What’s your solution to drivers at times making less than minimum wage? The driver shortage hasn’t changed anything. The trucking companies obviously don’t care. How will the market correct the issue?
I can tell from your post that you are sincere and concerned, but I can’t provide a primer on microeconomics here. When market forces are allowed to work, they always work. They don’t create utopia, but they produce a hugely better result everywhere at all times than bureaucrats. In my relatively free state just about anybody with a CDL can make $80k-$120k hauling drill pipe, etc. In fact, a family friend just started doing exactly that after years of hauling for a freight forwarder.
There are also lots of other kinds of unfilled jobs in the O & G industry that require little or no experience that pay very, very well. Markets are still working partially in the O & G industry, and the results are far better than in more heavily regulated industries.