Posted on 08/03/2018 7:32:32 AM PDT by mac_truck
Some 500,000 nonlocal, for-hire truckers are delivering freight in the U.S., and the industry needs 51,000 more, experts say.
The average driver is 50 years old, and only 6 percent are women.
Trucking companies including Saia, Titanium Transportation, ArcBest and Ryder System have all noted wage increases for drivers on recent earnings calls as the shortage worsens.
Trucks hauled more than 70 percent of freight tonnage in the U.S. last year, generating $676 billion in revenues, according to the American Trucking Associations. But the industry is grappling with a growing problem — a shortage of qualified drivers, as its current workforce ages and the labor market continues to tighten.
"We have more freight than we know what to do with, but in order to haul that freight, you've got to have more drivers — trucks don't drive themselves," said Bob Costello, the association's chief economist. "We have a couple of demographics problems in the industry — we have a high average age of the current truck drivers. We need to do a better job to get females in as truck drivers. The supply side is tight as well."
The crunch is being felt in industries from construction to retail as the labor shortage's ripple effect grows.
C.R. England, a Salt Lake City-based trucking company, works with big companies like Nestle and Walmart and employs some 6,500 drivers, but Chairman Dan England said it could use 500 more.
"It's frustrating for us not to be able to meet the goals we have set in terms of growth. … We do have to disappoint customers on a regular basis. Every day we have many loads that are called in, we just can't answer the calls and put a truck there," said England, whose company has been in his family for four generations.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
"Take ‘em anyway. if you wait for life to cooperate you’ll never get in he air ;)(freedumb2003)
My youngest (18 yrs old) granddaughter just got her pilots license...Just in time before she goes off to college as a freshman...It was particularly impressive of her since she is a competition figure skater with the goal of the next winter Olympics...
Both achievements impress me.
I have 0 athletic ability.
Semi autonomous truck trains are available or nearly available now. That would make each driver 2-5 times more productive.
“That’s the biggest problem in hiring people for damn near anything”
Yea, but think of putting a pot head in a $160K tractor, pulling a $75K trailer with somebody else’s product on the trailer. Talk about liability.
Because there isn’t any good new trucker songs any more.
Six days on the road.
Teddy Bear
Roll on 18 Wheeler
Convoy
I’ve Been Everywhere
18 Wheels and a Dozen Roses
Girl on the Billboard
Eastbound and Down
Give me 40 Acres
Truckin’
Me and Bobby McGee
On the Road Again
40 Miles of Bad Road
Giddy Up Go
How Fast Them Trucks Can Go
The Bandit
Thank God for the Radio
Big Wheels in the Moonlight
Truck Driving Queen
Truck Driving Man
Roll Truck Roll
Teddy Bear’s Last Ride
Momma Knows the Highway
Long Long Texas Road
500 Miles
Phantom 309
Truck Drivin’ Son of A Gun
Diesel on my Tail
A Tombstone Every Mile
Looking at the World through a Windshield
Freightliner Fever
Giddy Up and Go Answer
Truck Driver’s Prayer
Long Lonesome Road
I’m a Roadhammer
Keep On Truckin’
Truck Drivin’ Buddy
Truck driver’s blues
Rubber Duck
Are you playing dumb?
You interjected that my comparison was “apples to oranges”.
I stated the inaccuracy of your claim. (If you don’t know what a Non Sequitur is, try Googling.) And I demonstrated the inaccuracy of your claim with a cogent reason.
Now, if you had said “Apples to Androids,” that would be another matter.
Your replies make you sound like a bot. You are in danger of flunking the Turing Test.
Are you playing dumb?
You interjected that my comparison was “apples to oranges”.
I stated the inaccuracy of your claim. (If you don’t know what a Non Sequitur is, try Googling.) And I demonstrated the inaccuracy of your claim with a cogent reason.
Now, if you had said “Apples to Androids,” that would be another matter.
Your replies make you sound like a bot. You are in danger of flunking the Turing Test.
I'm now making much more than I did with the crooked company, but I remember the truck driving schools I interviewed with telling me that they welcomed older drivers not only because they drove more responsibly, but because most of them would retire once self-driving trucks came on line.
Sorry, but just google 5G and driverless cars. Looks for the Forbes article or any other tech articles. Driverless vehicles are waiting for 5G.
Sorry, I was not wrong.
Not all products enhanced by technology makes all such products the same, nor their industries and their market forces the same.
You’d try to equate the history of cell phones with driverless cars, as if merely because technology is behind them they have the same predictable pattern as to how far they will go.
But cell phones and driverless cars are not the same, and neither are their industries and the market forces behind them.
Yours was an apples to oranges comparison.
Sometime you should examine all the cool technology that has died.
IIRC, the local school district is offering to pay school bus drivers $13/hour. Then they wonder why they can’t find anyone to hire.
I could and would drive a garbage truck, but they’d have to pay me more than they are willing. Supply and demand.
“You’d try to equate the history of cell phones with driverless cars, as if merely because technology is behind them they have the same predictable pattern as to how far they will go... But cell phones and driverless cars are not the same, and neither are their industries and the market forces behind them... Yours was an apples to oranges comparison.”
The reason “apples and oranges” sounds like a bot statement is because it is a generic phrase that could be used as a retort to ANY comparison or analogy. After all, there are times when it might be reasonable to compare apples with oranges. They are both fruits.
