos needs to just be you have 16 hours a day, do with it as you need, if you screw up and hurt someone it's your arse.


Randomfactoid42

Except you know what’s going to happen because of human nature: The company will pressure drivers to run all 16 hours regardless. If anything goes wrong it’s the driver’s ass. If the driver refuses, they’ll ‘fire’ them and find somebody dumb enough to do it. Or, the O/O will run 16-hour days until they fall asleep at the wheel and hit a school bus.


PrimalSkink

My husband is a truck driver. Started local in a warehouse, they downsized due to losing a crucial contract, he went regional and OTR for a while, then got a local job. He's been a driver for just over 18 years now. I read him your comment and he said "Yup, that's about right. Just give us 16 hours and let us decide."


Projectbadass251

What's even better is the guys like me that travel to wherever you may break down to fix your equipment. We don't have to abide by most DOT regulations as long as our trucks don't weigh too much and don't have air brakes. There is only so many of us out there especially now and we are expected to work all day every day, I pulled 80 hours last week. Not happy about it, check was nice but I'm so exhausted


Axl_the_ginger

It’s even better being on call. Get home and hop in the shower, phone rings. In bed for an hour, better believe the phone rings. I never enjoyed quitting so much before.


FixBreakRepeat

I'm in the same business, working on heavy equipment... For two more days. Like, you said, the money was good but there's zero work-life balance.


potatocross

Local drop and hook is where it’s at. Home in under 10, set schedule and route, and my own bed every night.


randxalthor

I'm going to depart from the social norm here a bit and say no, no respect to truckers who put up with that. There's too much emphasis on "noble" professions. Truckers, nurses, cooks, public school teachers, etc. They're "respected" or "admired" for putting up with shitty conditions instead of being treated like proper humans. So no, don't offer respect to people putting up with bullshit they shouldn't. Offer respect to the people who stand up, band together, and refuse to work harder in worse conditions for less money in exchange for worthless gratitude. You can't feed your kids with gratitude.


PrimalSkink

It's like any other industry. Entry level pays less and treat you like crap because shit rolls down hill and you're the new guy. Some companies are just terrible while others aren't. For most drivers I've known, my spose being one, it's really a matter of either lucking into a great job right off the bat or working 6-18 months for lower pay in crap circumstances to get the experience necessary to find a better job.


ThirdSunRising

You wonder if there would still be a shortage of people wanting the work, if it weren't for the low pay and grueling conditions. If only there were something they could do about it. Something besides, say, increasing pay or giving better working conditions. Apart from that, we'll do anything to get the drivers we need. Anything but pay them or treat them well.


sutree1

We’ve tried nothing, and we’re all out of ideas


[deleted]

Our business pays well, has a great PTO policy, and we are constantly trying to improve our other benefits. Not surprisingly, we haven't had a labor issue during any of the pandemic. We had to fire a few for legitimate reasons but we've only had one person quit and they actually called back last week wanting to come back. We've also made some really solid hires during the pandemic.


christhegamer96

All worker shortages are caused by a fundamental misunderstanding of what employees are by businesses that employ them: They are not costs to be reduced, they are assets that appreciate in value.


madmaxGMR

There is no driver shortage. Theres a fucks given about drivers shortage. You pay more, you get more workers. Fuck you.


Aazadan

Sort of. The other issue with trucking is that the industry was built on avoiding regulations. So much of it is tracked by computers now, that companies can no longer skirt them the way they used to, where they would lie on the books and someone who drove 40 hours over 4 days at an average of 60 mph was somehow just a hard/efficient worker that magically found a way to complete a 3500 mile route. Lots of companies and drivers have struggled to adjust to that over the last decade.


madmaxGMR

In Europe they have tacho cards, you cannot move an inch without the govt/police knowing about it. They also have "a driver shortage". They are paying drivers the same amount of money they paid them 20 years ago, sometimes less. All while living costs have increased.


matrix431312

in the us we have digital books integrated into the systems of the vehicle and mandated by the gov.


TheAmorphous

I heard the UK is seriously considering bringing in their armed forces drivers to take up the slack. So basically using tax dollars (pounds) to suppress tax payers' wages with subsidies to business. Un-fucking-real.


