Why hiring more truck drivers won’t fix the shortage

Fox Business ^ | July 3, 2018

[2ndDivisionVet]

As the Trump administration considers alleviating a shortage of truck drivers by lowering the age requirement to 18 from 21, a truck industry leader said that would do little to solve the actual problem – retention.

“We’ve been hearing about a truck driver shortage for about 30 years now,” Todd Spencer, the owner-operate of the Independent Driver’s Association said during an interview with FOX Business’ Charles Payne. “What they’re really talking about is they have retention issues.”

According to the American Trucking Association, the industry was short more than 36,000 drivers in 2016, and estimated that number could surpass 63,000 in 2018, and 174,000 in 2026. The trade group attributes the driver shortage, in part, to a lack of qualified applicants that lack the desired experience or qualifications. But according to Spencer, the low pay and lack of benefits for truck drivers is what’s driving the lack of employees. Drivers are hired, but when there’s little pay-increase opportunities, they leave, he said.

“They’re adequate enough to attract people,” he said. “But not adequate enough to keep them.”(continued)

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

That figures, they did the same thing to the taxi industry in the 1980s when I lived in New york city. The drivers and the garage would split the days take 50/50. Then the garages (owners- usually multi-millionaires) decided they wanted a set lease - such as $120 a shift. Well if it’s a slow day and you only take in $121 well then guess what? The garage still gets their $120 and you go home with a dollar for 12 hours work which happened a LOT, so the old time taxi drivers started quitting in droves and were eventually replaced by the imported 3rd worlders who don’t mind making a buck a day. These are el primo examples of why the left wants wide open borders and no ICE, solely for cheap labor for their wealthy masters while the US citizen gets fcked over. If we could play that game with Congress, we’d have a wall 50 feet high by now

[ViLaLuz]

I noticed the shift on taxi drivers in the 80s, too. Thanks for explaining. Another fact he mentioned about the foreigners driving...they have no regard for traffic and transportation code and are dangerous on the road.