Absolutely a Pay shortage CDL drivers should be making no less then a $100,000.00 stay away from this occupation millennials if you like federal, state and local government up your ass every day to capitalize on human era with a nice size citation to help either party Dem, Rep
I drove for six months otr left the business cause I was making about 300 a week, there's more pay pulling belly dumps locally than driving otr and you can be home every night.
Average of $50,000 a year, 70 plus hour work weeks. Maybe four or five days a month at home if they’re lucky. Yeah this industry needs some work! If you want drivers you got to pay them.
Codie A - If you are unhappy with your home time, it's your own fault. There are many many companies out there that will work with you to get you home, to keep their drivers happy
Jerry Eastman who said I’m not happy? That’s the most ignorant comment I have seen. It’s MY fault if I don’t like my home time? HA. I love my home time. 1 day earned per week you are out, I'm OTR so that what EVERYONE gets. Don't tell me other companies do more than that because it's not true. Most companies can't get their own drivers home on time most of the time.
"Trucker shortage" such BS.. That's like someone posting a add to hire a licensed plumber for 15$ an hour and when they dont get any responses they start yelling thats there's a plumber shortage..
I agree I started in 1992 when I was 22 it was a lot more fun back then less regulation and it was a fun job. nowadays I don't know why I still do it all the fun is out of the business. over-regulated and no pay. The roads are too crowded, regulation too high, drivers aren't even courteous to each other anymore and they swear on the CB radio which was never done back then. What happened?
Driver shortage is a huge myth. I've been driving for 15 years, long haul. Go to any truck stop at any time, there's at least a dozen drivers sitting in the larger lots that's been there for a day or 2 cause they don't have anything to do. Especially owner operators that really cant afford to move for less than $2 a mile. The only shortage is driver pay. It costs roughly $1.15 a mile for a truck to run, including fuel, maintenance, truck payment and a few cents to try to save for breakdown. The last .85 cent or so is to live on. If a driver is working for a company that's forced dispatch, that's their own fault. You may have to roll with the punches for a year or 2 just to gain experience but then go to a company that doesn't bully you. For over 13 years, I'm home when I want and travel where I want and still have to very nice paycheck, although I lost apx $700 a week when the ELD kicked in a year ago... The really big , MASSIVE shortage is parking. More and more areas like Walmart are closing their lots to drivers cause of damage and littering. Rest area are being closed for lack of funds. Truck stops are overflowing and interstate ramps are a big fine. If they are pushing for more drivers, where the hell are we supposed to park to sleep. Once it gets dark, truck parking is full. That needs to be a government priority since they're regulating the rest of our lives. They say we have to stop ,.... well make us a place so we can
Ps : a lot of times I have to sleep and park on a ramp or somewhere else at an empty space which isn’t a real parking place (of course there are no restrooms or shower or no water for washing your face and teeth) and just have to hope to not getting caught... - which is not our fault, because all truck stops are full already. So who is doing something about this issue? No one. It just keeps going like this and getting worse.
@@randommay3573 There's a thick book of them. The FMCSA has a ton of rules. They can be followed but if they are hell bent on giving you a ticket they can probably find something on your rig that's not spec. The company's don't care because it's the driver who has to pay the fines and could loose their livelihoods. So you will find that some companies don't care as much as a driver about servicing the equipment. I feel like most of the regulations are reasonable.
@@brentb5303 you still didn't name anything you just said theres a book of them not what they are or why they have them or why they're a problem just theres a book
@@randommay3573 I don't really have an issue with them. What do you want to know about. There's thousands of regulations. Ranging from time allotment to equipment specifications. If you let me know what your specifically curious about I'll do my best to answer.
@@randommay3573 My biggest pet peeve is the 4/32 on steers and 2/32 for drive tire minimum tread depth. I don't understand why they didn't reduce their fractions. I also don't understand why the weather stripping must be intact on the doors of the tractor and trailer doors. Seems like a dubious reason to shut someone down or give them a ticket. It doesn't effect safety as far as I can figure.
Definitely the pay. What other job can pay you less than minimum wage when all on duty hours are factored in. This pay by the mile is BS. The company I work for clips 10% of the miles off each trip to really rub it in. I'm leaving this job. I might stay in the industry but I'm not so sure. A lot of dishonesty in the trucking industry.
This problem isn't new, it's always been pretty messed up. I think most companies have let the stupid. Stuff go on way too long. Deliver to a food warehouse you stay too long and it cost too much Trucking companies let it be that way without trying to put a stop to it. It's easy to say, you need to pay detention time, then trying to get it is even harder.
Random May fmcsa.com has all the regulations listed there. It is somewhat extensive. These regulations have been around for years without extensive enforcement. These rules are good with only light enforcement. Basically governing sleep times. The rules were made to give drivers 10 hours of sleep everyday, 3 hours of on duty time, 11 hours of drive time with a mandatory 30 minute break every 8 hours of on duty time. 14 total hours of total work time (driving/maintenance/breaks/dock time) starts ticking when the driver clocks in and it does not stop until there is a full 10 hour sleeping break. This sleep time cannot be broken up into 4 and 6 hour segments. On paper it looks ok, and it would work great if drivers only needed 3 hours of on duty (dock/truck maintenance) time every day. In fact, drivers are made to wait for hours and hours in docks from time to time because shippers or receivers book loads and are simply not ready to load or unload them from the truck when the truck hits the dock, even if it's on time. They do not even let the truckers unload them, and if they do, they don't want to pay for the work to be done. Truckers often use this dock time to sleep in the truck and with for a knock on the door... However if they get stuck at docks for over 3 hours a day, the on duty time now must cut into the driving time, truckers tend to get paid either by the load or by the mile, so dock time costs the driver and the market for detention time (detaining the truck at the dock) does not truly recover the cost of time lost in docks, often times these fees do not get paid by the brokers who book the loads. So the drivers are perfectly capable of driving for example 9 more hours in the day after driving only 2 hours and waiting in the docks for 7 hours, but the rules only allow them to drive for 5 more hours and this will likely cause them to either be late for an appointment, which will cost them money and time, or they will be unable to book a load. Then drivers may not be able to sleep during this 10 hour period, or sleep very little, but they have to deliver their load or start working because they need to pay bills, then 6 hours into their next shift they will be tired and want to take a nap, but this might be extremely costly so it's better to brave it and slam some coffee or energy drink and keep going, or stop to sleep for 20 minutes on that 30 minute break... Because taking a 2-3 hour power nap while not at the docks is extremely bad for the truckers bottom line, and the biggest reason it is that way is because the truckers do not have the right to choose when they are capable of driving or not. The problem alot of truckers complain about is the electronic logbooks which are impossible to cheat, the actual problem is the hours of service rules and their apparent ignorance to the fact that truckers get stuck at the docks sometimes and the trucking market demands that drivers are able to extend their work hours and choose to sleep when they get stuck, and if fortunate enough not to get stuck, sleep when they get tired.
What do you know about trucking? Try it! Spend 15k annually living on the road while making 25,000 $ annual gross income. Trump's new tax laws do not allow you to deduct your travel expenses any more - did you know that? Regulations protect YOUR live.
If you think there's a trucker shortage just drive through the parking lot at any truck stop after 8PM and you'll see there's no shortage of drivers only a shortage of parking
I always wondered why the teamsters never set up outside the thousand's of truck stops and had drivers join the union. I think there is a conspiracy here because it makes no sense why they have not done this .
Hmm wonder why there's a shortage. Making same money today as I was 15 years ago. Theres a COMPETENT driver shortage. That's the only shortage we have. We all have ELDS now time to get paid by the hour.
And paid for playing company security guard when I'm stuck on my 10 hour break watching their BS still instead of getting to go home like a normal working person.
Most companies neuter their trucks so much they can't even get out of their own way. Not to mention the stupid DEF system that constantly causes malfunctions.
And this def system is in place to reduce carbon emissions, that have been proven to be less than a drop in the ocean compared to the amount of carbon the planet emits naturally every day. Some people in high places have declared war on our industries, trying to tear them down by declaring a stretching of the truth about our environment in order to undermine every hardworking Americans ability to be successful as an individual to force us to become dependent on the government to take control. These people try to hide their deeds inside of political correctness. Lets just point out who they are, and what they are trying to do to your freedom... Democrats, they are trying to strangle industry in order to take control of it, through regulations, such as carbon emmissions. Do not be fooled, look up core samples that shed light on how our own carbon emmissions have had little to no effect on the environment, relative to the current trend that extends all the way back to the last ice age. You have been being lied to by your own media because they are in support of a controlling government. I know it sounds crazy, but everytime I look up data to support the environmenalists claims, I find that the long term data is not reported, and decievingly they show a graph that implies that we have been causing climate change, when in fact we havent even put a scratch in the amount of carbon emmited in one year by nature over the course of all human existance. Shame on them for trying to tell you any different in order to try tear down the economy so that they can gain control of it.
