America needs truckers!

[MillCreek]

http://www.npr.org/2013/09/02/216427414/trucker-shortage-worsens-as-energy-sector-booms?ft=1&f=1001

Wow, I was unaware there was a shortage of truckers.

[TommyGunn]

It's gonna get worse what with Obamacare coming online and the EPA becoming an outofcontrol super-regulating agency and numerous other federal regulations that govern shipping.

[Northwoods]

It's gonna get worse what with Obamacare coming online and the EPA becoming an outofcontrol super-regulating agency and numerous other federal regulations that govern shipping.

From a truck manufacturing perspective the regs arepast the point of the ridiculous already.  91% reduction in particulate emmissions and 96% reduction in NOx.  Exhaust is cleaner the ambient air in a lot of cities.  But that's not good enough.  Now it's CO2 they're after.  Only possible way to cut CO2 is to reduce fuel consumption.  That is probably to be more expensive that the soot and NOx treatments.

[vaskidmark]

I just never had considered a community college as a place to learn how to cook log books, maintain dual sets of records, and otherwise prepare one for a lucrative life as a knight of the open road.

Comparing costs, it seems that the "learn to drive the big rigs" schools advertizing on late-night TV are less expensive and take less time to get one to the point of taking the tests for -A, -B, -C and HAZMAT certification.  Two weeks of school (classroom and behind the wheel) (average time listed by commercial CDL training schools) plus hold a CDL Instruction (learner's) Permit for 30 days versus a 6 to 9 week community college semester.

But then I've learned that Texas does a lot of stuff I consider wierd.

stay safe.

[Parker Dean]

http://www.npr.org/2013/09/02/216427414/trucker-shortage-worsens-as-energy-sector-booms?ft=1&f=1001

Wow, I was unaware there was a shortage of truckers.

If there were a true shortage then wages and freight rates would rise. What there's a shortage of is experienced, professional drivers.

What the carriers complain about is a shortage of drivers willing to work for poverty wages more than a few months at a time (about how long it takes a new driver to figure out the job sucks and quit)

C.R England, Stevens, Werner, and many more of the big carriers have built an entire industry on hiring drivers for a few months for pennies, and then when they would be up for a raise running their income down until they quit and then filling the seat with a new driver that will work for pennies. You see a mega carrier truck and the odds are the driver has considerably less than a year experience.

[lupinus]

If there were a true shortage then wages and freight rates would rise. What there's a shortage of is experienced, professional drivers.

What the carriers complain about is a shortage of drivers willing to work for poverty wages more than a few months at a time (about how long it takes a new driver to figure out the job sucks and quit)

C.R England, Stevens, Werner, and many more of the big carriers have built an entire industry on hiring drivers for a few months for pennies, and then when they would be up for a raise running their income down until they quit and then filling the seat with a new driver that will work for pennies. You see a mega carrier truck and the odds are the driver has considerably less than a year experience.

Yep. More often then not as soon as you've completed your "we'll teach you to drive if you sign on for x amount of time" indentured servitude drivers beat it for greener pastures.

It's also amazing the number of Eastern European and similar drivers who can't drive for *expletive deleted*it and can't speak or read a word of English that are on the roads.

[Hawkmoon]

C.R England, Stevens, Werner, and many more of the big carriers have built an entire industry on hiring drivers for a few months for pennies, and then when they would be up for a raise running their income down until they quit and then filling the seat with a new driver that will work for pennies. You see a mega carrier truck and the odds are the driver has considerably less than a year experience.

There used to be a J. B. Hunt driver in my Jeep club. He had been with them for a few years, but he was single and had also shifted his "base" a couple or three times. Back then I had a CB in my Jeep and I kept it tuned to channel 19 -- the truckers' channel. The running joke was that in a national survey, J. B. Hunt (always the butt of jokes on the CB airwaves) was rated second in a survey of the best companies to drive for.
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Everybody else tied for first.

[drewtam]

If there were a true shortage then wages and freight rates would rise. What there's a shortage of is experienced, professional drivers.

What the carriers complain about is a shortage of drivers willing to work for poverty wages more than a few months at a time (about how long it takes a new driver to figure out the job sucks and quit)

C.R England, Stevens, Werner, and many more of the big carriers have built an entire industry on hiring drivers for a few months for pennies, and then when they would be up for a raise running their income down until they quit and then filling the seat with a new driver that will work for pennies. You see a mega carrier truck and the odds are the driver has considerably less than a year experience.

This.

There is no such thing as a shortage of drivers, welders, engineers, IT, plumbers, electricians or any other skilled labor in a capitalist society. There is only an intersection of supply, demand, and prices. Only when there is gov't regulated or monopolistic control of supply is there true shortages (min wage laws, doctor cert boards, etc).

