Took the 20 mile trip to Cabelas at noon today and the last 14 miles are on the expressway. I've never seen so many semi trucks on both side of the road going down and coming back.

They must be hauling a bunch of goods - MAGA!

We are trying to hire two, but can’t find anyone worth a cshit or pass a drug test.

I read something about the many thousands of good paying truck driving jobs that are out there waiting for qualified drivers. A small industry is growing just training them. The drug test issue is huge, though. No company can hire a driver who can't pass it.

The interstates are packed with trucks all hours of the day. Never seen anything like it.

Really?

https://www.transtats.bts.gov/osea/seasonaladjustment/?PageVar=TRUCK

Just discussing this over the weekend. People won't give up their dope even for a $50/ hr job in the construction field.

People need to get back to drinking and cigarettes. We have a country’s economy at stake. Ha!

Problem being that it's just too damn easy to live off welfare. Why work when you dont have to?

+ 1,000. kids are finding they can knock up a gal get her on welfare then live of her. These are white kids.

I have noticed that there are a lot more semis on the road the last few years. There are more now than in 2008. The trains are going back and forth a lot more too. Oil and lumber seems the most common on the trains. Trucks seem to be hauling everything.

I've noticed more inexperienced drivers lately.

I had a driver tell me today that they have several trailer loads of goods sitting in their warehouse every day that they can't move. They just don't have enough drivers. Plus they have drivers on vacation.

I am a retired Truck Driver with over a Million Miles..... No accidents...No freight clams ever and never had a moving violation in a big rig ......I will come out of retirement for 40 Dollars a Hour for all Hours away from Home and Full medical benefits for me and the wife...

Here's an article from the WAPO n May about the driver shortage. It says that when it was written, there were about 51K jobs needing drivers and many paid 80k or more. On the other side, it talks about the pitfalls of the job. One big one is divorce caused by never being home.
DRIVER SHORTAGE

Years ago, I worked for a couple major freightlines. I was in the office most of the time but often drove local pickup and delivery. The line drivers were set up so they were never gone more than 1 night. They'd drive 8 hours to a relay point, meet a driver from the other end, swap rigs, and return home after their mandatory rest.

The younger generations are just absolutely worthless. More than half were raised in single-parent households mostly by females.They are the first two generations that DIDN'T get their asses whipped when needed. Discipline (by female care givers) was inconsistent and based more on emotions of the moment rather than rules and consequences. None of them were taught a work ethic. Most of them are selfish, spoiled brats. None of them have the tools to meet and overcome simple everyday challenges in life. We need a purge....a plague, a cataclysm that will rebalance the Darwinian books.

There is no driver shortage. There's a shortage of willing idiots to sign up for today's mega-truck work for peanuts and never be home employment model. Drivers are hired and micro managed, and paid only by the mile. Sit for three days? Too bad, no check for you.....

How micromanaged? Drivers are given EXACT turn by turn directions, and deviating is a write up offense. They are given "fuel solutions", i.e. stop at this Loves, get 53 gallons, drive 240 miles to this next Loves, and buy 78 gallons. No consideration or pay for the drivers time to fuel, get off the highway, etc. But, it saves two pennies on fuel, so instead of taking on 230 gallons at once, they are made to fuel four, five times. Tail light out? No, you aren't allowed to change the tail light. Wait for the service truck to come out and change it. Which could be five hours...

Home time? Typically you get one day for every 10 to 14 days on the road. At the convenience of the trucking company. When it's convenient. Holidays? Shouldn't have become a truck driver. All that, living out of the truck with all expenses associated with that for maybe 40 or 50K a year.

Average driver turn over for the large fleet typically exceeds 100% per year. There's not shortage of drivers. There's a shortage of idiots willing to do the job.

You are correct, sir!
I drive an big rig and I am in Cat Spring Texas right now at the TA truck stop. Taking a load of refrigerators from Mexico up to the big Lowe's distribution center in Adairsville Ga.