Todd's telling the truth I drove for the last 2 years... 70 hour work week is not uncommon. The pay was okay, time away was horrible, Health gets bad quick. I was grateful for the job though
Real reason is all the lot lizards won't service the drivers like they used to. Back in the 80's and even the 90's the women would crawl into your cab and pleasure you for practically nothing. Now they want an arm and a leg for a hand job....that's why I hung up the keys.
Eliminate the over the road position. This isn’t the 70s anymore. There’s no reason why a trucker can’t be home every night or every other night. This being out for 2 weeks at a time is so out dated.
phsycopiano What you’re saying is impossible. Show me how it’s possible for a trucker to load Anheuser Busch out of St Louis, deliver it to Denver 750 miles away, be back home the next night, and not break hours of service laws.
chief tp The only companies it would be viable for are the massive ones (JB Hunt, Schneider, etc) that have distribution hubs across the US and hundreds/thousands of drivers/trucks/trailers to make it work. Plus, you’d need additional office employees just to schedule and do the paperwork for all the logistics in all the trailer swaps. Every trailer swap eats up time that not only extends transit time, but makes one driver depend on the promptness of the previous. And then you run into the case of detention. If the driver that PU the load gets delayed at the shipper, the 2nd driver is then sitting at the yard waiting. Is that second driver getting detention too? If the first driver gets layover while waiting at the shipper and the 2nd driver doesn’t have something to haul, does the 2nd driver not get paid? My father has been an owner operator for 40 years. I’ve been working with our 5 truck company for over a decade. All the drivers are home every weekend. What you proposed would put any small trucking company and/or single truck operator out of business. It’s real easy to make suggestions that sound great in theory when you don’t know the inner workings of the business. Get back to me when you file an IFTA report.
I was flipping through The Trucker earlier (free paper by the door at most truck stops) and saw a drivers wanted add that required drivers to be willing to stay out for at least 4 months. People are crazy.
There's companies out there that will tell driver that he needs to drive for two three months before they can go home the thing is it's just a bad deal for truck drivers I should know but this person is telling the truth about waiting around for for a long time and the thing is that we don't get paid to wait around
The guy made a good point by not geting paid while at work, waiting to be unloaded or loaded. Most otr companies by drivers by the mile. So like he said, that can be 30 hours a week not being paid
As a licensed CDL driver I worked 12 years in NYC driving and I can understand why it is so difficult for the restaurant owner in question to find drivers. Driving in NYC is the worst I experienced and the city does not make it easy for drivers professional or non. Who wants to sit in a traffic in the Bronx trying to get over I95 not many that's the problem and it becomes like working two jobs. Indentured servitude!
I really feel sorry for any truck driver that has to drive through a large city like NYC. I also feel sorry for delivery drivers in cities like Philadelphia where there is no parking available to unload their goods and the meter maids write tickets like crazy. The poor guys are just trying to do their jobs and are probably under pressure to make their deliveries.
In 1990 i made 800.00 take home at .26mi . In 2007 i made 800.00 take home at .43mi . Companies charge back fee's to their drivers. Example Trip Pak a mailing service is charged back to a driver at 7.00 a week. A fleet of 300 trucks thats 2100.00 a week x 52. It doesnt cost 110k /yr for the service its mail. So why do companies charge it back because they make money off their employess . Its a racket. That is just 1 example of many
There is ABSOLUTELY no shortage of drivers. There are plenty of empty trucks at the large companies, but that doesn't equal a shortage if drivers. Here's the proof, go into any warehouse , any where in this country and ask the manager where is the freight that he can't ship. You won't find it. Where is the food that's rotting away from a lack of truck to haul it. It doesn't exist. Just like this supposed driver shortage, it doesn't exist.
.... I tried being an over the road truck driver in 1996. Did it for 3 months, Only paid for the miles you drive. Not the total time you are in the truck, If you "Work" 70 hours and only "Drive" 35 hours. .. The pay sucked then, and looks like it is even worse. I opened my own business that I have my own truck. You will never get rich working for somebody else, Plan and simple. ...
I have a friend who is self-employed. He said that he depends on trucking for his raw materials. His biggest problem is that about 10-20% of the materials delivered to his workshop is damaged during shipping. He complained to me that he spends an enormous amount of time filing damage claims and re-ordering materials. His customers also get really upset when their orders are delayed due to material shortages caused by damaged freight. Apparently, there are a lot of newbies in the trucking business who are very careless with the materials that they are hauling. That's probably due to the low pay.
The truck driver doesn't load or unload the freight, he just carry it from point a to point b. 95 percent of the time freight is damaged during loading, unloading and storage.
@@cliffordmarks5738 I believe you are correct although local delivery truck drivers have been filmed throwing new TV's and computers over fences and gates. Several years ago, I ordered a large item for Christmas. The shipping company told me that somebody had destroyed the item with a forklift.
FYI for truckers, depending on what you’re carrying, when you slam on your breaks or hit a curb it causes problems. Use to load ketchup and such, you could tell when a person slammed on the breaks
@@gantin100 Breaking hard is going to happen, If cargo is geting damaged because of it, its not loaded properly. If hiting a curb is causes damage to the cargo, the cargo is not loaded properly. At the same time, properly loading ketchup is not worth the cost. Cheaper to do it just good enough that breakage rarely happens. as to the OP 10% is pretty high. Stuff does not just break. there is a reason it is breaking. find out what is causing it to break and change that. Properly packaging items for the rigors of transport is expensive. And sometimes its cheaper to factor in breakage then pay for the packaging.
Minimum wage $1,800??? Spoken by a true Liberal! Minimum wage should be $0! Nobody is forcing you to work for whatever pay you are currently receiving. If you don't like what you are getting paid, then quit.
Let talk about the minimum wage of $15 per hour. Truck driver work an average of 65 hours per week, then sleep in their truck rather than going home. With that in mind, 65 hours x $15/hr with overtime is $1162.50....... That straight pay, not playing games with the per diem. Now go ask a trucker what they make. The average is $800 per week, and that's allowing the company to screw with their per diem.
The shortage of drivers being touted mostly relates to owner drivers and casual drivers. Due to the high cost of trucks today few want to buy and own their own rig, nor do they want to work where they get only one or two short runs a week and only be paid for those runs. Most want what everyone else has, a full-time job on reasonable wages. Thus most truck drivers now work for the big companies and the people not using the big companies have issues finding drivers. Yes, there are a lot of people getting a new CDL each year across the USA, but many of them are getting a CDL to drive other vehicles than trucks - limos, busses, and other commercial vehicles. many leave the industry due to the long hours away from home. most wouldn't mind a long drive to make a run, but the added hours of sitting around (often unpaid time) at each end is ruining their lives.
I'm new to the industry, but I knew what to expect as my dad drove for 25 years. I didn't go over the road, I got on with an asphalt company running lowboy, $21 an hour + ot, home every night 5 days a week, with an occasional Saturday. Good jobs do exist!
I’m a truck driver, the problem with long haul trucking is the pay .50 cents per mile can’t even feed a dog, plus the E-LOG has the driver hostage, also lots of trucking companies continuously lie to their drivers, dispatchers will tell the driver anything to keep them rolling, does it benefit the driver? No 👎🏼 Plus some of the companies don’t pay for Loading/ unloading, layover, etc. The trucking industry has been in limbo for many years at will get nowhere unless big changes take effect.
What this guy is saying is totally true about the trucking The majority of over the road drivers get no compensation for the time they wait for loads to be loaded they don’t get paid if they have to sit because of icy roads. The mini times drive hundreds of miles from three to pick up the load. They’re expected to get two deliveries in on reasonable amount of time. Hydro steel truck for 23 years with stagnant wages. If you expected a UAW worker to work totally for free for 30% of their day there would be a revolt. And then you get into the issue of companies refusing to maintain their trucks up to spec. Leaving the driver stranded with junk equipment. And then as a bonus you’ve got law-enforcement that considers them a great source of revenue to harass.
Q - "Is the trucker shortage a myth?" A - Yes. There is no shortage of drivers, only a shortage of slaves. Slaves who will do the same job of CDL-A drivers for half or less of the normal wage.
