Truckers also get abused by their employers who demand that they obey speed limits while giving them delivery deadlines that require both speeding and skipping breaks and required sleep breaks. Thus there’s a huge turnover in the industry because not even immigrants are willing to work under such abusive conditions.
I stopped driving because the company stopped giving me long hauls where I could actually make some money. What killed it was FedEx pushing for GPS in every truck. Now there’s no way to cheat the log book. And that’s the only way you can make a decent living.
I work in the Trucking Industry. Drivers are sometimes “abused” by their employers, but no more than any other sector of the job market. As far as “speeding”, few (if any) carriers have their trucks set for going anything past 65mph. The penalties for “skipping breaks” is very high for both Drivers and the companies they work for. Any Driver who is breaking his Hours of Service regulations is taking their job in their hands, as the company will not tolerate it. Every company I have worked for dispatches their trucks at 48mph, meaning they only expect the Driver to move 480 miles in 10 hours.
The biggest reason there is a shortage of Drivers is very simple, low pay. If you had to support TWO households, what would it take for you to live on? Even living on the cheap out on the road will cost you $20 a day minimum (if you don’t smoke). The advertisements for “$60,000 a year” are for a Driver that never goes home. Drivers today expect to be home every couple of weeks, and will spend 3 or 4 days off when they are home.
The physical impact of Driving over the road is one of the least considered aspects of the job. Never sleeping at the same time every day, never eating at the same time (not to mention the poor diet choices), and the sedentary lifetsyle are killers. In all my years in this industry, its very rare to see a Driver who could be considered healthy. And forget about the hype about “seeing the country”. If it isn’t within 50 yards or so of the highway or truckstop you won’t see it. And your schedule rarely permits you the time to stop and see anything even if that place has truck parking.
Most Trucking companies consider themselves lucky to have a less than 100% turnover rate yearly, Drivers are always changing companies, it has been that way for as long as I can remember. Company loyalty is not a concept Drivers understand, and I will agree that few companies take any measures to cultivate it.
“Thus there’s a huge turnover in the industry because not even immigrants are willing to work under such abusive conditions”
I’ve heard the same thing for the past several years from drivers themselves.
Plus, drug tests ~ with the proliferation of drugs more and more young people are writing themselves right out of this occupation.
The comments below the article are very interesting. Worth reading.
Yeah, most people outside the industry have no clue about what’s going on in it. The government played a big part in creating one more job “Americans won’t do”.
Diabetes? Not gonna be a truck driver.
High blood pressure? Not gonna be a truck driver.
Trouble sleeping? Not gonna be a truck diver.
People think $60 thousand is decent money but its not so much when you pay to live on the road and at home. It comes down to minimum wage type money spread over far more hours away from home. I have a friend who quit diving and became a cargo pilot because it was less restrictive than trucking.
“Truckers also get abused by their employers who demand that they obey speed limits while giving them delivery deadlines that require both speeding and skipping breaks...”
You are 100 percent correct. This is the problem.
Thus there’s a huge turnover in the industry because not even immigrants are willing to work under such abusive conditions.
You answered your second statement with the first.
The "high turnover" is caused by drivers voting with their feet and going to better companies.
Drivers are in constant contact with their peers and seek the best pay-conditions-equipment they can get.
Not to mention peeing in a bottle while driving down the road.
And most force them to keep double DOT books to drive outside the limits.
Awhile back, he was routed off an Interstate heading into north western New York state, because it was/was becoming a toll road.
It was already snowing.
Then it was a snowstorm.
After two-and-a-half hours in the snowstorm, on a two-lane country road that constantly went up hill and down hill, he made the final turn onto the route where the client's receiving docks were located.
Four miles later he saw the neon signs for the client's location.
He also saw signs pointing to a junction with the same Interstate he had been instructed to leave. The exit/on-ramps for it turned out to be a quarter mile from the client.
If he were a much more experienced driver, and if he was being paid more, for that experience or any reason, he could have sucked it up and paid for the tolls himself, and arrived sooner at the client. In his financial situation, he takes the expense “savings” the company demands, even though it makes the trip harder, for him.
One has to wonder if the “savings” on tolls is essential to the profitability and competitiveness of his company.