Yes, we truckers are the pulse of the American economy and truck driving is booming.
I got in to the industry in early 2011. I learned that there was a big crash in trucking in 2008, went along with the big recession. A quarter million drivers lost their jobs in that year, and the next. Many mom n pop truck stops closed down.
The trucking boom started to pick up in 2010, the year my brother got into the business. Next year I joined him and the boom has been on ever since! Big time.

No truck stops have closed since in the past 7 years but a bunch of new ones have opened, I know of 11 new Loves that have been built, and they ain't cheap.

When trucking is up, it is a clear indicator that the economy is up.


Here I am last month in Evergreen Alabama in good 'ole SL1100.

"How micromanaged? Drivers are given EXACT turn by turn directions, and deviating is a write up offense. They are given "fuel solutions", i.e. stop at this Loves, get 53 gallons, drive 240 miles to this next Loves, and buy 78 gallons. No consideration or pay for the drivers time to fuel, get off the highway, etc. But, it saves two pennies on fuel, so instead of taking on 230 gallons at once, they are made to fuel four, five times. Tail light out? No, you aren't allowed to change the tail light. Wait for the service truck to come out and change it. Which could be five hours..."

I don't know what f*cked up company you have been working for, dutch, but I wouldn't work for them, either. I am given no directions as to which roads to take, I pick my own route.
Yes we get fuel solutions but they are reasonable. If I think the fuel solution is unreasonable, I pick my own. Has to be a Love's, or a Flying J, or a Pilot. No problem if decide on my own fuel solution.


"Home time? Typically you get one day for every 10 to 14 days on the road. At the convenience of the trucking company. When it's convenient. Holidays? Shouldn't have become a truck driver. All that, living out of the truck with all expenses associated with that for maybe 40 or 50K a year. "

I am with you on the home time, but I get more than that. I stay out 14 days and then get 2 days off. That is really a bitch and I need to get more home time. In fact in a few months I am going to tell the boss that I have to have 3 days off, if he won't give it to me then I will be gone.
However I am sure he will give me the three days because they are short on drivers and I am a good driver.
I don't make $40K I make $70K. A hell of a lot more than I would make being a construction worker in my home county, Madison County NC.

I work for a middle-tier company, some jobs are better than mine and some are worse. I never get stuck somewhere for more than a few hours. What company are you talking about, dutch, I will be sure to stay away from them.

Mine is a middle-tier job, some companies are a lot better. At Wal Mart you stay out 5 days and are off for 2, and good benefits, for $85K. The WalMart driver does a lot less work than I do, for a lot more pay.
UPS and FedEx pay even more and have good benefits. All three of those are great jobs.

If companies are willing to pay enough the workers will be there. Those complaining that they can't hire drivers are wanting to pay them a pittance. If you pay enough you'll find workers, simple economics.

"
If companies are willing to pay enough the workers will be there. Those complaining that they can't hire drivers are wanting to pay them a pittance. If you pay enough you'll find workers, simple economics."

Thank you, crow hunter. Yes I hear all these companies whining about not enough drivers. Simplest rule of economics, pay more money and more people will show up.
Wal Mart, UPS, and FedEx all pay top dollar, which is around $90K with good benefits, and they have plenty of drivers.

Swift is a mega carrier with over 12,000 drivers and they are always short, and they pay about $45 to $50K.
Swift has a driver turnover rate of 105 percent. Unreal. Every year, 12,500 drivers either quit, or are fired, from Swift. I know those numbers but can't wrap my head around them.

By comparison, WalMart has driver turnover of 3 percent and most of those are guys who retire.

That is exactly right.

If you aren't getting good candidates, you either aren't paying enough or don't offer good benefits. I think companies got accustomed to the recession years when they could pay poorly and cut benefits. In today's tight labor market, that doesn't work anymore.