Solution.. Give me a truck that can pull it's own weight and do the 70mph speed limit. Get rid of some of these assine regulations. Some decent home time and a good wage.
@@harijotkhalsa5546 There are always the exceptions in any industry who earn much more than the average. $100,000 certainly is possible for a relative few drivers.
The companies are always looking for new drivers that would do it for Little pay . As the drivers get experience they ask for more money so the companies need new replacements. There’s always that one guy that would do it for less . The industry needs replacements. people think that truck driving is easy money and it’s fun just driving around. it’s not it’s hard work.
It’s not the money, Its all the other bs . For instance I went to A company and drove about 2.5 months before I quit them . What happened is that I informed them that I don’t go above North Carolina or East of Indiana (they were cool with that until A few other drivers quit and then they felt I “needed to pick up the slack”) . They sent Me to Maryland and I walked and dispatch told Me to “suck it up and deal with it” , I went and then turned the truck in afterwards and quit ... Now it is them that can suck it up . It’s simple nonsense like that is what is causing this shortage .
Info warcock You’re probably one of those company suck asses that “do what you’re told” , Have A nice day (and wipe that brown spot off the tip of your nose).
That was the most ridiculous “interview “ever oh yeah I’m sure you’re going to get that guy back you can interrupt him and pretend you know more than he does
and all of his rebuttals, even the premise was anecdotal. Some HR person in some big company said there is a driver shortage and they made a story on their business channel about this.
The problem is not a shortage of drivers. If you figure out how many tons of freight need to be moved and how long it would take the drivers that there are to move it you would see that there are no shortages of drivers. The problem is that shippers and receivers are holding drivers up and wasting drivers time there is plenty of time on the clock. On that eld. To move the freight IF the shippers and receivers don't hold them up.
like most workers in America who are losing ground the trucking industry although profitable has not kept up with inflation etc and pay now is lousy. Of course owners of corporate trucking industry and high up execs still rake it in. The next time you want to criticize millenials for being not so inspired to work in any of these jobs just look at what they are facing. Also take a look at the low paid zombies working all the shit jobs that used to pay well but now require ridiculous long hours and pay like shit. No wonder many are on anti depressants and other drugs just to cope. America is becoming one big prison yard full of wage slaves. Next up driverless trucks... Eventually the reality will sink in and America will need to offer a minimum income to all citizens as a subsidy to failing opportunities due to cruel, corrupt and greedy capitalism (as currently practiced).
This guy is absolutely right, no shortage at private fleets or LTL carriers it's the major truck load carriers that can't find and keep drivers because of pay and benefits. And btw they don't pay office staff or maintenance people any better than the drivers, been there done that.
Shortage is in the low paying type, UPS feeder drivers are hiring 300 here In Midwest, they start you out at 30 a hour after 4 years you go to scale around 40 a hour
Where are the rights for truck drivers ? We live in the road, treated like slaves paid less than should be. . ..the companies have their rules. What about us? Wich truck moves without a driver? I have worked for companies who don't pay empty miles. ..where I had to drive 4 hrs without pay. .. then wait 5 to 8 hrs to get loaded and they don't want to hear me asking to get paid for lost time. . ...truck drivers have a hard life always away from home not enough home time. . The idiots that say you get home time is only when we need to take the 34 hrs brake .for recap. ..and sometimes we have to take it on the road and without pay. .. .The companies make most of the money. . They need to pay us better. ...or let those bosses get on their trucks and do the job yourselves while you are gone, your wives will have plenty of time to cheat on you and your children will go out and live life like there's NO hell and no God! !!
This guy on the right knows exactly what he's talking about.The guy doing the segment is clueless..and this is why truck drivers should have had a solid union for years now..I bet then they ratea will go up and the drivers will get paid
The problem there is with the drivers. So many of them have absorbed the conservative ideology and vote against their own interests. They've been taught that 'unions are bad' and believe it. They refuse to believe that companies have become so greedy that they are wrecking the economy. They insist on believing that 'toughing it out' will solve the problem, while they go deeper and deeper in debt and eventually lose their rigs if they're independent. When Bush signed his pilot program into law that allowed drivers from Mexico to operate almost unregulated, it allowed the FTSA to mix their crash data in with ours. That inspired the fake safety crisis which led to many of your most experience (read expensive) drivers to be dismissed by their companies for the most minor of reasons. There was also a fuel crisis. All through that, the truckers themselves refused to stand up and unionize.
Guy on the left is the interviewer and he wouldn't even let the OOIDA rep finish a sentence. That's the problem, there are too many know-nothing blow hards flapping their gums with industry propaganda who think think they know more than those who are deeply involved in the industry.
I've seen company's in florida offering 15 bucks an hour for class A drivers. And some of the company's that pay by load if you broke down the hours you work comes to 11 bucks an hour with no over time
Its not just the pay, but why the pay is low. Too many delays that the drivers can do nothing about. You can't be with your family for many days, bad food, no exercise, grumpy dispatchers...
Well said TS. I'm a formal driver as of late May 2017. I worked very hard and other reaped the benefits. So I am reluctant to go back over the road. The pay is manipulated and The hours are brutal and The home time is Neil. They promise you home time but always renig and steal your home time. And The regulation are horrendous. Driver
Yes, driving is not as esay as it looks. Very stressful and very difficult to have a home life. There is very little food out there, that you can get your hands on quickly, that won't make you diabetic or half dead within 5 years.
80,000-100,000 that’s BS if you don’t go home and trucking is your life basically you don’t have life average 40,000-55,000 i been trucking for 12 years if you have family wife children don’t even bother going into trucking
Typical Fox correspondent. Doesn't want to believe that low pay and poor conditions might be the reason you can't fill seats in the industry. I drove OTR for 10 years. I was home an average of 2-3 days a month. I NEVER made more than 50k a year and most years were closer to 35k. That's what we were getting for living in something the size of a walk-in closet, having most of our lives under a microscope and being some of the most 'regulated' people in the work force. Since the govt and the industry got together to lower wages even further with CSA 2010, it's gotten even worse. They manipulated the accident data and got rid of a lot of the most experienced drivers to cut costs. Now they have people who don't want to stay or improve and many of us with experience won't go back. The corporate race for the bottom line depopulated the industry. Make it a good paying job with good benefits and I'd go back in a minute. But not now as it is.
@woof beast I'm not sure how you measure success but I was a team driver for Schneider. I was good enough for them to want to make me one of their training engineers. I turned it down because I would have actually LOST money, even with the raise. The prestige and Esprit de Corp were nice draws but Schneider was not the best payer as you would know if you were a driver during that time. Even so, over time our benefits values went down. Our mileage rates but I had to keep teaming if I wanted 3k miles a week or more. They would actually put struggling drivers out with me because I had good numbers and no accidents. Those drivers were often having adjustment problems or thinking about leaving due to low earnings and then decided to stay after a 3-4 week run when they saw their paychecks get noticeably bigger running with me. When I signed on with SRT, I was given a 5K sign on bonus and my own truck because of my record with Schneider. With SRT I often did well over 3k miles per week. So you tell me how my career was such a "fail"?
Look at freight rates. They're so low now, they don't even cover the expenses of the truck. That's not including the driver cost. The economy is in a death spiral and the politicians are the root cause.
Low pay for hours worked and lifestyle. Very few drivers make 80-100, 000, a few lucky ones work for Walmart,UPS and make the big bucks. I have almost 3 million safe for a big company, retired and now make $14 per hour. OTR jobs are tough, time consuming and underpaid. The big buck drivers will be the first to lose in a downturn.
Truck driver shortage? Could have fooled me. As a professional steering wheel holder and freight babysitter for 23 years, when is the government going to allow more truck stops, rest areas and truck parking spots across America? Because you can't fit all the trucks on the roads today in all the rest areas, truck parking and truck stops as it is!!! Put another 100,000 trucks on our highways and when it comes time to sleep, we will be parking on the side of our highways!!!
Finally someone who knows and telling the truth when it comes to truck drivers. They are lots of capable drivers but they just arnt going to drive and put the enormous hours for lousy pay.