[GigaBuist]

It's also amazing the number of Eastern European and similar drivers who can't drive for *expletive deleted* and can't speak or read a word of English that are on the roads.

Half the time I grab our phone to find a trucker needing directions I can't understand them and vice versa.  The road noise certainly doesn't help, but English being their second language doesn't ever help either.

[lupinus]

Second is better than a lot of what we get.

It more like 50th with some of ours.

[RevDisk]

This.

There is no such thing as a shortage of drivers, welders, engineers, IT, plumbers, electricians or any other skilled labor in a capitalist society. There is only an intersection of supply, demand, and prices. Only when there is gov't regulated or monopolistic control of supply is there true shortages (min wage laws, doctor cert boards, etc).

Close. Whenever you hear "shortage of", it is a scam or lie. Generally, it is the Usual Suspects for any industry that is crying that they should not have to pay real wages for employees. And they want the government to distort the labor market by allowing cheap foreign labor, or some other sob story.  I love capitalism, but there are plenty of scumbag companies with no loyalty to America. You could argue it is not their job to be loyal to their host country. Politicians should put America, and Americans ahead of any particular company, special interest group, etc.

If we had a closed system (ie normal population churn plus x% for immigrants), labor wages would follow supply and demand.

Some companies want a rigged game to distort supply in their favor.

[GigaBuist]

Some companies want a rigged game to distort supply in their favor.

Agreed.  But it tends to work itself out with only the most pigheaded holding out against reality:  You get what you pay for.

I grew up in Ag, went to IT, and back to Ag and the axiom holds true:  You get what you pay for.

[never_retreat]

I had this Russian trucker for one of the big companies get his truck so jambed up in our back lot I had to move it with a BIG forklift.
This is after I told him to get out of the truck. I could not undo what he did. I no longer have a cdl but I used to drive them on occasion, not as an occupation though.

[Parker Dean]

 Those Russians came over here as part of a scheme by some Chicago based companies run by Russian "businessmen" to get virtual slave labor when the Russian economy was in even bigger shambles. It also depended on Chicago area DMV's handing out CDL's to those same immigrants despite the fact that federal regs for CDL's require fluency in speaking English. Gee, I wonder how that happened. That was put a stop to so there are less Russians coming in to trucking. It seems to be Middle Eastern types that are now the hot commodity, so to speak. The word is that four will buy a truck together, each pulling their 11 hour driving "shift" every 33 hours and run coast to coast constantly. Eventually the truck makes enough to buy another truck and one or two split off into the new truck and the process repeats until they all have a truck. Unfortunately by operating in their closed world they are not exposed to trucking in general so they don't learn how things should be done which makes for some less than safe practices on their part.

[lupinus]

Interesting, we don't get many ME folks through ours. Lots of the Russians/Eastern Europeans though. Our primary consolidator is in Chicagoland and they hire the cheapest carriers then can get to run the loads down.

I had this Russian trucker for one of the big companies get his truck so jambed up in our back lot I had to move it with a BIG forklift.
This is after I told him to get out of the truck. I could not undo what he did. I no longer have a cdl but I used to drive them on occasion, not as an occupation though.

There are two ways to get in to our property. The right way is easy as pie, turn left or right depending which way you were traveling on the highway, then a left turn at the first stop light you see MAYBE 1/8 mile after the first turn. Thats our street and we're on the right about 1/2 a mile up. There also multiple big ass signs that say "GO THAT WAY DUMBASS".

But there is also a back way in, and for some reason a lot of GPS like to take people in that way. It's longer, more twisty, and at the end you have to make a right turn that's basically looks like |\. It's next to impossible to do it in a big rig, we've got guys working here that wont do it in their pickups. We used to get at least four jackasses a week ignoring our directions and signs and going in the back way and trying to make that turn. Which, since the turn direction also takes them uphill, results in instant stuck in ditch and blocking road. And a state trooper that is a might tired of getting this call writing the biggest tickets he can think of. And a big tow bill. For awhile the wrecker company actually had a sign up IN THE TREES so the stuck truckers could see it from their cab when they got stuck 

That's whittled down to 2-3 a month, mainly because the two carriers that did it most often finally got their act together after five years or so. It was always fun when their dispatch called to bitch about the monkey fornicated spot to put a DC, to which we kindly pointed out the signs telling their drivers exactly which way to go, plus our automated phone directions if they call the line.

Then of course, there are the nekkid truck drivers.

[RocketMan]

Then there are the ones that use our truck yard to empty their portable toilets.  Damn 'tards.

[Tallpine]

Times have changed since Will and Sonny.