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Walmart truckers to start at $95k a year
- lampshades 5y agoIf that Wall Street Journal documentary about supply chains on YouTube is anything to go by, I expect this to continue to rise.
- rsanek 5y agoThis one? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KtTAb9Tl6E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KtTAb9Tl6E
- lampshades 5y agoYup, that is the one.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- elihu 5y agoJohn Oliver did a video a few days ago [1] about some of the problems that truckers face. I can see where having an employer and a fixed salary, even if it's from Walmart, might be preferable to having to deal being an independent trucker. Among the things that independent truckers have to put up with is that if they show up to pick up or drop off a load and it isn't ready, they just have to sit there and wait, and they're not compensated for their time. If we're looking at industry practices in need of reform, that would be one. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phieTCxQRLA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phieTCxQRLA
- bushbaba 5y agoReforming would also improve our supply chain efficiency
- irrational 5y agoJust putting a rail line between the port of long beach and the warehouse where everything is delivered to would tremendously help things.
- throwaway0a5e 5y agoThat rail line would need to go through a union and that would be complicated. Probably cheaper to build a port from scratch in Baha and build a rail line to there than fight that fight.
- zdragnar 5y agoIt is much the same in any industry that's a mix of independents and salaried folk. I write code for a living, and genuinely would not want to freelance or work short contracts. OTOH some associates I respect wouldn't want it any other way.
- ethbr0 5y agoThere's also the driver being liable for the safety of the trailer they pick up, even though they've never seen it before they get to the yard, and the other parties (who are not liable) have every incentive to pressure the driver to just pull aged, unsafe equipment.
- selecsosi 5y agoAnother discussion recently RE: issues with trucking coming from someone w/ experience in the industry that I thought was insightful (unironically covering main talking points of Oliver's segment) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30813331 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30813331
- throw7 5y agoWell, since this topic popped into my front page this also just happened locally to me: "Amazon tractor-trailer crashed into five other vehicles on the Thruway" https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/thruway-crash-albany-schenectady-17064091.php https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/thruway-crash-albany...
- riffic 5y agoI'm picturing in my head a tractor-trailer driving itself, if I were to take the headline at its literal phrasing with no mention of any involved drivers. EDIT: Journalists should be upholding a certain amount of integrity when reporting facts. Assigning agency to vehicles who can not make decisions is not what I have in my mind concerning journalistic integrity. You people like to downvote things when it conflicts with your view of the world so please continue to inflict downvotes upon me in exchange for the cognitive dissonance I've inflicted upon you. I'm used to it by now. The truck did not crash itself into five vehicles, an operator did.
- dwighttk 5y ago“crashed into” is different from “crashed itself into”
- kevin_thibedeau 5y agoIt's better than calling them "accidents" as a result of non-accidental negligence.
- hindsightbias 5y agoThat’s just going to be a lot of 1 star reviews for late delivery.
- smegsicle 5y agothat's just one truck- they dealt with a lot more during the blm riots
- stjohnswarts 5y ago
- bryanlarsen 5y agoAfter watching Last Week Tonight talk about the multitude of ways that companies screw truckers, I wonder what asterisks are beside this salary number? Is that a straight salary number, or is it before expenses, or are there unpaid waiting hours, etc?
- nomel 5y agoI wonder if that includes commercial insurance? A quick google search says it's around 16k/year for a new driver [1]. I guess it makes sense, but wow! 1. https://www.forerunnerinsurance.com/what-does-average-semi-truck-insurance-costs-for-owner-operators/ https://www.forerunnerinsurance.com/what-does-average-semi-t...
- specialp 5y agoThat is for owner operators (people that own their own truck and pick up loads by contract). Walmart you are working for and insured by them. That is why they pay well and demand experience and a clean record. Lawsuits due to driver error cost a lot. Tracy Morgan was seriously injured in an accident with a Walmart truck and got 10 million dollar settlement from Walmart
- Aunche 5y agoThe main catch with Walmart is that you need a pristine driving record and can fire you for any small mistake.
- s0rce 5y agoDepending on what and how far a trucker hauls, the national median salaries range from as little as $40,000 to more than $264,000, I checked the source for that and it seems in all areas the $264k is from "Big Ass Freight and its just one number. Thats not a median salary. Actually presenting the median salaries for different distances traveled would be way more useful...
- throwawayboise 5y agoSpecialty, hazmat, oversized loads are the higher-paying jobs. Drivers need more training, experience, and licensing, that is why they command higher pay.
- bombcar 5y agoYeah, the pay for truckers qualified to move spent nuclear reactors for Uncle Sam is a bit higher than those qualified to move plastic crap for Sam Walton.
