Truck Driving: Time To Make The Job Worth It
The freight boom would be a super boom if more drivers were available.
Now that there's more freight to move than the industry can handle, carriers are charging handsome rates and making money. At least the good ones are.
They're doing it in spite of outrageous fuel costs and a severe driver shortage. They have little control over fuel prices, but how much better would they be doing if they weren't so short of drivers? A lot.
Loads are going begging for lack of drivers. "This is a whole new world for us," said one carrier executive. "For the first time in my life, trucks are in such demand that we can charge just about anything we want and shippers will pay it. I just wish we had more drivers."
Pity the poor shipper who tries to bargain on rates, and pity the carrier who still thinks he has to lowball to get the business.
One fleet, confronted with such a challenge, walked away from a long-time customer's business. After the low-cost carrier couldn't deliver on time (or at all in some instances) the shipper called and begged the first carrier to come back. Too late; he'd already filled the void with new customers willing to pay full pop for good service.
All the old clichˇs about why we have driver shortages are still with us. Life on the road is tough. I don't get home enough. It's dangerous. Too much waiting time. I don't get any respect. And so on. It takes a special person to handle that lifestyle and be happy with it.
This shortage is a little different. As the economy has recovered, other jobs - like in factories and construction - have recovered with it. They don't have as many drawbacks as driving a truck, and in many cases, they pay more. Those jobs are pulling people out of the labor pool and away from trucking.
A federal on-board recorder mandate, being talked up in Washington, would further thin driver ranks by pinpointing reckless behavior. Even without a mandate we can expect new high-tech, low-priced recorders to start appearing in trucks soon.
The good news: Taking bad drivers out of trucks would mean fewer accidents and higher carrier profits. The bad news: An even shorter supply of drivers, at a time when demand for them is growing three times faster than the supply.
The inevitable conclusion: Truck driving would be a much more sought-after career if it paid enough.
There's talk among several fleets that it will take a 50% pay raise to make truck driving competitive with other jobs. That's a $20,000 a year hike for a driver who now makes $40,000.
If that, or something close to it, doesn't happen, we can expect the driver situation to just get worse.
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On another note, it's refreshing to see that Ohio Governor Bob Taft went through with his plan to cut back truck tolls on the Ohio Turnpike. Starting in February, the toll for heavy trucks to cross the state will drop to $31. For a standard rig, that's down from $42.45. For doubles and triples, it's down from $72.45.
It's an 18-month trial program to attract big rigs onto the toll road and get them off surface roads. Earlier, to help achieve the same goal, the toll road raised its truck speed limit to 65 mph, and negotiated lower diesel prices for fuel stations along the route.
Let's hear it for the Guv...
Doug Condra
President
E-mail Doug Condra at dcondra@truckinginfo.com, or wite PO Box W. Newport Beach, Calif. 92656.