For owner operator, 150k new semi truck and they pay you $1,600 to 1,900 a week no benefits nothing. Treat them like shit, registration highway tax over $2,600 a year truck insurance parking $600 a month. Repair costs thru the roof, and at the end of the year return alot of taxes. Worst job in USA
I’ve been a trucker for 37 years and the guys below this post are correct. The low pay is the first issue, the disrespect from shippers and receivers and the trucking companies is the second issue, the constant threat of losing your license over miniscule BS I would say is the third issue. I could go on and on but I don’t want to bore everyone with the details. Trucking careers have been on a steady decline for as long as I’ve been driving trucks. As I’m writing this I am quitting yet another local job driving . The hourly pay is excellent but the disrespect is unbelievable. I call it the one year curse. Every year it seems like we all have to change jobs and 99% of the time it has nothing to do with the work. It has to do with management and their unprofessional attitudes. I refuse to be unheard and ignored by some snot nose 28 year old who somehow squeezed themselves into a management position that required social skills that they don’t possess. Thank God this is my last year trucking. I too will be hanging it up.
When a hard freeze hits Florida and wipes out the orange crop-that's a shortage. Whining that you can't get people to work 100 days straight living in a 6x5' "prison" of a truck cab is a man-made famine. There is a shortage of doctors....for $30,000 a year.
They want new drivers to keep pay low. That's to keep owner ops out. Why pay 2.50 plus a mile ,when I can get this idiot newbie to run it for fuel cost and .38 per mile.
I worked for werner enterprises in 2004! No way not me you could not pay me enough to do that job! Americans are not desciplined enough for a major interstate system! Sorry
Typical Day, Start after a 10 hour mandatory break. Do a Pre-trip, start the truck and figure out the plan for the day as well as routing and time through major city. Stop and fuel truck/ refer. Drive a few hours, Rush Hour Traffic 8am(Apt @ 4pm). Finally through rush hour @ 10am (1 hour behind schedule for the shipper). Drive a couple hours, get pulling into scale, DOT wants to do an inspection and check log books. 1 more hour behind. Toll road/bridge. 3pm traffic... And now your missing your delivery window, plus you still need to take a lunch mandatory by the dot. Now the freight is late, the driver is pissed, shipper is pissed, need a new delivery time, and the driver loses the most because they get paid by the mile and not the hour, not the wait time, hook and re hook, etc... Autonomy of the driver, common sense rules, and less hurdles for the driver as well as a better pay rate mileage or hourly would make the trucking world better. The last statistic I herd was of all the people who get a cdl each year, there are 80k+ openings, 80-90% quit or fail the first to years, the job force is aging and retiring so the numbers leaving vrs those coming and staying are going to derate very quickly. Avg age of a trucker in US is approx 48-55 years old.
1. Over regulations. 2. Lack of parking. 3. Weight stations and their state quotas targeting truck drivers. 4. Invasion of privacy with the cameras installed inside the trucks. 5. Too many company policies and useless rules. 6 oh yeah, did I forget to mention the pay is not worth working over 70 hours a week and away from home all of the time and driving through black ice, tornadoes, and horrible weather conditions? 7. Once again the pay sucks and after being a truck driver for over 5 years, I realize it was time to get out of the trucking industry because they do not appreciate or pay truck drivers enough money to go through the b.s they had made for truck drivers. They find more ways to pay truck drivers cheaper and to create more rules and regulations to make their more lives miserable. Keep up the good job because with the truck drivers you have right now are on the verge on breaking so keep making more rules and regulations and pay them cheaper.
Greed is the problem. I’m out 2 to 4 days at a time. And off Saturday and Sunday. Last year I made just over $100,000. Way too many people getting in their truck for weeks at a time to make 70 or 80. There is absolutely no reason for a driver to be gone from home more than 5 or 6 days max. If you go to work and it’s a new calendar week when you get home the company you work for has not one single care for you on a human level. Good luck everyone!!
Truckers can drink and take prescribed Opiates, etc. till the cows come home, but smoke medicinal marijuana off hours to avoid opiates and you are out of work. Hypocrisy at its finest.
All medication is controlled and approved by DOT. Idk where your info is coming from but alot of drivers have been fired or jailed/fined and lost CDL for using opiates
besides I have never known truck drivers to require exceptional intelligence. seems like driving is more of a muscle memory, hand eye coordination thing than it is a full frontal cortex operation. if it were then we certainly wouldn't want anyone who drives a truck to ever drink because alcohol definitely kills brain cells. that is a scientific fact.
Todd Spencer is 100% correct. $40 -$50,000 / year is accurate, working 70+ hours per week, eating junk overpriced food (have to eat where you can park these giant rigs), waiting hours / days to receive a call for the next haul (far away from home, in a cramped truck). Since most get paid only when the wheels turn (per mile), drivers are tacidly encouraged to do their own repairs. Is there any wonder why there is a shortage of drivers in those jobs?
80 to a 100k? I've been doing this for thirty two and a half years living a truck away from home 27 days a month that have never seen that kind of money I don't know where you're getting your information from but you need to do some better research
You don't have a trucker shortage you have a a pay shortage !!
HAHAHA
Absolutely a Pay shortage CDL drivers should be making no less then a $100,000.00 stay away from this occupation millennials if you like federal, state and local government up your ass every day to capitalize on human era with a nice size citation to help either party Dem, Rep
I drove for six months otr left the business cause I was making about 300 a week, there's more pay pulling belly dumps locally than driving otr and you can be home every night.
Damn thats the truth
Let’s find 50k more drivers so we can push the pay down even lower. That restaurant owner was probably offering $10 per hour in New York
Average of $50,000 a year, 70 plus hour work weeks. Maybe four or five days a month at home if they’re lucky. Yeah this industry needs some work! If you want drivers you got to pay them.
Abiding in Christ I haven't been home in 4 months.
Oh and stupid regulations!
Codie A - If you are unhappy with your home time, it's your own fault. There are many many companies out there that will work with you to get you home, to keep their drivers happy
Jerry Eastman who said I’m not happy? That’s the most ignorant comment I have seen. It’s MY fault if I don’t like my home time? HA. I love my home time. 1 day earned per week you are out, I'm OTR so that what EVERYONE gets. Don't tell me other companies do more than that because it's not true. Most companies can't get their own drivers home on time most of the time.
Come to work for US Foods .You'll be home every ni in your own little bed. 12-14 hr days. At least here in Fl
"Trucker shortage" such BS..
That's like someone posting a add to hire a licensed plumber for 15$ an hour and when they dont get any responses they start yelling thats there's a plumber shortage..
15 an hour for licensed plumber lol
A Pakistani might take that offer ... lol
But seriously . your 100% correct .! ....show me the money .!
Quest Tech exactly right!
As a certified master toilet tech (plumber), I approve of this message.
Quest Tech that’s my suspicion. But I don’t drive.
It's the pay stupid. Regulations is right behind..
It's the regulations that drive up the cost.. so companies just can't afford it anymore
Deregulation was what turned trucking into a low paying job.
It's both too much regulation on some levels, not any regulation in others.
I've been driving since the early 80's and I can honestly say I made more money back in the 80's for the amount of time put in working
cmandc301 I agree with. I started in 91 same here.
I agree I started in 1992 when I was 22 it was a lot more fun back then less regulation and it was a fun job. nowadays I don't know why I still do it all the fun is out of the business. over-regulated and no pay. The roads are too crowded, regulation too high, drivers aren't even courteous to each other anymore and they swear on the CB radio which was never done back then. What happened?
Food prices are through the roof. Inflation is causing all this.
Driver shortage is a huge myth. I've been driving for 15 years, long haul. Go to any truck stop at any time, there's at least a dozen drivers sitting in the larger lots that's been there for a day or 2 cause they don't have anything to do. Especially owner operators that really cant afford to move for less than $2 a mile. The only shortage is driver pay. It costs roughly $1.15 a mile for a truck to run, including fuel, maintenance, truck payment and a few cents to try to save for breakdown. The last .85 cent or so is to live on. If a driver is working for a company that's forced dispatch, that's their own fault. You may have to roll with the punches for a year or 2 just to gain experience but then go to a company that doesn't bully you. For over 13 years, I'm home when I want and travel where I want and still have to very nice paycheck, although I lost apx $700 a week when the ELD kicked in a year ago... The really big , MASSIVE shortage is parking. More and more areas like Walmart are closing their lots to drivers cause of damage and littering. Rest area are being closed for lack of funds. Truck stops are overflowing and interstate ramps are a big fine. If they are pushing for more drivers, where the hell are we supposed to park to sleep. Once it gets dark, truck parking is full. That needs to be a government priority since they're regulating the rest of our lives. They say we have to stop ,.... well make us a place so we can
Well said
Yes you nailed it
Ps : a lot of times I have to sleep and park on a ramp or somewhere else at an empty space which isn’t a real parking place (of course there are no restrooms or shower or no water for washing your face and teeth) and just have to hope to not getting caught... - which is not our fault, because all truck stops are full already. So who is doing something about this issue? No one. It just keeps going like this and getting worse.
