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Started By
Message
re: Truck driver shortage getting worse, potentially will increase consumer prices
Posted on 7/2/18 at 12:00 am to cave canem
Posted on 7/2/18 at 12:00 am to cave canem
I am in ready mix concrete. We have 171 drivers on our payroll. Our daily attrition rate is around 10% for call outs due to sick or personal reasons. We recently changed our markets pay scale by increasing starting pay for new hires by $1.50 an hour. Our competitors were forced to reluctantly follow suit.
Our guys work their asses off doing 60-70 hour weeks with no routine schedule guaranteed. We are governed by DOT 10 hour rule between shifts and one mandatory 24 hour reset per week. They work 70 hours while getting dog cussed by half of the customers they deliver to because they didn’t back in just right , or the slump isn’t perfect, etc.. And they are mentally and physically exhausted. All to make $70-$80.
Good money for someone without a valued skill set but it gets to be to much for these guys when they have families. Quality of life sucks.
If I had a magic wand, I would raise the unit price of concrete 20% while maintaining our current market position, hire 40 new drivers and start them off 20% higher than we currently do and raise every veteran drivers rate 20% and let them all work 50 hours a week.
But I live in an 8 million yard a year market with a bunch of competitors where we collectively act like a bunch of dumbasses and chew each other up on price even in a sold out market. Dumbest arse thing I have ever seen.
Our guys work their asses off doing 60-70 hour weeks with no routine schedule guaranteed. We are governed by DOT 10 hour rule between shifts and one mandatory 24 hour reset per week. They work 70 hours while getting dog cussed by half of the customers they deliver to because they didn’t back in just right , or the slump isn’t perfect, etc.. And they are mentally and physically exhausted. All to make $70-$80.
Good money for someone without a valued skill set but it gets to be to much for these guys when they have families. Quality of life sucks.
If I had a magic wand, I would raise the unit price of concrete 20% while maintaining our current market position, hire 40 new drivers and start them off 20% higher than we currently do and raise every veteran drivers rate 20% and let them all work 50 hours a week.
But I live in an 8 million yard a year market with a bunch of competitors where we collectively act like a bunch of dumbasses and chew each other up on price even in a sold out market. Dumbest arse thing I have ever seen.
1
Posted on 7/2/18 at 12:00 am to auggie
Yes. Roughneckers run into some of the same problems.
You're also right that it's not just the pay. Home time and the way they're treated are also big concerns.
You're also right that it's not just the pay. Home time and the way they're treated are also big concerns.
Posted on 7/2/18 at 12:06 am to DEG
quote:
Far less.
no
Posted on 7/2/18 at 1:58 am to auggie
quote:
There is a little bit more to it with drivers.
No there is not, it is simply trucking comanies are not competive wage wise with others in the same labor market.
Why drive a truck when you can make far more money and be off 6 months a year in the oilfield. If you are a young man who is willing to do hard work for long hours and can pass a drug test which would you prefer?
I am using oilfield simply because honestly this is your target demographic for drivers
quote:
More pay, doesn't really fix those problems in fact, sometimes, it makes them worse.
When young undisciplined people have too much money in their pockets, they want to go spend it.
I am sure they honestly believe the owners are helping them out by not paying more.
Posted on 7/2/18 at 2:10 am to Dick Leverage
quote:
But I live in an 8 million yard a year market with a bunch of competitors where we collectively act like a bunch of dumbasses and chew each other up on price even in a sold out market. Dumbest arse thing I have ever seen.
This is the problem
quote:
If I had a magic wand, I would raise the unit price of concrete 20% while maintaining our current market position, hire 40 new drivers and start them off 20% higher than we currently do and raise every veteran drivers rate 20% and let them all work 50 hours a week.
I would be willing to bet the driver makes up less than 10% of the input cost on a load, thus a 2% price increase would fund the 20% raise.
quote:
Our guys work their asses off doing 60-70 hour weeks with no routine schedule guaranteed. We are governed by DOT 10 hour rule between shifts and one mandatory 24 hour reset per week. They work 70 hours while getting dog cussed by half of the customers they deliver to because they didn’t back in just right , or the slump isn’t perfect, etc.. And they are mentally and physically exhausted. All to make $70-$80.
Close to 17 an hour give or take a bit, you are not going to attract and retain many with other options in the market you are describing.
quote:
Good money for someone without a valued skill set
Ah, now we are getting down to the real problem, not sure what to say about you not finding value in the skill set of those whom you depend on to make a living.
This post was edited on 7/2/18 at 2:15 am
Posted on 7/2/18 at 3:34 am to HailHailtoMichigan!
God the number of people believing self driving trucks will cover the entire industry in 10 years is hilarious
And it is eight years since you have been saying that for at least 2
And it is eight years since you have been saying that for at least 2
This post was edited on 7/2/18 at 3:36 am
Posted on 7/2/18 at 4:12 am to cave canem
quote:
Ah, now we are getting down to the real problem, not sure what to say about you not finding value in the skill set of those whom you depend on to make a living
This.
To the average concrete company drivers come a dime a dozen. I work on the other end of it. I'm an industrial carpenter. I'm certainly not complaining about the money I make but concrete drivers make laborer pay. We pay our green hands 17 dollars an hour. I make over 30. Imagine the quality of person that the concrete company could attract if they raised their driver pay another 5 dollars. What would that do to their turnover rate?
Posted on 7/2/18 at 6:06 am to HailHailtoMichigan!
