Why the Cargo Is Stuck: Letter from a Trucker

From OP's link... Less than 50%

The bottom line on the last page of the annual report is the shareholders #1 interest, and companies strive to keep it as high as possible. Something must suffer, and in todays atmosphere of runaway products it is staffing. Raise the rate of pay high enough and drivers will beat the doors down so as to have an opportunity to fill out a job application. Simply put, the “shortage” of drivers could be quickly remedied.

There are thousands upon thousands of drivers being required to stay away from home in excess of 250 days per year on an income of less than $50,000. Road expenses for eating ($20@day) and showering ($12 ea) alone on trips lasting 2 weeks or longer whack that amount down several thousand dollars yearly, and after taxes there is hardly enough to support a family of 4. It should be of little surprise to anyone that there is a dearth of drivers salivating to step into that scenario and apply their nose to the grindstone.
No one has heard the media report on a shortage of trucks, nor shall they; only that of drivers. Consider the extent of their propaganda and also the agenda it follows.

They could trim 2000 off each load by using ai for broakers.

My brother sold his fleet and is now looking for a job.fuck this country,let it burn.piss poor management over the citizens civil liberties.fuck them,burn motherfuckrrs,birn!

.any are beyond redemption. Burden is only one

There isn't a driver shortage, it's more of a shortage of pay. I used to work for a trucking company out of Phoenix, AZ, called Knight Transportation. They paid me 44 cents per mile and most weeks I was able to drive about 2200 to 2500 miles. Do the math on that, it's not a lot of money for what you sacrifice.

You are away from home, you have to deal with assholes driving cars who are always looking at their phones, you work an irregular schedule, meaning you pick up and deliver all around the clock, parking is a problem in many area of the country, as you have to park the truck legally.

So for the money you are actually paid, it is not worth it. Of course the Knight family is rich beyond imagination, but don't let that fact deter you from being their slave.

When you are not drving the truck, you will find yourself in places that you would never be, if you weren't a truck driver. Meaning there is very little around for entertainment or recreation. Hell, even getting a decent healthy meal can be a challenge most days!

Don't drive a truck.

I was under the impression that, aside from ALL privately owned ports on the west coast being under the blue (democrat party) flag of control, California itself handles 40% of all cargo ships going to or from the US...and Gov Cheatsum has a variety of handcuffs placed on truck drivers such as (1) truckers must be part of a Union, (2) all trucks must conform to the California emissions standard - the highest in the nation, (3) trucks must have their own flat beds for the cargo boxes, (4) ...well you already know this one.

Talk about a national security threat. Perhaps energy should be expended as to how that private port monopoly can be broken up along the west coast, have more ports, and in times of emergency (like this one) drop the B.S. restrictions on truckers.

It's a simple solution.

my ex-wife drove for CR England for 18 months because she
thought it would be fun. It ended up costing more per
month than she earned because she stayed in hotels for
a shower instead of the truckstop, ate in restaurants
instead of drive-thrus, etc. But she didn't bother
to tell me she was spending my retirement account.

.

Life is expensive on the road. England sucks worse than most.

wasn't picking up anything extra at the truck stops? and you footed the bill? are you mad? bro?

Truckers are made from the cloth of tradition, cut from a pattern no longer seen.

Truckers don't let their babies grow up to be cowboys. Perhaps it is the national security aspect which takes the fun out of it. Or is it computers, with 'just in time' inventory? There's a disconnect between drivers and the office, who are working at cross purposes. The office trying to maximize profit, and the drivers concerned with focusing on a destination which ever recedes into the future. A future without a romantic partner.

Perhaps the payoff for a young man's quest for adventure has been squelched in our gentrified culture. Every town looks the same around the world. McDonalds, malls, franchises line the red carpet bordering any town. No romance awaits in the sterile glass and cement streetlit alleyways of the lonely city, scrubbed of all mystery and intrigue. All silken roads now offer the quality of mind numbingingly boring efficient generic, modern, safe design.

No adventure, no romance, no hero's journey. Safe, computer navigated, militarily controlled. Its not the pay that's poor, its the spirit ungrateful consumerism denying truckstops in their towns. The subtle unwelcome mat of discrimination, and the exploitation of one's life force for ungenerous, anonymous corporate profit.

Letter from a Trucker



Truckers can write?

You do not want to be in a big rig when society falls apart.

Never seen Mad Max 2 I take it? Looks like fun to me.

The salient points.

California is run by Democrats.

The ports are (mostly) in California and run by Unions.

(Are they punishing us?)

The closest thing to a union that truckers have is the DOT and it would appear that their only job is to make a truckers life less than appealing, to be nice.

California Regulation on trucks is ludicrous and harmful to America as it is a chokepoint for goods to the rest of the nation.

Shit runs down hill in trucking companies and the driver is in the septic tank.

Very well said & spot on! The over saturated ubiquitous homogenized modern American landscape is dead to any sense of adventure and wonder. It's become the geography of nowhere. Been saying for years. Every exit ramp is the same. Trucking in the 80's was fun & had a feeling of belonging to an outlaw/rebel individuality. & now it's just a drag...

But the bottom line is this. If they would load the fucking trucks the spice would flow.

Yes. Some are quite literary.