Agreed
So true
Regulations are an issue, but if you want employees you've got to pay them. Don't be greedy... And you get what you pay for.
What regulations are you talking about excatly
@@randommay3573 There's a thick book of them. The FMCSA has a ton of rules. They can be followed but if they are hell bent on giving you a ticket they can probably find something on your rig that's not spec. The company's don't care because it's the driver who has to pay the fines and could loose their livelihoods. So you will find that some companies don't care as much as a driver about servicing the equipment. I feel like most of the regulations are reasonable.
@@brentb5303 you still didn't name anything you just said theres a book of them not what they are or why they have them or why they're a problem just theres a book
@@randommay3573 I don't really have an issue with them. What do you want to know about. There's thousands of regulations. Ranging from time allotment to equipment specifications. If you let me know what your specifically curious about I'll do my best to answer.
@@randommay3573 My biggest pet peeve is the 4/32 on steers and 2/32 for drive tire minimum tread depth. I don't understand why they didn't reduce their fractions. I also don't understand why the weather stripping must be intact on the doors of the tractor and trailer doors. Seems like a dubious reason to shut someone down or give them a ticket. It doesn't effect safety as far as I can figure.
It's the pay
Definitely the pay. What other job can pay you less than minimum wage when all on duty hours are factored in. This pay by the mile is BS. The company I work for clips 10% of the miles off each trip to really rub it in. I'm leaving this job. I might stay in the industry but I'm not so sure. A lot of dishonesty in the trucking industry.
It's the hours just as much as the pay. I'd be willing to be a driver but not with the retarded schedules that are demanded.
This problem isn't new, it's always been pretty messed up.
I think most companies have let the stupid. Stuff go on way too long. Deliver to a food warehouse you stay too long and it cost too much
Trucking companies let it be that way without trying to put a stop to it.
It's easy to say, you need to pay detention time, then trying to get it is even harder.
My dispatcher said to me one time " Anybody! could drive that truck" Really?! Ok, then have anybody come get the truck. I'm done, keys are in it.
To much BS regulations. Nobody wants the hassel or the stress.
Wrong, one of the regulation govern 13 hours work, that was to protect the public safety.
Name the regulations
Random May fmcsa.com has all the regulations listed there. It is somewhat extensive. These regulations have been around for years without extensive enforcement. These rules are good with only light enforcement. Basically governing sleep times. The rules were made to give drivers 10 hours of sleep everyday, 3 hours of on duty time, 11 hours of drive time with a mandatory 30 minute break every 8 hours of on duty time.
14 total hours of total work time (driving/maintenance/breaks/dock time) starts ticking when the driver clocks in and it does not stop until there is a full 10 hour sleeping break. This sleep time cannot be broken up into 4 and 6 hour segments.
On paper it looks ok, and it would work great if drivers only needed 3 hours of on duty (dock/truck maintenance) time every day. In fact, drivers are made to wait for hours and hours in docks from time to time because shippers or receivers book loads and are simply not ready to load or unload them from the truck when the truck hits the dock, even if it's on time. They do not even let the truckers unload them, and if they do, they don't want to pay for the work to be done. Truckers often use this dock time to sleep in the truck and with for a knock on the door... However if they get stuck at docks for over 3 hours a day, the on duty time now must cut into the driving time, truckers tend to get paid either by the load or by the mile, so dock time costs the driver and the market for detention time (detaining the truck at the dock) does not truly recover the cost of time lost in docks, often times these fees do not get paid by the brokers who book the loads.
So the drivers are perfectly capable of driving for example 9 more hours in the day after driving only 2 hours and waiting in the docks for 7 hours, but the rules only allow them to drive for 5 more hours and this will likely cause them to either be late for an appointment, which will cost them money and time, or they will be unable to book a load. Then drivers may not be able to sleep during this 10 hour period, or sleep very little, but they have to deliver their load or start working because they need to pay bills, then 6 hours into their next shift they will be tired and want to take a nap, but this might be extremely costly so it's better to brave it and slam some coffee or energy drink and keep going, or stop to sleep for 20 minutes on that 30 minute break... Because taking a 2-3 hour power nap while not at the docks is extremely bad for the truckers bottom line, and the biggest reason it is that way is because the truckers do not have the right to choose when they are capable of driving or not.
The problem alot of truckers complain about is the electronic logbooks which are impossible to cheat, the actual problem is the hours of service rules and their apparent ignorance to the fact that truckers get stuck at the docks sometimes and the trucking market demands that drivers are able to extend their work hours and choose to sleep when they get stuck, and if fortunate enough not to get stuck, sleep when they get tired.
What do you know about trucking? Try it! Spend 15k annually living on the road while making 25,000 $ annual gross income. Trump's new tax laws do not allow you to deduct your travel expenses any more - did you know that? Regulations protect YOUR live.
@@ErnestoM2002 trump trash for the working man is america great yet
Too much regulation, not enough pay. Fix both these issues, you'll have drivers coming out your ears.
Very well said iris so true
Spent many years in the business ... abuse by the dispatchers, abuse by the DOT, abuse by the shippers ... who wants that kind of crap all their life?
Here here
The last truck protest we had sent a message. Perhaps we as truckers need to go on strike again?
Thank you Todd for sticking up for the truck drivers out on the road we need someone to speak up for us
If you think there's a trucker shortage just drive through the parking lot at any truck stop after 8PM and you'll see there's no shortage of drivers only a shortage of parking
No shortage of drivers....just a shortage of people willing to get bent over working 70hrs a week for 400$
Pay drivers what their worth and problem solved.
I always wondered why the teamsters never set up outside the thousand's of truck stops and had drivers join the union. I think there is a conspiracy here because it makes no sense why they have not done this .
Robert Horrell the busted the union early 80 , the pension plan went slowly down the tube with good paying jobs
No respect for drivers anymore. We are treated like dogs and crumbs we receive.
Worse than dogs, people like dogs. More like "Expendable Corporate Assets"
Hmm wonder why there's a shortage. Making same money today as I was 15 years ago. Theres a COMPETENT driver shortage. That's the only shortage we have. We all have ELDS now time to get paid by the hour.
And paid for playing company security guard when I'm stuck on my 10 hour break watching their BS still instead of getting to go home like a normal working person.
Yep 250 per houre min .
Most companies neuter their trucks so much they can't even get out of their own way. Not to mention the stupid DEF system that constantly causes malfunctions.
And this def system is in place to reduce carbon emissions, that have been proven to be less than a drop in the ocean compared to the amount of carbon the planet emits naturally every day. Some people in high places have declared war on our industries, trying to tear them down by declaring a stretching of the truth about our environment in order to undermine every hardworking Americans ability to be successful as an individual to force us to become dependent on the government to take control. These people try to hide their deeds inside of political correctness. Lets just point out who they are, and what they are trying to do to your freedom... Democrats, they are trying to strangle industry in order to take control of it, through regulations, such as carbon emmissions. Do not be fooled, look up core samples that shed light on how our own carbon emmissions have had little to no effect on the environment, relative to the current trend that extends all the way back to the last ice age. You have been being lied to by your own media because they are in support of a controlling government. I know it sounds crazy, but everytime I look up data to support the environmenalists claims, I find that the long term data is not reported, and decievingly they show a graph that implies that we have been causing climate change, when in fact we havent even put a scratch in the amount of carbon emmited in one year by nature over the course of all human existance. Shame on them for trying to tell you any different in order to try tear down the economy so that they can gain control of it.
@@highlightsbottleflipnbanfl1847 well said
Todd's telling the truth I drove for the last 2 years... 70 hour work week is not uncommon. The pay was okay, time away was horrible, Health gets bad quick.
I was grateful for the job though
Real reason is all the lot lizards won't service the drivers like they used to. Back in the 80's and even the 90's the women would crawl into your cab and pleasure you for practically nothing. Now they want an arm and a leg for a hand job....that's why I hung up the keys.
lol I had one approach me wanting $400
Even the value of pussy has gone up but not the driver .😂😂🍆🍆
@@dt2526 Lmao
Eliminate the over the road position. This isn’t the 70s anymore. There’s no reason why a trucker can’t be home every night or every other night. This being out for 2 weeks at a time is so out dated.
Ferguson101
They’ll never do that cause it’ll work too good.
phsycopiano
What you’re saying is impossible.