LOL, I don't. I own the company, and I hire the guys that come out of the megas. Treat them right, pay them right, and they treat me right. Average driver pay is just under 70K, with average home time between three and four nights a week.

No, no problem hiring drivers. None. Even for our fairly demanding freight.

I agree. I did when a job change was forced upon me. Still drinking though. Come from a line of bourbon drinkers. Cheers!!

So, dutch, you own a trucking company.
My brother got a bug up his ass that our little company was no good. So he quit, and went to work for Swift.
Man, every day he was gone, he was calling me up with a sob story.

You need a gallon of oil, or antifreeze for the truck? You don't put it on the company card, you pay for it. Then you send in the bill and if you are lucky, in a few weeks you are reimbursed. With 12K drivers, this amounts to DRIVERS making a loan to SWIFT for many millions of dollars over the year. And, since Swift ditches over 12,000 drivers a year, if a guy happens to have run up $44 on two gallons of oil, and he quits the next week, and if Swift somehow "forgets" to reimburse him, tough luck on the $44 bucks. His only recourse would be to travel to Swift headquarters, wherever that is, and file claim in small claims court. Who is going to do that? Nobody. Guarantee you Swift pockets millions annually on that scam.

This happened 4 years ago. Brother was making 36 cents a mile. We are driving out of Greer SC. Brother got his first paycheck, and half of the miles were at 34 !/2 cents a mile.
He called his dispatcher, and he was told "Those lower miles were when you were across the Mississippi. We can't pay you full scale for those big open easy roads out in Texas."

I could go on and on, Swift accountants stay awake late at night figuring how to screw over their drivers.

Brother worked there for 6 weeks, and he came back with his tail between his legs.

Kentucky Mountain Man is obviously happily retired because he is cracking a little joke. If you got $40 an hour, for every hour away from home, and you worked for one week, you would get $6720 a week. I think that is how much giant Djibouti make in the NBA for throwing a ball through a hoop.

I was joking about the 40 bucks a Hour......But I really would come out of retirement for 30 bucks and unlimited free truck washes at the streaking Beacon.........I hate a dirty Truck....LOL

You know, you are rather a cheerful fellow, once one gets to know you.... (from "the Ghost and the Darkness), last movie I paid to see about 20 years ago.

This is the truth ! I’m an owner operator and wouldn’t dream of working for one of the major trucking companies. Trucking companies and shippers treat drivers like tools rather than people. F’em ! I’m getting the best rates ever and I don’t feel the least bit bad for the customers who’ve been sticking it to me and my fellow drivers for years. It’ll all come back around but I’m getting mine while the sun shines on my arse.

True story.

Interviewed a guy for an opening, and he looked like he would really fit with the company, so we made him a job offer. His wife wouldn't let him take it. Turns out, on his last job, the accountants turned off his fuel card and stranded him in Florida. In the summer. Took more than a week to get that "corrected". She was pawning crap and sending him Western Union so he could eat and buy a little fuel so he could run the truck for AC. You can imagine how done she was having him be a trucker.

So I sat them both down and showed them our standard trip packet, which includes plenty of cash to get home under any circumstances. That took care of that. Or the guy I hired out of Prime, who they wouldn't let go to the hospital where his dad was dying. Load had to be delivered!

I'll admit to some of the applicants being "interesting", and probably barely worth 34 CPM, but there's plenty of decent guys out there that are giving trucking the finger because of the way they are treated and paid (in that order).

Guys I work with who are willing to live on the road are netting after fuel , insurance , workers comp , etc $6500-$8500 a week. Take out truck maintenance and a payment you’re still at $5500-$7500 a week before taxes. They’re home about every other weekend.

I've even seen more women driving these trucks lately as well - albeit a tad on the hefty side but they are helping to MAGA.

It's not an occupation that is conducive to good health and lean physiques. Long hours sitting and driving which is also stressful with the responsibility of a big truck and all the jerks on the road.