If you return to the original analogy in post #44, you should find that you have incorrectly assessed my comparison. I not addressing the possibility or probability of self-driving cars gaining widespread acceptance. I was certainly not addressing the capabilities of the technology, as the technology for self-driving cars exists TODAY. There is no 10+ years to wait. What I was comparing is the time frame from the existence of the first smart phone to have commercial success until their widespread use. Today almost everyone has a smart phone—something that did not even exist a short time ago.
Likewise, hardly anyone has a self-driving car. Eventually they will be commonplace. The only question is how long this will take. I responded to the suggestion of 10+ years as an interesting hypothesis that would not be unlike the case of smart phones. I certainly do not dispute the distinctions you’ve drawn between the two markets. However, I think you greatly underestimate their similarity.
I think your argument would be correct if I was claiming that the price, energy requirements, and performance capabilities of cars (from a mechanical and functional standpoint) would follow a similar trajectory as computers. That truly would be an apples and oranges comparison. But today’s cars have computer systems and functions that are more related to the capabilities of those computers, such as speed control, lane management, collision avoidance, and GPS for navigation. With LIDAR we are already very close to fully autonomous cars. The real question is about the widespread adoption of the technology.
There are a lot of people who don’t like the idea of self-driving cars. But what people like, at least as individuals, will not dictate whether this happens and how long it takes to do so.
“Likewise, hardly anyone has a self-driving car. Eventually they will be commonplace.”
Again, you think the time frames have some automatic expedition of following the same trajectory of adoption. Again, it is not the fact that “technology” is common to cell phones and driverless cars that will somehow mandate their adoptions will take similar some trajectories. THAT cannot be stated with any assurance.
Even that idea - cell phones had a certain trejectory of adoption and so will driverless cars - IS another apples vs oroanges analogy, BECAUSE, as I said, having a technology base does not automatically mean anything about their adoption, and there are numerous differences in both their product markets and their industries.
I predict that “driverless cars” will go the way of the very early electric cars - a thought to be “cool” idea that will die on the vine. Why? The mass market will not materialize.
“I certainly do not dispute the distinctions you’ve drawn between the two markets. However, I think you greatly underestimate their similarity.”
Embedded similar “technology” does not make them similar products, and does not change how dissimilar are their markest or their industries. To me, those last two itmes make all comparisons that they are “similar” non sequiturs.
“There are a lot of people who don’t like the idea of self-driving cars. But what people like, at least as individuals, will not dictate whether this happens and how long it takes to do so.”
Sorry, what people like (are willing to buy) WILL determine the adoption trajectory. Remember, the Edsel was maybe the finest car designed in its era - it flopped. Frankly, I think MOST, not merely “a lot” of people have no interest im cars doing the driving for them.
“Even that idea - cell phones had a certain trejectory of adoption and so will driverless cars - IS another apples vs oroanges analogy, BECAUSE, as I said, having a technology base does not automatically mean anything about their adoption, and there are numerous differences in both their product markets and their industries.”
The difference between the two things I compared only FAVOR more rapid adoption of self-driving technology. Smart phones created a new market that the average person did not even see the need for. Self-driving cars will address needs for greater safety, efficiency, convenience, and cost savings of an EXISTING market. No theories needed.
“I predict that ‘driverless cars’ will go the way of the very early electric cars - a thought to be ‘cool’ idea that will die on the vine. Why? The mass market will not materialize.”
First, there is a distinction between self-driving cars and “driverless cars”. There are already many self-driving cars on the road today. They generally operate with some degree of autonomy even though most are designed to have a human in the “driver’s seat”.
We have many companies investing in the technology that makes fully autonomous vehicles possible now. The biggest hurdle is regulation. Neither electric cars nor self-driving cars are going to “die on the vine”.
This seems to be an emotional issue for you. If so, that makes your predictions, assumptions, and logic highly suspect as biased. What happens in the area of self-driving cars is not up to you or me. It is not a matter of what you want to happen. It is a matter of how various forces and trends converge to produce an outcome.
The ability of AI to carry out functions which have always been in the human domain is not some future, theoretical aspiration. This is happening daily. More and more human capabilities will be carried out by computers. And controlling transportation vehicles is one of the things AI will become very good at.
Cost and safety will result in widespread adoption. Sooner or later, humans driving cars will seem as outdated as using an abacus for inventory management. Whether the time frame is 10 years, 20, or more, I do not know. I suspect the 10-15 year range is a very reasonable prediction. Could be sooner or later.
As I’ve said on earlier posts, the silly prediction of self-driving technology going away reminds me of a computer-consulting business owner I once did some work for in the early 90s. I told him he needed to get his business online, and he replied that he thought the Internet was a fad.
Sorry, I have been in the IT field since the 70s and have ssen more technology that was new and innovative die on the vine than you can imagine. This - driverless cars - will be another one. The markets for it will not sustain it from an early wave point to mass market, and without that mass market most early wave stuff dies.
Wow, rising wages are reported as a coming economic catastrophe. The BS is getting thick.
LOL! By an infinitesimal unnoticeable tiny fraction. The cost of fuel is more important to costs than paying the drive a couple, of bucks an hour more.....
Pay more and you will get a better quality job applicant.
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