- maxerickson 5y agoWalmart requires their drivers to have a hazardous materials endorsement.
- sarchertech 5y agoI worked for a startup that sourced truckers for a while. Yeah that $264k number is completely unrealistic. It’s like saying that custodians can make $200k a year because there is some insane hazardous materials custodian job at a lab in the arctic. They also probably got it by taking something like peak monthly earning for an ice road driver and extrapolating without accounting for seasonality and expenses (or only partially accounting for them).
- truffdog 5y agoBART cleaning arguably involves insanely hazardous materials- https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/bart-janitor-made-270k-in-pay-and-benefits-last-year-report/2010727/ https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/bart-janitor-made-270k...
- zach_garwood 5y ago> “I have nothing against investment bankers. They could all retire and nothing much would change. [Truckers] all quit, everything comes to a halt,” President Joe Biden said this week at a White House event... I don't agree with the president on much, but I share this sentiment.
- throwawayboise 5y agoIt's nonsense of course, if investment bankers were unnecessary, they woudn't have jobs.
- YokoZar 5y ago> It's nonsense of course, if investment bankers were unnecessary, they woudn't have jobs. By this logic, con artists are necessary.
- quxbar 5y agoAs are landlords.
- Ekaros 5y agoI actually argue that landlords are relatively useful. Having to look for realtor to sell and buy property each time you move even for short term would be lot worse. And how could those without enough savings like students go anywhere?
- lostapathy 5y agoOf a short time horizon, he's absolutely right though. If investment bankers all went on strike for a month, civilization would carry on. If all truck drivers went on strike for a month, it'd be a catastrophe.
- willis936 5y agoParasites are considered living organisms.
- riffic 5y agoThis is such a physically demanding and brutally unsafe job so this is what I'd expect it to pay considering its hazards. It is not for everyone however.
- hotpotamus 5y agoPhysically demanding? How many truckers do you know? It is among the most dangerous jobs in the US though; that's true of basically all transportation jobs.
- riffic 5y agoyou do know that being seated for long periods of time is tremendously unhealthy, right? It's also a stressful environment with a lot of unhealthy road food options. I don't imagine truckers living a very healthy lifestyle, but that could just be my own internal biases showing.
- hotpotamus 5y agoSo is smoking, but I wouldn't call it physically demanding.
- riffic 5y agoYou got me there.
- goldenkey 5y agoCan we be literate here? Smoking might not increase one's physique like physical labor -- but it still puts demands on your lungs, heart, and the rest of your body. The same thing goes with sitting for prolonged periods of time. On the same note, the people in Mr. Beast's videos who had to keep their hand touching something for as long as possible (1 million dollars, or a sports car, etc.) literally have to sign waivers because of the bodily harm that kind of "hahaha" stuff can cause if an individual pushes it too far.
- dcchambers 5y agoOn the one hand, I think trucking can be a very lucrative career right now. On the other hand, I think long haul trucking will be one of, if not the first job to be 100% replaced by self-driving vehicles. Trucking is limited almost entirely by the driver. Endurance (practically, but also legally) and stops for bathroom/food/gas, stops to sleep, etc. A self driving truck can go nonstop (gas/battery stops notwithstanding) for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Interstates and major highways will be the first roads that we see lots of automated driving on, as it's the easiest type of driving (no cross traffic, pedestrians, traffic lights, etC) and easy to map. I think there may always be a demand for highly skilled truck drivers (oversize and dangerous loads, navigating tight streets in the "last mile" of delivery, etc) but the folks pulling loads from oceanside ports to Walmart warehouses in the middle of the country are probably are among the first to get replaced. It's also absolutey awful for your health. Full working days of sitting - you could say the same for office workers, but they have the ability to stand and stretch or go on small walks (eg to get water/coffee/bathroom break) as often as they need. Horrible food options on the road - mainly fast food and drinks full of sugar and caffeine. Little to no means to exercise. Hard to have a family or establish roots. So yeah, in the short term you could make some good money, but I just don't see it as a long term career for a multitude of reasons.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- teeray 5y ago> 100% replaced by self-driving vehicles In warm climates, yes, I’m sure it will. I’m more doubtful of this happening in snow country though.
- rrrrrrrrrrrryan 5y ago70% of the world lives in places where it never snows, and a full half of the U.S. population never experiences snow at home. "Self-driving cars can't expand to snowy areas" is a strange criticism of the business model.