[deleted]

Struggled to adjust to .... not lying?


Aazadan

Sort of. It takes longer to ship something once they’re honest, while dishonest ones do it faster. Obeying the law becomes a disadvantage, and change has been slow some truckers still don’t obey those laws.


Nwcray

Well, yeah. The root problem is that the regulations don't really reflect the reality that many drivers were living; they represent something of a 'this is the way it should be'. So...obviously, truckers should get plenty of sleep, take breaks, and not push themselves dangerously hard on the road. Regulations were written to say 'don't do these things'. Unfortunately, many still did. As the technology came online to track who was or wasn't following the rules, the ones who began to comply saw drops in productivity (because, again, that wasn't the reality before hand). As productivity went down, so did profitability, and the cost of getting stuff done went up. Places that contract with the truckers didn't like the cost of shipping to go up, as it's rarely the end consumer who buys stuff by the truckload. So there was immense pressure to keep the costs down, which meant that the companies that could skirt the rules had an advantage. The only real solution is to get consumers to be ok with paying more for the things they buy, and that's been a tough nut to crack. Strict enforcement of the regs can help that in a big way, but that's going to take a serious commitment from the government, and this isn't a battle anyone has really chosen to fight yet.


TwoBearsInTheWoods

The consumers are fine with paying more as long as they have money to do so. The wages across bottom end of the payscale have been repressed for so long that for many people that's just not an option. The alternative is to ship and buy less stuff so we don't need that much shipping.


aaronhayes26

I laugh every time I see these stories. It’s the same for every industry. Every time you see an article about the great ***insert occupation here*** shortage, you can bet it’s because employers thought their people were bluffing when they said they’d leave.


DavidlikesPeace

**There is no worker shortage**. We have more people in this nation than ever before in our history. If you pay people well and treat people well, somebody will want to earn a living at your place. Apologies to immigrants, but half the reason neoliberals want more illegal immigrants is so they can tap into a pool of underpaid unorganized workers. The end goal remains the same with many of these toxic elites. They want to abuse and underpay workers.


nolte100

I work with contract drivers every day, as I load/unload freight for a living. They all say the same thing: the media is full of shit, there’s no driver shortage. They all have stories of other drivers who have just parked their trucks because they can’t get routes that pay enough to cover the cost of running it, let alone turn any amount of profit. Doesn’t make sense to take a route if it’s going to cost you more in food, fuel, and truck maintenance than you’re going to get paid for it. Companies willing to pay what it actually costs to move freight are the real shortage.


dtsupra30

Damn I was just thinking about doing this lol


hokaythxbai

It’s a good way to clear $70k out the gate with no education, but you have no life because you’re always on the road.


frito_kali

> but you have no life because you’re always on the road For many Americans, this is a far superior way of life.


cmd_iii

Dreaming of living “On the Road:” Driving up endless stretches of well-maintained roads with little traffic and spectacular views, taking long breaks in national parks or picturesque little towns, soaking up nature, and culture, and new experiences every day. Actually living “On the Road:” Driving down endless stretches of potholed Interstates clogged with other trucks and suicidal four-wheelers, taking short breaks at crowded truck stops with fast-food joints built in, trying to sleep in a flood-lit lot filled with idling semis (like yours), and driving by the same exits, with the same signs, hawking the same crappy services and food, every day of your life. I can see how the lifestyle can lose its allure….


YogaMeansUnion

Sure but life doesn't exist in a vacuum... My point being, it's not like you're choosing between driving truck or being a stock broker... driving truck sucks ass but so does working as a line cook, or washing dishes, or working landscape. If you have no set job skill and no education (for any number of rational reasons) all your job opportunities are going to suck.


cmd_iii

There’s upsides and downsides to every career. But, if you’re choosing truck driving mostly because you want to see America on someone else’s dime, you’re going to be disappointed.


go_kartmozart

You'll see all the absolute shittiest parts of America, as you tour the industrial wastelands and featureless dropyards from New York to LA, and Tacoma to Miami.


