6 ms·

More evidence emerges that there is no trucker shortage, there's a pay shortage

52 points by ourmandave 5y ago

brokenmachine 5y ago
Sounds very similar to the problems in the Restaurant industry.
Gigachad 5y ago
That would seem obvious. Any shortage that lasts longer than the time to train new talent is a pay shortage. Otherwise they could have pulled some random people off the market and trained them if their pay was enticing.
cweagans 5y ago
Yeah. Just like every other job where there's a "shortage": it turns out that companies treat their employees (if they're even "lucky" enough to be considered employees) like shit and that makes people not want to do the job. John Oliver did a segment a couple days ago on some of the really awful, exploitative things in the trucking industry. It's worth watching.
- musicale 5y ago
  "Unfortunately Crapco is experiencing a major labor shortage of people who are willing to work at our company under awful working conditions, for minimal pay, with negligible benefits. We're doing everything we can to address this dire situation, short of improving working conditions, raising wages, or providing better benefits (laughable options which are obviously not something we could ever consider at Crapco.)"
josephcsible 5y ago
Are pay or conditions worse for drivers than they were in 2019? If not, then how can they possibly be the explanation for the massive shortage that didn't exist then?
- toomuchtodo 5y ago
  More jobs = better options = less people working shit jobs. Also, lower labor force participation rate due to deaths and retirements. John Oliver just did a video on the topic of how terrible being a truck driver is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phieTCxQRLA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phieTCxQRLA And The Guardian from a few months ago: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/dec/27/us-truck-drivers-economy-pay-conditions https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/dec/27/us-truck-dr... US BLS: https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2019/article/is-the-us-labor-market-for-truck-drivers-broken.htm?orgid=151#_ednref1 https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2019/article/is-the-us-labor-ma... ("Is the U.S. labor market for truck drivers broken?")
- msrenee 5y ago
  Fuel has gone up in price this year as well. If the pay per mile isn't matching the increase, that makes a big difference. Even before fuel shot up, the price of basic needs was increasing at a good clip, making it harder to make ends meet.
foxyv 5y ago
I watch a channel on Youtube called "Just Truckin" and he's been sitting on his hands a lot lately because brokers refuse to pay reasonable rates on freight. So his beautiful truck and trailer are just sitting doing nothing because there isn't a reason to haul a load just to break even. May as well spend time with his family. I think there are plenty of drivers out there. People are just getting savvy to the games companies are playing with them and refusing to participate for peanuts. If they pay enough and stop cheating and lying to people then they won't have any problems.
ipspam 5y ago
My understanding has been that the wait times have been increasing, and the pay hasn't been keeping pace. It's an inefficiency problem. "don’t cover the hours they can spend waiting at shippers and receivers."

52 points by ourmandave 5y ago

Sounds very similar to the problems in the Restaurant industry.

That would seem obvious. Any shortage that lasts longer than the time to train new talent is a pay shortage. Otherwise they could have pulled some random people off the market and trained them if their pay was enticing.

cweagans 5y ago

Yeah. Just like every other job where there's a "shortage": it turns out that companies treat their employees (if they're even "lucky" enough to be considered employees) like shit and that makes people not want to do the job. John Oliver did a segment a couple days ago on some of the really awful, exploitative things in the trucking industry. It's worth watching.

musicale 5y ago
"Unfortunately Crapco is experiencing a major labor shortage of people who are willing to work at our company under awful working conditions, for minimal pay, with negligible benefits. We're doing everything we can to address this dire situation, short of improving working conditions, raising wages, or providing better benefits (laughable options which are obviously not something we could ever consider at Crapco.)"

josephcsible 5y ago

Are pay or conditions worse for drivers than they were in 2019? If not, then how can they possibly be the explanation for the massive shortage that didn't exist then?

toomuchtodo 5y ago
More jobs = better options = less people working shit jobs. Also, lower labor force participation rate due to deaths and retirements. John Oliver just did a video on the topic of how terrible being a truck driver is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phieTCxQRLA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phieTCxQRLA And The Guardian from a few months ago: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/dec/27/us-truck-drivers-economy-pay-conditions https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/dec/27/us-truck-dr... US BLS: https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2019/article/is-the-us-labor-market-for-truck-drivers-broken.htm?orgid=151#_ednref1 https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2019/article/is-the-us-labor-ma... ("Is the U.S. labor market for truck drivers broken?")
msrenee 5y ago
Fuel has gone up in price this year as well. If the pay per mile isn't matching the increase, that makes a big difference. Even before fuel shot up, the price of basic needs was increasing at a good clip, making it harder to make ends meet.

foxyv 5y ago

I watch a channel on Youtube called "Just Truckin" and he's been sitting on his hands a lot lately because brokers refuse to pay reasonable rates on freight. So his beautiful truck and trailer are just sitting doing nothing because there isn't a reason to haul a load just to break even. May as well spend time with his family. I think there are plenty of drivers out there. People are just getting savvy to the games companies are playing with them and refusing to participate for peanuts. If they pay enough and stop cheating and lying to people then they won't have any problems.

ipspam 5y ago

My understanding has been that the wait times have been increasing, and the pay hasn't been keeping pace. It's an inefficiency problem. "don’t cover the hours they can spend waiting at shippers and receivers."