"Errrabbbah...my immigration bill will eraaabah not change the demographics of the country erraaabah...Now, it's time for a drink. Come on Mary-Jo, let's go...errabah"
"Whoops!"
"Errraabbbaaa, I needa drink...gotta get back to tha baaaah"
Posted on 05/11/2014 7:19:52 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
You wouldn't think that the old saw, "Good help is hard to find," had anything left to it, what with last week's unemployment report out of the U.S. Department of Labor showing unemployment in America is still 6.3%. The fact that hourly wages in America grew a measly 1.9% over the past 12 months tends to suggest there's little slack in the jobs market, too.
(After all, if it was hard to find good help, wouldn't it stand to reason that employers would be paying through the nose to attract workers?)
In one industry, they may have to: trucking.
Help wanted
America as a whole may be slogging through 6.3% unemployment these days, but according to industry analyst FTR Transportation Intelligence, there's currently a 4.3% "driver shortage" in the trucking industry today — a negative unemployment rate.
Bloomberg Intelligence reports that there are currently 235,600 unfilled trucking jobs across the country, which is 43.4% more job openings than at this time, last year. FTR predicts that this number will increase by a further 61.4% before finally peaking at the end of 2016, blaming new federal regulations that went into effect last summer that restrict the amount of time that driver's can sit behind the wheel. The new rules require that drivers take 34 hours off between work weeks, including two full nights of rest, and cannot work more than 70 hours in any given week.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
mmm...
Isn’t truck driving one of those jobs where the earnings have actually gone down (compared to inflation) in the last 20 years?
The Feds have ruined trucking with their hours of service regulations. They fully intend for Mexicans to take over the industry.
Which also means you regularly have a situation where you can not drive enough to make it worth doing.
Skyrocketing trucking costs in fuel and maintenance and requirements to NOT work as many hours = crappy job and pay.
So you are away from home, can’t drive when you want to be driving and aren’t completing as many hauls as you need to be.
Yeah, sounds like a great career.
The self driving vehicle will soon rectify that.
“The new rules require that drivers take 34 hours off between work weeks, including two full nights of rest, and cannot work more than 70 hours in any given week.”
Who do I have to *BLEEP* to get that ‘vacation-like’ schedule? LOL!
I have to agree with these rules, especially since I share the roads with trucks. I'm exhausted after working 40 (hard) hours a week. I can't imagine being surrounded by idiot car drivers and being responsible for a large, powerful machine for almost twice that much time.
I suspect that part of the shortage isn't just due to these new rules, though. I suspect that a lot of it is that people have made fun of truckers to the point that "truck driver" is the punch line to a lot of jokes. Combine that with the hours and being away from your family, and it's not hard to understand the shortage.
That’s especially true with the legal wranglings already under way to make it legal for Mexican drivers to pass across the border with loads.
Truck drivers aren’t covered by minimum wage. The feds keep tightening the screws when there isn’t justification. If they want to improve the industry the need to come down hard on shippers and receivers that beyond a reasonable time essentially steal drivers’ hours by forcing them to wait to unload or load .
6.3% ?? Where, how do they get this number? A few days ago right here on Freep I was reading how there is 93 million unemployed. The entire population is 320 million, do the math.
Meat packing paid more 30 years ago than it does now. Taken over by Mexicans and other Third Worlders. No doubt the same is intended for trucking. Lower the wages enough so no one wants the job, then turn it over to illegal/legal immigrants.
Not to mention the 10 gabillion tickets you have to deal with from local cops. A friend of mine drives, says anytime he picks up or delivers he gets a ticket. Cops are treated like collection agencies today, especially in places like the liberal bastion of hell New York city where I unfortunately grew up and escaped from a few years ago. A friend of mine joined the NYPD and quit after 2 years because he said he did nothing else but give out tickets, and if he lost a ticket case in court they would dock him vacation days. Lot of illegals and welfare breeding cows to support, so let’s get those cops focusing on the real important issues: Collecting money!
No....just do net income after fuel, maintenance, insurance, fees, capital, etc. over the road vs superload? I know guys who make 200k, and I've seen how owner-operators live, and it's not the same.
Spokeshave has one of those jobs....if you drive local you don’t need to keep a detailed log book
Well, as much as I can use a job, at my age and physical condition (late 50s, bad knees), I somehow don’t think this is one position I’d be interested in, much less qualify for.
I think there are a lot of us in the 6.1% (not to mention the 15% or so in the U-6 numbers) in my situation. Nice pay, more or less, but a bit too much to handle.
“Meat packing paid more 30 years ago than it does now. Taken over by Mexicans and other Third Worlders. No doubt the same is intended for trucking. Lower the wages enough so no one wants the job, then turn it over to illegal/legal immigrants.’
A few years ago I was in a packing house in Nebraska (business related) and the everything on the bulletin boards were tri-lingual...English, Spanish, Viet Namese. And I suspect that only the supervisors could read the English.
If I was a young man again I would invest in pilot school. The shortage of pilots will be immense in the next 10 years.
Truck drivers are no different overall than any other profession. Some are at the high end that transport something that is valued at 10M and some are hauling gravel.
If the guy dumps the gravel it’s cleared with a front loader. If the guy drops the 10M load of specialized equipment it might take another year to manufacture the replacement.
Professional vs. employed as.
Yes.. I hold a class A CDL with doubles/triples, passenger and tanker.. (dropped hazmat due to the insane fees to renew it)..
I do something else because I like to be home and the money is better.
"Errrabbbah...my immigration bill will eraaabah not change the demographics of the country erraaabah...Now, it's time for a drink. Come on Mary-Jo, let's go...errabah"
"Whoops!"
"Errraabbbaaa, I needa drink...gotta get back to tha baaaah"
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