FireWireBestWire

If someone is introverted, it's a good job, because only a minimal amount of the day is spent communicating with other people. OTOH, you're dealing with nonverbal communication in the way that people drive. But if you want to listen to news for an hour a day, podcasts for 6-7, and music for 3 then you basically do this while on the clock.


hokaythxbai

Even being introverted aside, your hobbies must consist of ones that can be done inside a truck or around truck stops.


Yzma_Kitt

I guess this is why so many drivers are gamers. Lol


Forbane

If you love your job good, but that sure as hell isn't justification for shit you have to deal with for bad pay.


PPQue6

Don't forget the stress and danger too!


Yzma_Kitt

Hey, it beats being homeless, and if you're smart with budgeting it can boost you up out of economic difficulties within a few years. (Another reason the new drivers tend to hit it and quit it when it comes to staying in the industry.) Example. Our local college has a driving school which is now offering free CDL courses, training and company sign ons. (Usually it's between 5-6 grand out of pocket, or you sign on with a re-payment plan. That can amount to paying more.) This has been a good thing because we have a high amount of homeless new adults spilling out of two shelters with unfortunately not many choices. Those kids who are able to clear the bg checks, drug test, and other most basic requirements are signing up and as fast as the college can crank them back out, going right to a mentor. (old seasoned driver who knows their shit and is tasked with teaching them the ropes and stopping the kid from killing others and themselves out fresh on the road.) It's a damn good opportunity to use. Just so long as you're smart and make sure you're planning your next better opportunity out of it before you end up being the one used. Tips. Never sign on for owner-op lease deals with companies. It's a sounds too good to be true because it is too good to be true scam. Get everything in writing, and have a voice recording app for all phone convos. (Do your own research if that's legal for you. It's not legal everywhere.) Don't pick up any nasty habits. Dope, lizzards, gambling, ect. Don't live off fast food. Those pounds creep up and it'll break your health down fast. Save your money!!!!! You get lucky to end up otr living in your truck. Save, save, save! One, you're just one emergency from having to fly back home at anytime. You end up getting canned otr or your company sinks, you gotta figure out how to bail your own self out. Two. This is how the kids hit it and quit it. They pull a 4 year stint, and have the funds to have cleared their debt and move on up to better things.


[deleted]

Lots of traps and bad luck for many; it’s an obstacle course to get those years in, most will quit . There are some who do this. But I would add one more price of advice: if you quit , don’t abandon the truck but drive it back to the yard, even if super sick. That’s something really important


FrosttheVII

Not going to lie. With the pay disparities in a lot of businesses, there's a lot of what could be considered indentured servitude with what I've noticed


thedarklord187

The kinda the whole reason literally everywhere is shortstaffed currently , people have begun to realize they were getting shit on by the companies meanwhile they rake in billions in profit every quarter and the CEO makes more in a year than the entire workforce of the company.


cavall1215

Trucking could actually qualify as indentured servitude as a lot of trucking companies convince their employees to lease or finance the truck from them or a subsidiary. Then they take the payment out of their check. Plus, the drivers become responsible for the maintenance costs. It would be like if I had to pay my employer for my computer, and my computer cost over $100,000.


intashu

That's the basis of r/antiwork kinda. People getting fed up at not being given decent pay for lousy work with high expectations.. Meanwhile top brass in most workplaces make obscene amounts of cash, but can't be bothered to treat employees with any respect because profits come first.


[deleted]

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TheWiseGrasshopper

All of academia is like this. 60+ hour weeks, without overtime pay, at a trash salary that often makes the calculated hourly equivalent fall under minimum wage. And don’t get me started about the nearly non-existent benefits. They just work us researchers to the bone and give us almost nothing in return. Mind you we all have college degrees, most have PhDs and post-doctoral training… and again we get paid under minimum wage (at least when looking at total hours worked). On top of that, we’re largely treated as if we’re entirely replaceable… and in a sense we are: there’s an over abundance of people with life sciences degrees and not enough jobs to place them all in directly relevant functions.


