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.
The driving rules aren’t the problem, it is the the fact that less and less of us are producing a taxable product or service, and we are getting more and more of our efforts stolen by the welfare class. It is the same for all self employed people. We are the canary in the mine, we are dying.
The entire economy is next — within one year.
I recommend you all watch “Dr. Zhivago” a few times to get used to what is coming.
Agree. I saw an old Buick Electra 225 (land yacht) that got t-boned by a loaded semi and it was literally as flat as if a car crusher did it. Cars and motorcycles don't win in that battle!
Not true. Drivers are limited to 11 hours of driving in a 14 hour period. After 10 hours logged in the sleeper, driving can commence. At 65 mph, 11 hours of driving equates to 715 miles. More if you are going cross country since you would have another 3 hours on the same day.
“The truckers have no freedom.”
What does being a trucker have to do with it? It seems we’re all under assault where liberty is concerned, and the assault on truckers IS an assault on us all.
Higher trucking costs equals higher prices for EVERYTHING.
We need to start defending everyone’s liberty, for our own liberty is only as safe as they guy standing next to us!
I drove a 40’ straight truck for year. Now you never see them on the road. I haven’t seen one in several years. So I guess a lot of that shelf shortage may be because it’s not feasible to use an 18 wheeler to haul a little toothpaste.
As for the people understanding, ha! A woman in L.A. was asked about trucks not bringing food to market and she said “I ain’t worried ‘bout dat. I gets my groceries at Kroger.” True story.
Are you a trucker?
First of all, you’re not going to average 65 miles an hour. If you do and you get stopped, you’re getting a ticket. Second, those time zones count against you.
One more thing, it’s 11 hours driving in a 24 hour period. You got 10 in the sleeper and 3 for meals, taking a shower or whatever.
He’s telling you the truth. The GPS stuff started around 2006. FEDEX pushed it. And if he has a partner, he has to split everything so he’s still not making any money.
I was bringing in as much as $10,000 a month then all of a sudden I wasn’t getting good runs. I’d sit and sit and then finally get a run of 200 miles. I saw the writin’ on the wall. I only drove for 10 months.
Snakebite, I had no idea about the rules for CDL license. I don’t drink but I guess I’d better get rid of it.
It’s true -
The new rules certainly are -
The new rules certainly are -
The company I worked for had one man working in dispatch no one could get along with. Me and him got into words one night over some mechanical problems I was trying to solve {head light relay}. He kept pushing and I'd been sitting all weekend after watching a promised load pull of the yard as I was pulling in. I told him the keys were at the fuel desk of the truck stop and caught a Dog home.
Increasing regulations and allowing Mexicans in to undercut American worker wages are hurting another industry.
Trucks and trailers are also being equipped with GPS systems that tell just about everything about how the equipment is being operated.
Now the boss can look over the driver’s shoulder as never before.
I sat for about 3 days after having been promised a load for over 1400 miles. I finally got a load for 200 miles and that couldn’t be unloaded until the next day. I called and told them that would be my last load.
You were a machinist’s mate on the America?
Not true...you have to log using the time of your base location.
Yea from 77-80 in A-Division and a couple of stints in Fire Department.
I had to really get my old brain to working to remember what a “snipe” was.
Machinist Mate, Machinery Repairman {actual machinist}, Boiler Tech, Electricans Mate, Interior Comuunications, Engineman, Gas Turbine Spec, and Hull Techs.
I thought the early ‘70s models of the Mercury Grand Marquis were land yachts, but the Buick Electra 225 is even bigger. Had the biggest back seat of that time period.
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