- cowvin 5y agoThe rise of self driving technology seems to be coming at a very convenient time. For example: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/06/aurora-aur-werner-enterprises-wern-self-driving-trucks-in-texas.html https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/06/aurora-aur-werner-enterprise...
- LAC-Tech 5y agoI've got a lot of respect for truck drivers - they violate the road rules a lot less than your average car driver - especially w.r.t not going over the center line, your average pickup truck driver is much worse.
- conradev 5y agoI've also seen them enforce the road rules! I was stuck in traffic on the PA turnpike, and some pickups were shooting down the shoulder to pass everyone. A truck moved over to straddle the shoulder to stop it.
- LAC-Tech 5y agopickups are in a kind of uncanny valley - they're big enough that drivers have noticeable difficulty handling them, but not big enough to warrant needing separate training like you do with big trucks in most jurisdictions.
- eggsmediumrare 5y agoI think additional licensing for pickup trucks is a fantastic idea.
- foogazi 5y agoIsn’t that illegal ?
- lostapathy 5y agoYes. At least most places. And what's worse, truckers often enforce their "rules" that aren't really laws. Like preventing zipper merges, which are proven to improve throughput when they are allowed to happen properly.
- brandonmenc 5y agoI have seen plenty of people in cars going out of their way to prevent zipper merges.
- zarkov99 5y agoGood. Nice to see blue collar jobs offer a decent living.
- dwighttk 5y agoAre axios articles written by a neural network? Whatever that was was failing the Turing test.
- stjohnswarts 5y agoThey do a lot of articles in bullet point form. You just have to get used to it or not use Axios. I didn't have any problem seeing what they were getting at.
- gossamer 5y agoThe investment banker doesn't have to pay all the expenses involved in maintaining an 18 wheeler. That can add up to quite a bit, with a bit of bad luck.
- TedShiller 5y agoIt's called inflation
- py_or_dy 5y agoI can't help but feel like the "software industry" is in a slow decline (or race to the bottom). Back in 2007 before I even knew how to "program", I was a linux admin at a small start up. We found someone that we trusted enough to build us a basic webpage. But he wanted $75 per hour. Couldn't find anyone else so bit the bullet. It was written in php, took the guy a few weeks to do, and we paid him somewhere between $3k and $5k for the work. For the other side of our business (our actual product, taking GPS coordinates via SMS and displaying on top of a google maps like interface), same thing, we could only find one other person that we actually trusted to build our actual product. But he wanted $75 an hour. We bit the bullet. Two weeks go by and and he shows us a mostly working demo. A back end Ruby script writing the SMS to a mysql DB, and a Rails app displaying the coordinates with mapnik. Another week later and he is finished and invoices us for $16,000. I was in college at the time and couldn't wait to graduate and start rolling in money. I mean, these two programmers didn't even have degrees and I was about to have one. That meant I could do the same thing only charge $100 an hour right? My first "IT" job out of college I made $54k a year. After three years I got my first promotion to $64k but quit a few months later. Did a couple of 1099 contracts at $50 an hour over a year. Got hired by Apex and sent to AT&T for $35 an hour. Did that for a year and then back to 1099 contracts again. This time at $55 an hour. Moving on up! After 4 years of that, quit cold turkey and figured with 10 years of experience now under my belt that I could easily find some better contracts or full time work. 22 months and 110 interviews later, still nothing.
- changoplatanero 5y agoI wonder how come I was lucky enough to get a high paying job at a FAANG company when other people struggle for years and do tons of interviews and got nothing. Are you stuck in a state with not many jobs? Is it because FAANG companies only hire people who went to really good schools? Maybe the commenter above is actually not very good at interviewing and doesn't realize it? Something else?
- mitch3x3 5y agoThe last one. I went through 6 months of terrible interviewing and self reflection before I was any good. It’s a skill in itself.
- Ice_cream_suit 5y agoThe second largest transport company in the country I live in, is currently looking hard at autonomous trucks. The plan is to roll them out over the coming decade. Source: conversations with the principal owner of the company.
- thehappypm 5y agoI wonder if the future of trucking might not be immense trucks. Those, after all, are designed to maximize how much 1 driver can handle. With no driver, you wouldn’t benefit quite as much from a huge payload. 10 small trucks might be better than 1 18 wheeler.
- jimmydeans 5y ago
- orobanche 5y agoAs a researcher at the University in Belgium I made 2k per month.
- mdrzn 5y agoWhoa, it kinda makes me wanna stop being an IT worker, drop everything and go drive trucks for Walmart. That's over 4x what I make in a year.
- breakpointalpha 5y agoYou, my friend, are grossly underpaid. Time to start job shopping.