Show me how it’s possible for a trucker to load Anheuser Busch out of St Louis, deliver it to Denver 750 miles away, be back home the next night, and not break hours of service laws.
chief tp
The only companies it would be viable for are the massive ones (JB Hunt, Schneider, etc) that have distribution hubs across the US and hundreds/thousands of drivers/trucks/trailers to make it work. Plus, you’d need additional office employees just to schedule and do the paperwork for all the logistics in all the trailer swaps. Every trailer swap eats up time that not only extends transit time, but makes one driver depend on the promptness of the previous.
And then you run into the case of detention. If the driver that PU the load gets delayed at the shipper, the 2nd driver is then sitting at the yard waiting. Is that second driver getting detention too? If the first driver gets layover while waiting at the shipper and the 2nd driver doesn’t have something to haul, does the 2nd driver not get paid?
My father has been an owner operator for 40 years. I’ve been working with our 5 truck company for over a decade. All the drivers are home every weekend. What you proposed would put any small trucking company and/or single truck operator out of business.
It’s real easy to make suggestions that sound great in theory when you don’t know the inner workings of the business. Get back to me when you file an IFTA report.
StL ChuckO it’s called meet and turns you fucking idiot
I was flipping through The Trucker earlier (free paper by the door at most truck stops) and saw a drivers wanted add that required drivers to be willing to stay out for at least 4 months. People are crazy.
Who wants to jeopardize their safety record driving in NYC thanks to CSA.
There's companies out there that will tell driver that he needs to drive for two three months before they can go home the thing is it's just a bad deal for truck drivers I should know but this person is telling the truth about waiting around for for a long time and the thing is that we don't get paid to wait around
Show me an employer who says he cant find employees, I'll show you a sociopathic boss who gets off on running his people ragged.
The guy made a good point by not geting paid while at work, waiting to be unloaded or loaded. Most otr companies by drivers by the mile. So like he said, that can be 30 hours a week not being paid
As a licensed CDL driver I worked 12 years in NYC driving and I can understand why it is so difficult for the restaurant owner in question to find drivers. Driving in NYC is the worst I experienced and the city does not make it easy for drivers professional or non. Who wants to sit in a traffic in the Bronx trying to get over I95 not many that's the problem and it becomes like working two jobs. Indentured servitude!
Donald Phee bronx yesterday i was stuck in traffic for 6 hours
It just comes down to the money
If we were actually paid a fair hourly wage for our commitment we'd be stinking rich. 12 to 14 hour days and barely compensated for 8.
I thought you had to be outta the city by like 4am if you drove a trctor/trailor?
I really feel sorry for any truck driver that has to drive through a large city like NYC. I also feel sorry for delivery drivers in cities like Philadelphia where there is no parking available to unload their goods and the meter maids write tickets like crazy. The poor guys are just trying to do their jobs and are probably under pressure to make their deliveries.
In 1990 i made 800.00 take home at .26mi . In 2007 i made 800.00 take home at .43mi . Companies charge back fee's to their drivers. Example Trip Pak a mailing service is charged back to a driver at 7.00 a week. A fleet of 300 trucks thats 2100.00 a week x 52. It doesnt cost 110k /yr for the service its mail. So why do companies charge it back because they make money off their employess . Its a racket. That is just 1 example of many
There is ABSOLUTELY no shortage of drivers. There are plenty of empty trucks at the large companies, but that doesn't equal a shortage if drivers. Here's the proof, go into any warehouse , any where in this country and ask the manager where is the freight that he can't ship. You won't find it. Where is the food that's rotting away from a lack of truck to haul it. It doesn't exist. Just like this supposed driver shortage, it doesn't exist.
.... I tried being an over the road truck driver in 1996. Did it for 3 months, Only paid for the miles you drive. Not the total time you are in the truck, If you "Work" 70 hours and only "Drive" 35 hours. .. The pay sucked then, and looks like it is even worse.
I opened my own business that I have my own truck. You will never get rich working for somebody else, Plan and simple. ...
80K after a few years? What a bunch of B/S!
I know a guy that has driven for 5 years and still hasn’t made 50k a year. Clear record and all
Also 115 hours illegal every week and at your own risk for 50,000 really sucks
I have a friend who is self-employed. He said that he depends on trucking for his raw materials. His biggest problem is that about 10-20% of the materials delivered to his workshop is damaged during shipping. He complained to me that he spends an enormous amount of time filing damage claims and re-ordering materials. His customers also get really upset when their orders are delayed due to material shortages caused by damaged freight. Apparently, there are a lot of newbies in the trucking business who are very careless with the materials that they are hauling. That's probably due to the low pay.
The truck driver doesn't load or unload the freight, he just carry it from point a to point b. 95 percent of the time freight is damaged during loading, unloading and storage.
@@cliffordmarks5738 I believe you are correct although local delivery truck drivers have been filmed throwing new TV's and computers over fences and gates. Several years ago, I ordered a large item for Christmas. The shipping company told me that somebody had destroyed the item with a forklift.
FYI for truckers, depending on what you’re carrying, when you slam on your breaks or hit a curb it causes problems. Use to load ketchup and such, you could tell when a person slammed on the breaks
its call poor loading by the shiper
@@gantin100 Breaking hard is going to happen, If cargo is geting damaged because of it, its not loaded properly. If hiting a curb is causes damage to the cargo, the cargo is not loaded properly. At the same time, properly loading ketchup is not worth the cost. Cheaper to do it just good enough that breakage rarely happens.
as to the OP 10% is pretty high. Stuff does not just break. there is a reason it is breaking. find out what is causing it to break and change that.
Properly packaging items for the rigors of transport is expensive. And sometimes its cheaper to factor in breakage then pay for the packaging.
A minimum weekly salary guarantee is needed. $1,800.
never happen drove for 40 yrs just gets worse
40 yrs.! You deserve a medal Larry.
thank you but at one time paid good not no more
Pacwest Driver that company will sometimes find a way for that driver to sit because he will be making to much money.
Minimum wage $1,800??? Spoken by a true Liberal! Minimum wage should be $0! Nobody is forcing you to work for whatever pay you are currently receiving. If you don't like what you are getting paid, then quit.
Let talk about the minimum wage of $15 per hour. Truck driver work an average of 65 hours per week, then sleep in their truck rather than going home. With that in mind, 65 hours x $15/hr with overtime is $1162.50....... That straight pay, not playing games with the per diem. Now go ask a trucker what they make. The average is $800 per week, and that's allowing the company to screw with their per diem.
I've never made less than 50k and never made less the next year. I only work five days a week for a very cheap company and I'll make 70k this year
And Walmart drivers can easily make six figures
@Mike Wible 20 years
@Mike Wible you too merry Christmas
@@faman38ify yeah about right
Theres no shortage of truck drivers!! Theres a shortage of companies who want to pay ... and treat the drivers with respect!
The shortage of drivers being touted mostly relates to owner drivers and casual drivers. Due to the high cost of trucks today few want to buy and own their own rig, nor do they want to work where they get only one or two short runs a week and only be paid for those runs. Most want what everyone else has, a full-time job on reasonable wages. Thus most truck drivers now work for the big companies and the people not using the big companies have issues finding drivers. Yes, there are a lot of people getting a new CDL each year across the USA, but many of them are getting a CDL to drive other vehicles than trucks - limos, busses, and other commercial vehicles. many leave the industry due to the long hours away from home. most wouldn't mind a long drive to make a run, but the added hours of sitting around (often unpaid time) at each end is ruining their lives.
It's not a driver shortage. It's a compensation shortage.
I'm new to the industry, but I knew what to expect as my dad drove for 25 years. I didn't go over the road, I got on with an asphalt company running lowboy, $21 an hour + ot, home every night 5 days a week, with an occasional Saturday. Good jobs do exist!
I’m a truck driver, the problem with long haul trucking is the pay .50 cents per mile can’t even feed a dog, plus the E-LOG has the driver hostage, also lots of trucking companies continuously lie to their drivers, dispatchers will tell the driver anything to keep them rolling, does it benefit the driver? No 👎🏼
Plus some of the companies don’t pay for
Loading/ unloading, layover, etc.
The trucking industry has been in limbo for many years at will get nowhere unless big changes take effect.
70 hours 6 days away from family and sleep in a truck for 1000 dollars a week.
Fuck that noise.
you are luckly to get get a 1000 dollars a week
@@dknowles60 u right😂😂 i think before tax.after tax might $600
The host is misinformed.
acorn sucks exactly
What this guy is saying is totally true about the trucking
The majority of over the road drivers get no compensation for the time they wait for loads to be loaded they don’t get paid if they have to sit because of icy roads. The mini times drive hundreds of miles from three to pick up the load. They’re expected to get two deliveries in on reasonable amount of time. Hydro steel truck for 23 years with stagnant wages.