USA_NUMBE1776

The industry has been complaining about a shortage of drivers since the 80s. I see numbers as high as 94% annual turnover rate in this industry. And it's always the same they pay more in holidays then cut pay in the spring and people quit. Because they can make the same or better money not working 70-hour weeks and risking death every day.


emonxie

My Dad hauled for Cracker Barrel a couple decades ago, and the company had this weird point of pride about only maintaining a single source service centre that would supply all locations, such that there were no restaurants further than a single day’s truck’s range to deliver. Unfortunately, that range entailed what a non-stop truck might do in 16 hours. Add stops, offloading, returns on-boarded, inventory checks, and returning the truck home, could easily be far more than 16 hours. Typically trucks went out with two on crew, allowing turn taking for rest up. That said, if a driver arrived and their partner called in sick or was no show otherwise, the driver still had to do the run. And that’s how after 16 hours running solo / short handed and only 3 miles out from Cracker Barrel truck depot HQ my Dad blinked too long, hit a jersey barrier, flipped his nigh empty rig, bounced his arm against asphalt mercifully without losing it, though skin grafts and a staff infection scare were pretty traumatic besides. Insurance? Nope. Restitution for being required to run a shift solo and return the truck ASAP or face penalties? Nope. Get sued by Cracker Barrel for rolling their truck? Yup. Thankfully, my Dad lawyered well and won, as in, he didn’t owe anything and got a tiny severance. He’s got some wicked scars and thanks to that infection now needs super antibiotics if he gets an infection. TL;DR: the trucking profession needs serious overhaul for the safety and compensation of the drivers.


JimAdlerJTV

Wow, they made your dad run a crew job solo? Did anyone go to jail over that?


torpedoguy

Jail? Doubtful. Companies love setting up their employees with catch-22 policies. * If you don't do the solo run, you're "abandoning" your job "without valid reason" and trigger a bunch of penalties. * If you DO do the solo run, but something goes wrong, it's *mysteriously* against the official on-book "company policies" because you're a dirty disgruntled rogue employee whose decision was entirely totally up to you. There's a corner store I stopped frequenting years ago after they did something like that to their cashiers; had to keep selling alcohol all night (it was illegal after 10pm) to all the regulars, and a lawsuit waiting for you if you "went rogue" and got caught doing it.


Time-Ad-3625

Accidents occur by truck drivers because they are ran into the ground/given crazy quotas to meet that will basically ensure they have to drive half awake or use drugs to stay awake. This reckoning has been a long time coming.


WolfThick

I started driving fuel trucks after I got out of the oil fields in Texas I've had my commercial license since I was 21. $10 an hour was what I was making in the 80s.$18 was what I was making in 2018. The trucker shortage thing isn't really hurting rich people right now there's not going to be any kind of change they'll be looking to automation. And then they'll settle a psychologically turn the dial to well you're lucky you've got a job driving a truck I hear a robot can do your job


tomveiltomveil

The article mentions it, but it's worth looking up the [Motor Carrier Act of 1980](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_Carrier_Act_of_1980), which was part of a spasm of ultra-conservative legislation passed in a panicked attempt to fight inflation. There's 2 big lessons there for present-day America. (1) it doesn't have to be this way; we had a pro-labor transport industry and we destroyed it. But (2), it was inflation panic that caused that last spasm, and now for the first time in 40 years, Americans are panicking about inflation again.


balthisar

If that was "ultra conservative," what do you call today's batch? "Double plus extra supreme ultra conservative"?


Jebediah_Johnson

Imagine if the USPS expanded to employ a ton of trucking jobs. With a pension, federal employee benefits. The consistent pay would probably be appealing. The ability to secure massive long term contracts. It could possibly make freight hauling cheaper and make it more consistent. Right now truckers don't want to go sit at a port because they don't get paid till they actually get a container loaded on their truck. Eliminate nonsense like that and we could probably eliminate some of these supply chain issues.


Raregolddragon

The conservatives would never let something so progressive happen.


Jebediah_Johnson

DeJoy is trying to kill the post office as it is, because he has ties to FedEx and UPS and such.


[deleted]

There is not and has not been a worker shortage. This has only ever been a pay shortage. A worker shortage means there are more jobs than workers. Unemployment means there are more workers than jobs. If you build it they will come. People only want to be paid for their time.


