You can't just grab some random worker and hand them the keys to a truck. Truck driving requires a lot of expensive training, and it's a shitty job that not many people want to do anyway because it takes them away from home too much.
I'm surprised truck driving used to be a "road to the middle class" in USA. It's one of the shittiest jobs and requires almost zero higher brain function. I'm pretty sure you can train a brain damaged person to reasonably drive a truck across the country. This job should never have been able to lift anybody into middle class.
Glad to see that truckers are feeling the pinch. If they are even a bit smart, they should leave and do something else. Even repairing trucks along the Highway may be a better job.
Somewhat tangential, but I hate this notion people seem to harbour, that any kind of job should be able to provide dignified living. No. If your work is shitty and super replaceable and doesn't need much brain power you will live in poverty.
I can't think of many worse jobs than truck driving. Long hours, low pay, threat to lose your job from self-driving cars, high risk... These guys deserve a higher salary and they should start looking for something else to do IMHO.
Yeah sure, you can make that after you are in the business for years, own your own truck, have a flawless record, and all that. What they don't mention is you not going home at the end of the day, or the hours you don't get paid waiting for other people to unload your or load your truck, or the social isolation, or the fact that a small misstep could cost you your entire career with your CDL and driving experience becoming useless.
The reason we lack truck drivers is because of pay, it costs a lot of money to get people to forgo a family, or a home, or sleeping in their own bed, waiting around in the middle of nowhere not getting paid just waiting, plus the costs of road food, the cost of maintaining and insuring your own truck, ect.
The barrier to entry to driving a truck is a few months of training so the amount of people that can become truck drivers is quite large. However, the social status of driving a truck is quite low and there is a constant threat of automating the job away. Not to mention the terrible working conditions.
I know a ton of people who would love to have a good job right now. To end the trucker shortage, stop screwing over truckers so they actually want to be truckers. Then they will recommend it to friends, etc...
It's not like some jobs where only specific people can do it. The potential labor pool is huge. Just the compensation and working conditions are abominable.
People don't perceive driving their own cars to be a problem.
With trucks there is a big problem. Quality drivers with a CDL are hard to find. My brother-in-law who works in road construction tells me all about it: in Binghamton NY there is a bridge with a low clearance that some dumbass gets a truck stuck in about once a month.
They track your every move with a gps and you never have time to take it easy between runs. Traveling,the one upside to the job aside from money is ruined by their control-freak managent.
You want people to be truck drivers? Get the trucks good internet access,provide laptops and tablets where possible and give the drivers time to take it easy between and during runs. Internet access wherever you are means you can maintain some social life and video call with the family.
On the flip side,trucking isn't just a job,it's a lifestyle. You never leave work since your truck with the hidden Mics and location tracking is also your home. The compensation just isn't worth the job for most people. Better pay helps but so does hiring convicts and relaxing the driving history restrictions (like running a stop sign 4 years ago shouldn't make you unhirable)
There are a lot of people with a truck driving license that work in other fields. With good incentives you could get them to become tricky drivers again.
I have a friend who owns a restaurant equipment import business. He employs a driver to deliver ovens, refrigerators, display cases, etc. to restaurants and grocery stores around the country. He could fire his driver and hire an Uber truck on demand instead, and if he got a blast of orders, he could hire a few trucks instead of having to wait on one driver.
I have another friend who is a truck dispatcher. Her entire job is telling truckers where to go and when to be there. Trucking companies don't need to employ dispatchers any more, Uber's algorithms handle her entire job.
My uncle drove trucks delivering dairy to grocery stores. Since he was a member of the dairy trucker's union, that was the only thing he was allowed to deliver. If there was no dairy to deliver but lots of bread, sorry, that's for the members of the bread trucker's union. The whole trucking industry is carved into these niche unions which are really frustrating to deal with.
When I was a student, I worked for a construction company that had a decrepit old truck they used to deliver some of their prefab pieces, like sets of windows and doors. It broke down a lot and only one guy in the shop had the license and knew how to drive it. Now they can get rid of the truck and just hire Uber whenever they need some bigger stuff delivered.
Driving the trucks in a sane way and not flipping them over while turning is actually so boring that it is hard to find people who can and will do it and still get good productivity, at any pay rate.
Source: Brother in law was a foreman at a strip mine.
The national shortage of truck drivers in America does not support your argument. I heard from someone at 160 Driving Academy that you can make six figures with a CDL and the trucking companies will pay you to get one.
That's not even as hard on the body as other physical jobs. It is not a well regarded and the community of peers you interact with means that it isn't a very desirable job.
Truck driving is the most mind numbing job I could imagine. But if someone was offering to pay $200,000 in my city I would take the job until I made enough to pay off my house and then unless they could significantly increase the pay or reduce hours I would leave for something else.
Also everything I have heard from truck drivers makes it sound not so great at all. They are under constant pressure to keep driving even while tired and are constantly gps tracked for performance metrics.
Is there really a shortage of truck drivers? Or are there enough people with the needed licences, but they'd rather work in McDonalds, because they pay more?
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