If you expected a UAW worker to work totally for free for 30% of their day there would be a revolt.
And then you get into the issue of companies refusing to maintain their trucks up to spec. Leaving the driver stranded with junk equipment. And then as a bonus you’ve got law-enforcement that considers them a great source of revenue to harass.
There is no shortage....30 years exp...I want 2200 a week for 6 days...
1000% agree there's not a driver shortage
There's a wage shortage
We work all those hours 70+ a week and generally not paid any overtime
Q - "Is the trucker shortage a myth?"
A - Yes. There is no shortage of drivers, only a shortage of slaves.
Slaves who will do the same job of CDL-A drivers for half or less of the normal wage.
Solution..
Give me a truck that can pull it's own weight and do the 70mph speed limit.
Get rid of some of these assine regulations. Some decent home time and a good wage.
I'm a trucker this guy is smart better conditions more truckers i know plenty of peps with cdl who refuse to drive
I'm one of those.., truckers.
So what about this thing of making 100k a year?
Seems like if that was feasable for an experienced driver they wouldn't leave the industry...
@@harijotkhalsa5546 There are always the exceptions in any industry who earn much more than the average. $100,000 certainly is possible for a relative few drivers.
Who wants to work 7 days a week , 70+ hours a day , Deal with the hazards of the road and everything else that comes with trucking for 30k a year?
The companies are always looking for new drivers that would do it for Little pay . As the drivers get experience they ask for more money so the companies need new replacements.
There’s always that one guy that would do it for less . The industry needs replacements. people think that truck driving is easy money and it’s fun just driving around. it’s not it’s hard work.
BIGPAUL als immigrants.
Drivers get abused bad. Companies don't pay drivers very good for working 60+ hours a week. Pay sucks. Period.
It’s not the money, Its all the other bs .
For instance I went to A company and drove about 2.5 months before I quit them .
What happened is that I informed them that I don’t go above North Carolina or East of Indiana (they were cool with that until A few other drivers quit and then they felt I “needed to pick up the slack”) .
They sent Me to Maryland and I walked and dispatch told Me to “suck it up and deal with it” , I went and then turned the truck in afterwards and quit ... Now it is them that can suck it up .
It’s simple nonsense like that is what is causing this shortage .
I for one do not shed A tear when I see or hear of A truck company having to sell out or close up , Good for them .
Info warcock
Bite Me !
Info warcock
You’re probably one of those company suck asses that “do what you’re told” , Have A nice day (and wipe that brown spot off the tip of your nose).
I think I’ll be making A trip to Canada very soon .
Very Very Soon .
That was the most ridiculous “interview “ever oh yeah I’m sure you’re going to get that guy back you can interrupt him and pretend you know more than he does
Yeah I hated how he kept interrupting the person being interviewed. He sucks at interviewing people!!
and all of his rebuttals, even the premise was anecdotal. Some HR person in some big company said there is a driver shortage and they made a story on their business channel about this.
The problem is not a shortage of drivers. If you figure out how many tons of freight need to be moved and how long it would take the drivers that there are to move it you would see that there are no shortages of drivers. The problem is that shippers and receivers are holding drivers up and wasting drivers time there is plenty of time on the clock. On that eld. To move the freight IF the shippers and receivers don't hold them up.
The best answer.
We don't have a trucker shortage, but we sure have a time shortage inside the TV news studio !
like most workers in America who are losing ground the trucking industry although profitable has not kept up with inflation etc and pay now is lousy. Of course owners of corporate trucking industry and high up execs still rake it in. The next time you want to criticize millenials for being not so inspired to work in any of these jobs just look at what they are facing. Also take a look at the low paid zombies working all the shit jobs that used to pay well but now require ridiculous long hours and pay like shit. No wonder many are on anti depressants and other drugs just to cope. America is becoming one big prison yard full of wage slaves.
Next up driverless trucks...
Eventually the reality will sink in and America will need to offer a minimum income to all citizens as a subsidy to failing opportunities due to cruel, corrupt and greedy capitalism (as currently practiced).
This guy is absolutely right, no shortage at private fleets or LTL carriers it's the major truck load carriers that can't find and keep drivers because of pay and benefits. And btw they don't pay office staff or maintenance people any better than the drivers, been there done that.
Shortage of mega carrier 500 dollar a week drivers, only thing they are good for is filling piss bottles
🤣🤣🤣
Shortage is in the low paying type, UPS feeder drivers are hiring 300 here In Midwest, they start you out at 30 a hour after 4 years you go to scale around 40 a hour
Where are the rights for truck drivers ? We live in the road, treated like slaves paid less than should be. . ..the companies have their rules. What about us? Wich truck moves without a driver? I have worked for companies who don't pay empty miles. ..where I had to drive 4 hrs without pay. .. then wait 5 to 8 hrs to get loaded and they don't want to hear me asking to get paid for lost time. . ...truck drivers have a hard life always away from home not enough home time. . The idiots that say you get home time is only when we need to take the 34 hrs brake .for recap. ..and sometimes we have to take it on the road and without pay. .. .The companies make most of the money. . They need to pay us better. ...or let those bosses get on their trucks and do the job yourselves while you are gone, your wives will have plenty of time to cheat on you and your children will go out and live life like there's NO hell and no God! !!
Great Job Todd you explained it short and to the point 👍👍
This guy on the right knows exactly what he's talking about.The guy doing the segment is clueless..and this is why truck drivers should have had a solid union for years now..I bet then they ratea will go up and the drivers will get paid
The problem there is with the drivers. So many of them have absorbed the conservative ideology and vote against their own interests. They've been taught that 'unions are bad' and believe it. They refuse to believe that companies have become so greedy that they are wrecking the economy. They insist on believing that 'toughing it out' will solve the problem, while they go deeper and deeper in debt and eventually lose their rigs if they're independent. When Bush signed his pilot program into law that allowed drivers from Mexico to operate almost unregulated, it allowed the FTSA to mix their crash data in with ours. That inspired the fake safety crisis which led to many of your most experience (read expensive) drivers to be dismissed by their companies for the most minor of reasons. There was also a fuel crisis. All through that, the truckers themselves refused to stand up and unionize.
Guy on the left is the interviewer and he wouldn't even let the OOIDA rep finish a sentence. That's the problem, there are too many know-nothing blow hards flapping their gums with industry propaganda who think think they know more than those who are deeply involved in the industry.
@@telcobilly The lawmakers and bureaucrats making the regulations are as bad as that interviewer. The same mindset prevails in the H1B visa scenarios.
I've seen company's in florida offering 15 bucks an hour for class A drivers. And some of the company's that pay by load if you broke down the hours you work comes to 11 bucks an hour with no over time
Real simple, to be a trucker is one thing, to be a successful trucker that's another
Too many people willing to work for nothing is the main issue.
There's only a shortage because companies don't pay good.
Its not just the pay, but why the pay is low. Too many delays that the drivers can do nothing about. You can't be with your family for many days, bad food, no exercise, grumpy dispatchers...
Well said TS.
I'm a formal driver as of late May 2017.
I worked very hard and other reaped the benefits.
So I am reluctant to go back over the road.
The pay is manipulated and The hours are brutal and The home time is Neil.
They promise you home time but always renig and steal your home time. And The regulation are horrendous.
Driver
Yes, driving is not as esay as it looks. Very stressful and very difficult to have a home life. There is very little food out there, that you can get your hands on quickly, that won't make you diabetic or half dead within 5 years.
Immigrants, 18 year olds, diversity etc won't fix this...$$$$$ for drivers will fix it!
There’s no trucker shortage.
There’s a GOOD trucker shortage.
There’s a GOOD trucker shortage because there’s a GOOD company shortage!!!
My dad made 50k a year driving in the 80's. They still make that! The pay is 1/3 adjusted for inflation
Shortage my ax! When the customers start calling for trucks and the companies start telling them the rate then we won’t have a truck overage
PAY BETTER!!!! Treat us better!!!! The whole reason I left
80,000-100,000 that’s BS if you don’t go home and trucking is your life basically you don’t have life average 40,000-55,000 i been trucking for 12 years if you have family wife children don’t even bother going into trucking
I'm a O/O and I grossed 14.2 and was home every night. It can be done.