If truck driving paid $250K a year there would be an enormous surplus of truck drivers. There is no shortage right now. There is a shortage at current pay rate perhaps. Free market will correct this... just watch.
Posted on 7/2/18 at 6:34 am to RebelExpress38
quote:
Maybe in controlled environments but I’m having a hard time seeing any “last mile” type trucks being 100% autonomous in 10 years
I work for a warehouse. Used to run a night shift and dealt with drivers all throughout the night with live unload/loads and such.
But the warehouse I was at at the time if you put in the address in either Apple maps or google maps or anything it took you about a mile up the road to a vacant lot.
How is a computer driven truck gonna handle that haha.
What I have heard on the driverless truck front is more along the lines of the truck having essentially a co pilot that rides shotgun essentially for all the human needs that trucking requires.
Posted on 7/2/18 at 6:40 am to HailHailtoMichigan!
There is no truck driver, pilot, doctor, whatever else shortage.
There is only the refusal of the labor market to sell units of this sort of labor at the prices certain MBA wielding suits wish to pay for it.
Saying there is a "truck driver shortage" is like saying there is a shortage of "ocean front vacation homes in Florida."
It shows a profound ignorance of the way economics works.
There is only the refusal of the labor market to sell units of this sort of labor at the prices certain MBA wielding suits wish to pay for it.
Saying there is a "truck driver shortage" is like saying there is a shortage of "ocean front vacation homes in Florida."
It shows a profound ignorance of the way economics works.
This post was edited on 7/2/18 at 6:55 am
Posted on 7/2/18 at 6:55 am to cave canem
quote:
I am sure they honestly believe the owners are helping them out by not paying more.
That isn't my point. It's a slippery slope with young drivers.
You have to keep them hungry, or they don't get motivated, and trucks cost a lot of money, they have to be moving as much as possible, to make money.
OTR drivers have too many distractions to draw them in.
I only have 3 trucks, I drive 1 of them myself.
My other 2 guys are 50+/- year olds, and the 2nd career for both of them. They are dependable and steady.
The 2 trucks they drive, are leased on to a company for a dedicated gig. They are dispatched by that company, and I rarely need to talk to them at all. These are the types of guys that I like driving.
They make about $80,000 a year(no benefits, but both have insurance through their wives jobs)(this is also about what I pay myself), and are home weekends( I am not home every weekend). They will be getting raises soon, maybe 3 cents per mile. That's about 100 bucks per week,5,000 per year. I hope they will be satisfied.
Posted on 7/2/18 at 7:02 am to HailHailtoMichigan!
Was the dark of the moon on the sixth of June In a Kenworth pullin' logs Cab-over Pete with a reefer on And a Jimmy haulin' hogs We is headin' for bear on I-one-oh 'Bout a mile outta Shaky Town I says, "Pig Pen, this here's the Rubber Duck. "And I'm about to put the hammer down." 'Cause we got a little convoy Rockin' through the night. Yeah, we got a little convoy, Ain't she a beautiful sight? Come on and join our convoy Ain't nothin' gonna get in our way. We gonna roll this truckin' convoy 'Cross the U-S-A. Convoy! By the time we got into Tulsa Town, We had eighty-five trucks in all. But they's a roadblock up on the cloverleaf, And them bears was wall-to-wall. Yeah, them smokies is thick as bugs on a bumper; They even had a bear in the air! I says,…
Posted on 7/2/18 at 8:24 am to MeatCleaverWeaver
Every able bodied male that is currently getting a welfare check should be put onto a big rig immediately. End of 2 problems.
Posted on 7/2/18 at 8:26 am to HailHailtoMichigan!
MTGA
Posted on 7/2/18 at 8:38 am to saints5021
quote:
Every able bodied male that is currently getting a welfare check should be put onto a big rig immediately. End of 2 problems.
shovels,lawnmowers. spreading asphalt.. sure ,but I am pretty sure, that we don't want to force welfare recipients into driving 40 ton,70 foot long trucks on our highways.
It would be Ok to offer a program to pay their tuition at a state driving school, so they can get off of welfare.
This post was edited on 7/2/18 at 8:40 am
Posted on 7/2/18 at 10:35 am to auggie
I get paid percentage of each load I deliver. I don’t do mileage pay.
Posted on 7/2/18 at 10:37 am to Tiger1242
quote:i would 1000% be a trucker
So quit your job and become a trucker
if they quit drug testing
Posted on 7/2/18 at 10:41 am to HailHailtoMichigan!
quote:
Millennial male soy consumption is about to result in much higher transport costs, directly biting consumers in the poop chute.
What?
Posted on 7/2/18 at 8:04 pm to starsandstripes
quote:
Starsandstripes
In 1985, AT&T estimated there would be 900k cell phones in the US market by Y2K. Turns out, there were 109M.
10 years ago, Uber didn’t exist. Today they have more bookings than all taxi cabs in the US combined.
By 2020 iot will generate 4 trillion gigabytes of data.
Yeah, self driving cars will never be a thing.
This post was edited on 7/2/18 at 8:05 pm
Posted on 7/2/18 at 8:10 pm to 90proofprofessional
quote:
60k for an "opportunity" that almost certainly won't last long enough for most 9f them to make a career out of it?
In 20years, careers will be a thing of the past for most people. A chance to earn a decent wage for 5-10 years should be attractive.... but...
Too many people can't pass a drug test, have felony records and are lazy. The pay is going to have to rise significantly to attract quality people
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