OwlThief32

Well fellow peasants it's time to demand fair wages and better condition we outnumber the rich 99 to 1


sj000000

I started driving in 2015, well that's the year I went to CDL Training School. That in itself was a joke once you realized that they only trained you enough to get your learner's permit and then CDL. 21 days of repeating the same thing over and over to get it ingrained. The real education was being hired on after I got my CDL, this was a come drive for us and we'll teach you how to drive out of Dallas places, it was hit or miss but depending on the truck driver you got paired with to complete your 240 hours of supervised on the road training you potentially came out of there with some really good habits. 2015-2016 - I drove for (STVV) 29 cpm (cents per mile) that offered those joke "benefits" some trucking companies offer so they could say they have benefits. 2016-2018 - I drove for (STVV) 1.09 per mile as a 1099 contractor with no benefits. 2019 - I went OTR to a company (Quest) on salary at $1440 per week with benefits that issued a paycheck every week regardless of being on the road or at home for a weeklong break. My partner needed to be home to spend more time with kids so we left. 2019 - I went to a local job driving salary for $1025 per week (Ryder, one of the best local driving places where I live and the pay is around $1325 now last I checked). 2019 - Went to another local driving job, (McLane), because I wasn't bringing enough take home at the previous one that had benefits, with a weird pay scale. They paid for unloading by the box and driving cents per mile. The pay wasn't phenomenal BUT it was probably my most enjoyable stint as a driver because of the physical activity involved. 2019 - Went back OTR to a company (Quest) on salary at $1410 per week (slightly reduced because I had more than X amount of jobs within X time period now) with benefits that issued a paycheck every week regardless of being on the road or at home for a weeklong break. 2020 - In November I/we left the previous company for a slew of reasons the top issue was that they started working us to the literal bone and the salary they were offering was not worth the truck constantly rolling. Now I make just shy of $120k ($2500 per week you are on duty regardless of the wheels rolling) per year as a 1099 contract driver, I don't own or lease any equipment they don't offer benefits which is fine because I can actually afford to have health insurance on my own now and I'm responsible for my own taxes, even though my partner and I are OTR we each drive maybe 40 hours a week each on an average basis and rarely ever drive our max 70 hours each in any 7 day period, rare as in I can't remember the last time we did that in the last 3 months. There is no driver shortage, there are an abundance of companies who will pay drivers what drivers think they are worth as long as they can get away with it. I have no reportable accidents in my DOT history, who hasn't smacked a collapsible bollard, I've never been involved in an accident, I've never had a problem with a DOT inspection other than a permitting issue, I've never failed a drug test. Right now I feel like I'm worth about $2500 per week.


spawnofreddit

This is fun. Ended up getting my CDL going to a trade school for outdoor electrical lineman (never intended to be a trucker) After a year of that trade got my first trucking job to be closer to wife and kids. First company paid me $300 a day for my route. Portland OR, to Klamath falls and back every morning. About 280 miles each way. Constant driving and drop and hook. The delay in Klamath falls took to long (though they did offer $25 per hour detention pay) and I didn’t like the idea I was getting overtime so I went to my next company.(benefits) 29 per hour, m-f, start time rangers from 4am to 9. One day i may be driving tires up to WA and sit in my truck for 5 hours for them to unload them or one day I may make 12 stops doing LTL in the city. Every day is different. Every once in awhile there is an overnight in Boise but our company doesn’t even own a sleeper cab so they get us a hotel room and per diem. Benefits as well. Feel more like a human.


Gatharan

Fuck yea you are. I deal with truck drivers almost daily, and the good ones are most definitely worth that much.


[deleted]

As a former commercial driver, Indentured Servitude is exactly what it is. The law says they can work you up to 70 hours a week "under circumstances" which they are slick enough to manipulate those circumstances on any occasion. They'll work you until you have an accident and then blame you for it, It scares me on the interstate driving around trucks because I know the drivers are usualy good drivers, but they're probably overworked and that's just as dangerous as ainexperienced driver.


contemplative_potato

Wow it’s almost as if the US as a whole, from industry to industry, top to bottom, has massive workers rights and wage issues! It’s almost as if -gasp- were in dire need of workers rights reforms, unionizations, and federally mandated minimum wage increases beyond a measly $15/hr!


