Does less equal more?

January 1, 2011

 | by: admin

Specter of CSA-led driver shortage holds reward potential for truly safe drivers

By Todd Dills


After talk of a 2011 driver shortage of “unprecedented levels” began to rear its head last year, ­Truckers News “Marathon Trucker” columnist Jeff Clark remarked that the term “driver shortage” is inaccurate. “If someone cannot find a driver to deliver a load at the rate they want it delivered at they whine ‘driver shortage,’” he said, it’s analogous to this: “I want to buy a new Cadillac for $10,000. They would not sell it to me. Hmmm, must be a Cadillac shortage.”


The real shortage was in driver pay, he suggested, and he’s backed up by a near-majority of respondents to an eTrucker.com poll conducted in November who said that pay was the biggest factor in carriers’ difficulties attracting and retaining quality drivers. At the November “Perfect Storm” conference of recruiting staff and management, put on in Nashville, Tenn., by the Truckload Carriers Association with Affiliated Computer Services and sponsored by ­Truckers News publisher Randall-Reilly, the mood was hopeful that, with a safety enforcement program soon to be in place putting teeth into carriers’ demands of higher rates from shippers, a new era could be coming for driver pay.

Combined with a significant freight rebound, CSA 2010 (recently rebranded “CSA” for “Compliance, Safety, Accountability” by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration) could be expected to “drive rates up,” said current TCA chairman John Kaburick, president of Earl L. Henderson Trucking, in his introduction of the program. “We’ll see drivers making $70,000-90,000 a year. I think we’ll become a lot more attractive industry with a lot more qualified, skilled people.”


WHAT IS THE PRIMARY CAUSE OF THE “DRIVER SHORTAGE” NOTED BY ANALYSTS?

low driver pay — 40%

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9 Comments

  1. Companies are starting too feel the pinch - TeamstersOnline says:
    August 5, 2011 at 4:32 pm

    [...] Re: Companies are starting too feel the pinch Yes I do remember. Does less equal more? | Truckers News | Trucking News, Health & Lifestyle [...]

    Reply
  2. What deregulation brought us. Drivers MUST read this! - TeamstersOnline says:
    August 19, 2011 at 10:32 pm

    [...] [...]

    Reply
  3. Reminder - TeamstersOnline says:
    September 4, 2011 at 10:47 am

    [...] Reminder I've call this thread REMINDER so that I'll bring back some good articles to be read, an re-read again again and again so that we don't forget about-it. So here a good one that does really explian well why this industrie is so in a bad shape. The most interesting thing about-it is that you applied to both side of the border. The author call them "superstars" an we call them "vampires". Does less equal more? | Truckers News | Trucking News, Health & Lifestyle [...]

    Reply
  4. Teamsters-Challenger Campaign in Canada! says:
    September 4, 2011 at 11:18 am

    [...] Here's a good article that explain very well why the trucking industrie is in a bad shape, that also applied on both side of the border: Does less equal more? | Truckers News | Trucking News, Health & Lifestyle [...]

    Reply
  5. Real reason for trucker ’shortage’ | Teamster Jobs says:
    September 4, 2011 at 4:53 pm

    [...] google_ad_width = 468; google_ad_height = 60; Hat tip to our brother Richard Corbell for this astute explanationof the trucker shortage from Truckers News.We like this: “If someone cannot [...]

    Reply
  6. The STAKES of the campaign at cmf - TeamstersOnline says:
    September 25, 2011 at 11:36 am

    [...] once in a while. So I will start with few of them, and I hope that you will add some on it: Does less equal more? | Truckers News | Trucking News, Health & Lifestyle That article explain very well why this industry is in so much deep sh… We should all read it [...]

    Reply
  7. Rick Woodcox says:
    November 2, 2011 at 11:17 am

    driver shortage could not have but one reason. Lies like the one that caused me to loose mine. Stop the lies and the road will open up for new interest. Without new bodies in this industry the shortage will become greater. The robots are coming so the shortage will be deverted. Robots and big business will make more without the people needs or concerns. Driver shortage is jus another storm brewing to bring in more technoligy. And less human error. Human error can probably be sent back to corporate earnings and the all American Greed for apperance.

    Reply
  8. Mike jones says:
    January 22, 2012 at 9:02 am

    Crap for pay if you are non-union. Long hours at “customers” for FREE?? Endless Chores for the driver/boy to do for FREE?? It is a pathetic JOKE. Road drivers are away from home for Eternities…no pay or per diem for sleeping in a parking lot and buying food…for EVERY meal…not a dime for that.
    Walmart drivers are paid for the Gov mandated 10 hour “sleep break” nobody else! It is a t otal RIPOFF for a company driver. Pay is Crap..conditions are DISGUSTING. I would NOT recommend this job to ANYONE. Stay at HOME and develop REAL skills and be with your family and friends….their is ALSO Zero retirement pension for the years you spent getting ripped off earning 1/2 of what Union workers get. Zero retirement pension. Does that tell you how much the Rich man who owns you and your truckin company cares about you the driver?? He cares ZERO. Dont waste your time in this industry you Will be SORRY.

    Reply

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