Typical Fox correspondent. Doesn't want to believe that low pay and poor conditions might be the reason you can't fill seats in the industry. I drove OTR for 10 years. I was home an average of 2-3 days a month. I NEVER made more than 50k a year and most years were closer to 35k. That's what we were getting for living in something the size of a walk-in closet, having most of our lives under a microscope and being some of the most 'regulated' people in the work force. Since the govt and the industry got together to lower wages even further with CSA 2010, it's gotten even worse. They manipulated the accident data and got rid of a lot of the most experienced drivers to cut costs. Now they have people who don't want to stay or improve and many of us with experience won't go back. The corporate race for the bottom line depopulated the industry. Make it a good paying job with good benefits and I'd go back in a minute. But not now as it is.
@woof beast I'm not sure how you measure success but I was a team driver for Schneider. I was good enough for them to want to make me one of their training engineers. I turned it down because I would have actually LOST money, even with the raise. The prestige and Esprit de Corp were nice draws but Schneider was not the best payer as you would know if you were a driver during that time. Even so, over time our benefits values went down. Our mileage rates but I had to keep teaming if I wanted 3k miles a week or more. They would actually put struggling drivers out with me because I had good numbers and no accidents. Those drivers were often having adjustment problems or thinking about leaving due to low earnings and then decided to stay after a 3-4 week run when they saw their paychecks get noticeably bigger running with me. When I signed on with SRT, I was given a 5K sign on bonus and my own truck because of my record with Schneider. With SRT I often did well over 3k miles per week. So you tell me how my career was such a "fail"?
Look at freight rates. They're so low now, they don't even cover the expenses of the truck. That's not including the driver cost. The economy is in a death spiral and the politicians are the root cause.
Low pay for hours worked and lifestyle. Very few drivers make 80-100, 000, a few lucky ones work for Walmart,UPS and make the big bucks. I have almost 3 million safe for a big company, retired and now make $14 per hour. OTR jobs are tough, time consuming and underpaid. The big buck drivers will be the first to lose in a downturn.
Truck driver shortage? Could have fooled me. As a professional steering wheel holder and freight babysitter for 23 years, when is the government going to allow more truck stops, rest areas and truck parking spots across America? Because you can't fit all the trucks on the roads today in all the rest areas, truck parking and truck stops as it is!!! Put another 100,000 trucks on our highways and when it comes time to sleep, we will be parking on the side of our highways!!!
yes i had many night on the ramp motel
Finally someone who knows and telling the truth when it comes to truck drivers. They are lots of capable drivers but they just arnt going to drive and put the enormous hours for lousy pay.
For owner operator, 150k new semi truck and they pay you $1,600 to 1,900 a week no benefits nothing. Treat them like shit, registration highway tax over $2,600 a year truck insurance parking $600 a month. Repair costs thru the roof, and at the end of the year return alot of taxes. Worst job in USA
Dude started out saying no shortage and finished by trying to prove why nobody wants to drive
$80-100k a year? Where the hell did this come from? What a LIE!
I’ve been a trucker for 37 years and the guys below this post are correct.
The low pay is the first issue, the disrespect from shippers and receivers and the trucking companies is the second issue, the constant threat of losing your license over miniscule BS I would say is the third issue. I could go on and on but I don’t want to bore everyone with the details. Trucking careers have been on a steady decline for as long as I’ve been driving trucks. As I’m writing this I am quitting yet another local job driving . The hourly pay is excellent but the disrespect is unbelievable.
I call it the one year curse. Every year it seems like we all have to change jobs and 99% of the time it has nothing to do with the work.
It has to do with management and their unprofessional attitudes. I refuse to be unheard and ignored by some snot nose 28 year old who somehow squeezed themselves into a management position that required social skills that they don’t possess. Thank God this is my last year trucking. I too will be hanging it up.
When a hard freeze hits Florida and wipes out the orange crop-that's a shortage. Whining that you can't get people to work 100 days straight living in a 6x5' "prison" of a truck cab is a man-made famine. There is a shortage of doctors....for $30,000 a year.
They want new drivers to keep pay low. That's to keep owner ops out. Why pay 2.50 plus a mile ,when I can get this idiot newbie to run it for fuel cost and .38 per mile.
I worked for werner enterprises in 2004! No way not me you could not pay me enough to do that job! Americans are not desciplined enough for a major interstate system! Sorry
Werner is the worst company in the country to work for. They treat the drivers like crap and have the lowest pay in the business.
@@jackfanning7952 **cough** C.R England **cough**
@@MrJflomario Yeah, Werner and C.R. England - two peas in a pod. No doubt!
@@jackfanning7952 No, CRST has Werner beat - CRST is the worst company.
@@JacquelineHoman There are plenty of contenders.
All drivers should get paid by the hour.
In Europe they do.
Typical Day, Start after a 10 hour mandatory break. Do a Pre-trip, start the truck and figure out the plan for the day as well as routing and time through major city. Stop and fuel truck/ refer. Drive a few hours, Rush Hour Traffic 8am(Apt @ 4pm). Finally through rush hour @ 10am (1 hour behind schedule for the shipper). Drive a couple hours, get pulling into scale, DOT wants to do an inspection and check log books. 1 more hour behind. Toll road/bridge. 3pm traffic... And now your missing your delivery window, plus you still need to take a lunch mandatory by the dot. Now the freight is late, the driver is pissed, shipper is pissed, need a new delivery time, and the driver loses the most because they get paid by the mile and not the hour, not the wait time, hook and re hook, etc...
Autonomy of the driver, common sense rules, and less hurdles for the driver as well as a better pay rate mileage or hourly would make the trucking world better. The last statistic I herd was of all the people who get a cdl each year, there are 80k+ openings, 80-90% quit or fail the first to years, the job force is aging and retiring so the numbers leaving vrs those coming and staying are going to derate very quickly. Avg age of a trucker in US is approx 48-55 years old.
@woof beast it was just to illustrate a point.
1. Over regulations. 2. Lack of parking. 3. Weight stations and their state quotas targeting truck drivers. 4. Invasion of privacy with the cameras installed inside the trucks. 5. Too many company policies and useless rules. 6 oh yeah, did I forget to mention the pay is not worth working over 70 hours a week and away from home all of the time and driving through black ice, tornadoes, and horrible weather conditions? 7. Once again the pay sucks and after being a truck driver for over 5 years, I realize it was time to get out of the trucking industry because they do not appreciate or pay truck drivers enough money to go through the b.s they had made for truck drivers. They find more ways to pay truck drivers cheaper and to create more rules and regulations to make their more lives miserable. Keep up the good job because with the truck drivers you have right now are on the verge on breaking so keep making more rules and regulations and pay them cheaper.
Greed is the problem.
I’m out 2 to 4 days at a time.
And off Saturday and Sunday.
Last year I made just over $100,000.
Way too many people getting in their truck for weeks at a time to make 70 or 80.
There is absolutely no reason for a driver to be gone from home more than 5 or 6 days max.
If you go to work and it’s a new calendar week when you get home the company you work for has not one single care for you on a human level.
Good luck everyone!!
Pay drivers more!!!!
Show me the money
We need more I80 TRUCK STOP ALL OVER THIS COUNTRY
Truckers can drink and take prescribed Opiates, etc. till the cows come home, but smoke medicinal marijuana off hours to avoid opiates and you are out of work. Hypocrisy at its finest.
don't forget the speed
All medication is controlled and approved by DOT. Idk where your info is coming from but alot of drivers have been fired or jailed/fined and lost CDL for using opiates
Erwin do you have personal experience with that LOL. If not please forward the scientific study that supports your claim.
besides I have never known truck drivers to require exceptional intelligence. seems like driving is more of a muscle memory, hand eye coordination thing than it is a full frontal cortex operation. if it were then we certainly wouldn't want anyone who drives a truck to ever drink because alcohol definitely kills brain cells. that is a scientific fact.
Todd Spencer is 100% correct. $40 -$50,000 / year is accurate, working 70+ hours per week, eating junk overpriced food (have to eat where you can park these giant rigs), waiting hours / days to receive a call for the next haul (far away from home, in a cramped truck). Since most get paid only when the wheels turn (per mile), drivers are tacidly encouraged to do their own repairs.
Is there any wonder why there is a shortage of drivers in those jobs?
Seems like that restaurant owner is not paying well
80 to a 100k? I've been doing this for thirty two and a half years living a truck away from home 27 days a month that have never seen that kind of money I don't know where you're getting your information from but you need to do some better research
You should do some research because it is pretty easy to be making 2k a week. I do that all the time and many weeks more than 2k.
Got news for you pal. You have wasted 30 years of your life. You could have driven a city bus and made 100k a year.
i have my cdl i havent used it in 20 years
Yes, the driver shortage is a myth.