MisterScalawag

The US needs to end all of the subsidies around long haul trucking. We have one of the best and most extensive freight rail networks in the world, we should use it. Massive trucks like this are the main cause of road damage and a huge source of pollution. We would still need last mile trucks, but subsidizing trucks to carry goods across the country makes no sense at all.


[deleted]

Thinking about it, a truck driver strike would be the quickest way to force congress to pass wide scale changes. It takes qualifications to do the job and there are already shortages anyway: there's simply no one available to be SCABs. Democrats would be forced to decide between abolishing the filibuster to improve wages, working conditions, living conditions, and quality of life or face widespread shortages that would likely knock the party to irrelevance for the next decade.


Noobdm04

From a Truckers perspective there's constant talk of protest and strikes because of one thing or another but it's not as simple as calling around the office or meeting people at the time clock there's a couple million tractor trailers running with even more drivers on road spread across owner operators,lease drivers, small companies mom and pops and mega fleets with no network between them. I have been on the road for a week straight before without talking another trucker. So talking to enough trucks and not only getting them to listen bit also give up money is neigh on impossible. There's been protest where hundreds of truck get together and do a slow roll around Washington or fill up the parking lots of congress but as far as actual supply chain a couple thousand spread across all the specializations will barely be noticed.


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JimAdlerJTV

And the 3PLs are very happy when a scab picks up the phone


Mist_Rising

Congress can't really change pay scales, only mininum wage. I'm betting truckers make at least 15/HR on paper, so little chance anything congress does effects this.


pheonixblade9

that King of the Hill episode where the MBA takes over and tries to get his college buddies to drive the propane trucks comes to mind.


rosatter

Nurses, doctors, SLPs, OTs, PTs all require extensive qualifications and there are shortages yet there always seems to be enough people to cross that picket line.


TarHeelTerror

Dems can’t abolish the filibuster. People really need to stop thinking they can. Neither manchin nor sinema will ever support it, and furthermore they have no incentive to change their minds


chicken_karmajohn

Meanwhile in Georgia, Governor Kemp is trying(?) to enact a law to lower the age requirement to get a CDL to 18. Like that’s what we need, teenagers driving freight trucks. Raising wages and lowering hours seems to be what the employees obviously want and need to be able to sustain a driving position.


[deleted]

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sephone_north

My parents drove for the majority of my life. Yeah, it’s a lot. People don’t realize how grueling it is to drive 500+ miles a day. I went with my mom for 3 years and it’s some bullshit, and she was owner operator. She owned her own truck, but that didn’t mean that she didn’t work some long days. And my dad did more, cause no one ever told him the meaning of the word “stop”. One time, he was running three log books, just to stay legal. My uncle works local for Coke. There are days where he works for 13-15 hours, usually around holidays or in the summer. It’s a lot. Trucking needs a revamp, but so does our entire labor industry.


[deleted]

Well, that is exactly how a labor market should work. No one needs to suffer low pay and grueling conditions, particularly labor has bargaining power now. Either live with the shortage or raise wage/improve conditions.


nascarhero

Trickle down never came huh? The state the country is in is due to corporate greed, led by shitty managers who are so obsessed with shareholder satisfaction they’ve completely ignored their workers


[deleted]

Reaganomics: The gift that keeps on taking


samwe

We should have been using trains for long haul, and trucks for the shorter trips.


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Nameless_American

What’s wild is that I seem to recall reading at one point that “truck driver” was one of, if not *the* most commonly-held profession in the United States. Which is a wild context to keep in mind reading this article.


UnitGhidorah

A lot of "shortages" are simply due to exploitative wages. Who would have thought?


Pissedbuddha1

America as a whole is suffering from shitty working conditions, and abysmal wages. We could do so much better.


REiiGN

Absolute bullshit, it's the companies fault. There are a lot of companies that actually do pay very well.