Trucking company CEO knows why there is a driver shortage

The potential driver pool is contaminated in Denver so bad some carriers have closed terminals while others max out new hires on pay on day one just to get warm bodies in a truck , R and L starts new hires out at five years on day one , according to a driver I spoke to in Wamsutter

 

For what it's worth......


Training standards have fallen to a astronomical low. Electronic nanny devices are dumbing down the "steering wheel holder", not to mention the "auto only" on class-A licenses.

The professionalism is being sucked out of the industry.
The younger generation don't want to hear from a "dinosaur from years gone by".
It's a shame what the corporation types are pushing into the industry not to mention the government.

Just a couple penny's of thought left on the floor.

 

The industry is lousy with jobs that are three weeks out and three days off for less than 50k. Who wants to pay 1400 a month rent in Denver so they can come home a few days a month and live like they have a Mc job?

 

The answer to your question is being investigated by scientists to attempt to find a method of testing for the high from pot use, instead of the metabolites from pot use....so, as soon as researchers come up with that solution, testing for impairment could be done on the same basis as alcohol. Right now it is not possible to chemically test for whether a person is high from pot, as the current technology tests for pot use, not the high. But perhaps the scientists are busy searching for a cure for cancer and other diseases.

But it will still be up to the trucking companies to decide what testing they will use.
The Feds dont require hair testing for pot, yet companies do that....you cant blame that on the Feds or DOT!!! So what is the real reason companies do hair testing???

What happens when an impaired driver kills someone? The company will pay 10 million or more, based on what a jury decides. If multiple deaths, then 20 or 30 million. I have been on a personal injury jury, and they will decide on a 10 million dollar per person verdict as a minimum amount, in the blink of an eye.

If a company does not do all they can to prevent a high driver from killing someone, the jury could double or triple that amount. Juries are going to make a company pay through the nose if a high driver kills or injures someone.

I believe companies will be forced to continue doing whatever testing they can do, to protect the company from going broke if they cant afford a multi-million dollar payout from a high driver causing an accident.

So the issue is not testing, or drug classification.....the issue is impaired driving and the resulting consequences. You need to convince the trucking company you wont be an impaired driver, not the Feds or DOT.....they are the ones hiring drivers, not the Feds or DOT.

 

That's Reasonable-
And it makes me wonder how guys that cant at LEAST average that survive in a typical Lifestyle.

$70k per year (or more) should be adequate income for company drivers with experience,Not including benefits..

How do I figure that?

Average monthly mortgage (I take averages throughout the country) $1200.00
Average monthly utilities- $400.00
Car payments (1-2 vehicles) $800.00
Groceries $600.00
Savings-Self induced retirement $600.00
Things in Life that occur $1000.00 (Kids needing things-Repairs to home-Holidays-Vacations)

Totals $4600.00 PER MONTH

Of Course these figures can be much Higher or Lower- But a good average here.

So a $70 k gross salary should raise a family of 4, Without Needing a second Income.

What I mean by that is Truck Drivers Forcing their better half to get a job.

To Live life comfortably- A Family should NOT have to rely on 2 incomes- (Learned this back in the 70's and 80's)

Now,We are talking Company positioned Truck Drivers

 

We cannot actually compare the operation of UPS and FedEx Ground to the operation of most of the OTR operation of most trucking companies. Your drivers, I am sure, are doing a "meet and turn" deal. They are getting paid for 99% of what they do. They are not sitting at a shipper or receiver, they are not "hunting" for a place to park to enable them to be in compliance with the HOS. Your drivers have the "cream" and not the "buttermilk".

 

Arkansas passed a medical pot last year on ballot. The dispensaries become active for cash only in 2019 sometime.

Generally if you are on a medical pot card with a sub set of official diagnosis that call for it you are already too sick to be a DOT medical card holder in trucking. Pot is not my flavor I experimented with it as a kid decades ago and frankly it's something I don't care for at all.

Your eyes is the first indicator of you being high on something. When it bounces trying to track a light moved side to side and up and down, you are high. If it is tracking very smooth and your balance plus time count against 30 seconds mentally is very important. If you complete the 30 seconds in only 10 real time seconds, you are high. Or the other way taking much longer than 30 to count out 30. If your balance is gone, excluding actual medical evidence such as for me a broken bone you are high. That's roadside. They will take your blood within two hours. It will be a while, but with you under detention, there is no hurry with suspected DUI's In addition in Arkansas you have lost the vehicle you are driving. Hopefully it's yours and paid off. Otherwise you are stuck with it. (The balance owed) or will have to buy a relative another vehicle etc. You will not be getting that vehicle back, whatever it was you were in.

I hate to be difficult, but that is what we go by here in Arkansas. The fines and so forth add up close to 10,000 and so forth among other penalties. It is a punitive system designed to make sure that people are not stupid and blaze before driving.

And to consider that for 18 wheeler work? No. I stand against it. I don't care if Uncle Sam took it off Schedule one and you can pop or smoke it all in that tractor trailer. It's not going to make for a good future for anyone.

There was a driver in the rain in Ohio not long ago, his auto transmission made a shift in error and applied too much horses to his drives. Spun them out and caused him to yaw just a little bit. He corrected it instantly and properly. If your system is slowed by the pot in reflex (Which it will be) you have a proper jackknife on your hands. The next time that driver encounters rain in a terrain situation like that he will hold the tractor in manual so it wont apply more than what it will use to keep moving forward.

Im a little older and that little bit of yaw in the video needed to be a little more drastic before I do anything due to age. Younger people are quick of mind and nerve. If there is nothing to slow them down. Much quicker. Even in drawing against the shotclock, Im already dead by the time a round leaves my gun. So I have to be ahead of them.

Drugs will just slow that down.

Now if you want to wake up a sleepyhead, use amp type medicine. That will work for a while and if you put too much, that person will shake head to toe and be unable to do certain tasks. Example drawing a spiral on paper. If you tried to draw a spiral with a flawed nervous system you will see spikes of V's going to the center of the spiral or to the outer edge. That means your body is not doing well at rest. And you will need to be more rested before you do important things like driving.

 

Trucks parked on an on ramp is not really a good argument to explain why there isn't a driver shortage. That just means some states and territories are more congested that others. Now you're latter point, a shortage of experienced drivers, that's will buy.

 

My milk hauling company I pull for started their own CDL company to train drivers for expansion about 10 months ago.

Only a couple of the students still remain

Many found out trucking wasn’t for them

Of my class I went to last year with a major carrier me and one other guy out of us 12 are the only ones driving