Sometimes the truckers get paid by Zip Code to Zip Code, not total miles driven from point A to B.
This is a way of cheating hard working truckers out of pay.
Is there really a shortage of truck drivers?
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Sometimes the truckers get paid by Zip Code to Zip Code, not total miles driven from point A to B.
This is a way of cheating hard working truckers out of pay.
It doesn't work that way though. The price is quoted up-front and it's what you pay (plus the usual random, bull**** fees but those are more nickel-and-diming vs thousands of dollars). I know what the container charges (+/-) will cost before it leaves the port in Europe. Nothing sits/waits in port either except in order to get a truck driver to pick it up and deliver it or for it to be loaded on a train. There simply isn't space.
Rail needs to play a more important role than it does in moving containers. I know it does already but role should increase.
In an ideal world, rail (not trucks) would bring goods west coast to east coast and trucks move the goods the last few hundred miles up and down east coast. Greatly simplified I know.
In an ideal world, rail (not trucks) would bring goods west coast to east coast and trucks move the goods the last few hundred miles up and down east coast. Greatly simplified I know.
That's how it works currently. Our containers arrive on the East Coast, typically Norfolk VA. They go on rail cars to Cincinnati and are only on a truck for ~40 miles. This is very normal. I doubt containers get moved by truck more than 150 miles unless there's no viable rail service going closer to the final destination. "Ports" aren't exclusively along water either - Cincinnati, Columbus, Toledo, Indianapolis, and so on are all ports around my area.
Average truck driver pay is between 28 and 52 cents per mile. Truck drivers are only allowed to work 70 hours in 7 days. Most drivers complete between 2,000 and 3,000 miles per week. That translates into average weekly pay ranging from $560 to $1,560. If you drove all 52 weeks in a year at those rates, you would earn between $29,120 and $81,120. Most of the truck drivers that I know make $50,000 to $60,000 per year.
Owner operators typically make about 70% of the load, which would be $1.75 per mile on a load paying $2.50 per mile, but they bear all of the expenses (the tractor itself, insurance, fuel, repairs, maintenance, tires, permits, fines, etc, etc). In a good year, some of them can break $100,000 if they work all of the time and are lucky.
IMO the trucking companies that are doing this type of "$2500 per week" advertising on their trailers should be charged with false advertising and fined.
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Yep
A roadside tire replacement with a recap or regrooved junk tire will cost $500 minimum. Blow a steer tire and it $1000+ anything it tore up like fenders and headlight buckets.
Nick1994
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I work for the biggest trucking company out there.
Yes, there is a major driver shortage, has been for years. Nothing new. Pay is part of it, but it really isn't the whole story. People want to be home everyday or most days and they need good driver leaders/planners/dispatchers and a good company to work for. Happiness is key. Truck drivers are getting older and retiring. Young people don't really want to drive a truck. It isn't a sexy job.
Yes, there is a major driver shortage, has been for years. Nothing new. Pay is part of it, but it really isn't the whole story. People want to be home everyday or most days and they need good driver leaders/planners/dispatchers and a good company to work for. Happiness is key. Truck drivers are getting older and retiring. Young people don't really want to drive a truck. It isn't a sexy job.
The whole problem there is the 20-70k for college. The price is getting out of hand. I don't know how they justify the cost increases when many are sitting on piles of cash.
the truck doesn't care who drives them.
I don’t know. Don’t shoot the messenger.
IMO there is good money to be made driving truck if you want. If I had my preference I’d own an older pre-emissions truck and heavy haul flat bed. Dang good money there!
Just my $0.02
Join the military for 4 years and learn a skill. Lots of training in the Reserves and Guard.
I think the claim is that they can keep increasing the price as long as there are grants and loans that are easy for students to get. Remember, they only get the education after they're finished and by then it's too late to realize that it's not a good buy. There's always that mantra of do what you like, well lots of degrees are in career fields that don't make any money. And the colleges get fancier with their higher prices as that tends to attract consumers who want the shiny campus with all the amenities and they're not paying the bill, they're just getting loans.
It depends. I would recommend people skipping college for liberal arts degree, the professors are borderline unemployed themselves. For engineering and finance they are probably going to at least break even if not making more.
4WD
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Not exclusive to that industry - legal in the state or not - some companies prefer the guy running the 300 ton crane be able to pass an A&D test …
Dad and two brothers drove, dad retired for 3 months and couldn`t stand feeling like a bum and went back to work except for 3 months a year in Florida. Both brothers retired as soon as they could because of hours and driving conditions. I got my license and drove a few runs and found it boring so moved on.
Here is some trucking trivia. In the late 70’s HP numbers were just crossing the 300 HP threshold. Have a look at what they are now. Enjoy.
Can't run it in my state.
The heavy haul at my work has the 605 hp. Runs pretty good when the emissions system isn't broke and crippling it which is very often. The 300hp,9l paccar engine is miserable to drive.
I think rail will if they can find a company to build autonomous trains and related infrastructure to support automation. I imagine the trains will be much smaller.
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