Posted on 06/26/2012 3:19:11 PM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
BATON ROUGE, LA - Delayed deliveries and high unemployment - nationwide, truck companies say a shortage of 18-wheeler drivers is taking a toll. Drivers say they're looking for work but new government regulations are preventing them from being hired.
Most companies are looking for experienced drivers with clean driving records. That's becoming harder to find according to Don McMahan, who's been driving for 17 years.
"Little tickets, we used to get just warnings. Warnings go on our work record now, on our history now," McMahan said.
He says the Department of Transportation has adopted new safety laws, meaning truckers are getting more tickets than ever for things like having a tail light out or not wearing a seat belt. McMahan says the law now says truckers must use hands-free devices inside their cabs. He says if they are caught on a cell phone, the driver is fined $2,750 and the company they work for could face fines of up to $11,000.
"Because of the added government regulations companies are looking at hiring students," Cummins said. "They know that job is there for them, the shortage isn't going away anytime soon. So their prospects for future careers are great."
That is, if companies are willing to take the risk on new drivers.
One other factor for driving vacancies - older truckers are retiring, and with new laws on how long a trucker can be on the road, some of those newer drivers are often unwilling to be long-distance-drivers.
(Excerpt) Read more at wafb.com ...
Since tax revenues are way down due to the economy, many states are trying to help make up the difference through traffic fines. The easiest marks for these speed trap states are out of state truckers - they don’t vote in the state in question and have to pay up to pursue their livlihood. Thus, truckers are getting absolutely hammered and many are losing their jobs as a result thereof.
How can this be true when Obama, Pelosi, and Reid assured us that government regulations don’t kill jobs? It must be bitter clingers blaming the government for their inability to get a job, not over-regulation and towns using frivolous tickets as a revenue source.
More and more Obama regulations which are putting our brave truckers out of work for simply not wearing a seatbelt ot texting while driving. The truckers have no freedom.
More and more Obama regulations which are putting our brave truckers out of work for simply not wearing a seatbelt ot texting while driving. The truckers have no freedom.
This situation is even worse for independents. I have 3 members of my family who sold out and gave it up (one was in tears). They loved the life, but between regulations, fuel costs and insurance, it’s become impossible to make a living.
All part of the plan.
When the shelves are bare, when you can’t get necessary equipment, the peasants will look to the Feds to save them. They will gladly take on the yoke of slavery, rather than starve.
Government has been trying to push trucking into the “Jobs American’s won’t do” category for better than a decade.
Including allowing scary Mexican 18 wheelers to drive our highways. Have you seen any of these? Looks like they will fall apart at any moment. But they have been "safety checked" before being allowed to drive here. Riight!
Who wants a job where you are looking over your houlder all the time? Harassed for petty stuff? Or made ineligible for failure to comply with some minute regulation.
I foresee more accidents.
I also foresee the feds allowing trucks from Mexico to ride the roads unimpeded.
One reason I won’t get a CDL, every little ticket counts against you. I work with a woman whose husband has a CDL. He was on a M/C trip to California and got a parking ticket. I mentioned since he is out of state, he can ignore the parking ticket but she mentioned that you can’t do that with a CDL.
I know under current interstate compacts, out of state parking tickets cannot be used to suspend your license at home and also cannot get your registration denied or suspended. But also what a lot of municipalities are doing is going after your credit.
Drivers can only drive 500 miles per day which isn’t enough to pay their bills. The gummit has forced them off the roads.
Pray for America
Don’t kid yourself. The French Revolution was a socialist one and Catholic priests and religious were executed in the public square.
I thought the hubby was mistaken because the law made no sense to me. He pulled up the regulation and proved he was right. Having .02 BAL in his own car would result in a DUI arrest and cause him to be fired from his job.I sadly agreed that he should not risk losing his job just to keep a license he might need someday.Just another example of how stupid the regulators are. Nobody approves of drunk driving but they have made the laws so over-the-top it no longer feels like the government works for us.
Yet mexican trucks can enter without any problem.
My son gave it a try. The days of double log books are over. Everything is GPS monitored. With speed limits, mandatory down time, etc he found he couldn’t make money as a solo driver.
Don’t know if it is true, but that is what he told me.
California is really bad. They’d rather you died of heatstroke or froze to death overnight than let the truck idle with the heat or A/C on.
I live 100 miles north of the border.
Not only have I seen them, I’ve been run off the road by them, had windshield cracked from gravel falling off a CEMEX truck.
Been disabled for 10 years now. The hardest thing I have ever done was give up that CDL license this year but all of my endorsements cost me over 80 bucks and being on fixed income and no hope of ever driving a rig again it was a cost that I could not justify. I taught a CDL class for years. My son now runs the road here on the east coast running frozen food. No way in hell he can run legal and make money. He’s doing a bit better than 50K a year but gone from Sunday night to Friday night. Been trying to get him a local job where he is home every night but they dont pay enough.
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