There isn't a shortage of truck drivers -- they just don't want to drive for mega carriers anymore

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Photos of empty shelves have littered social media over the past year. And these, in part, have been blamed on a lack of truck drivers.

-snip-

But some truck drivers, as well as industry experts, dispute the fact that there is a shortage. Jason Miller, associate professor of supply-chain management at Michigan State University, told Insider that there isn't a shortage of truck drivers, just a shift in where they're working.

They don't want to drive for mega carriers anymore, he said.

-snip-

Some truckers say that they're treated badly by mega carriers who want to "pay the drivers peanuts" and don't cover the hours they can spend waiting at shippers and receivers. "You're not a name, you're a number," Gary Otterson, a 20-year trucking veteran from Alabama, said. "They want to reduce the driver to an expendable resource."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/there-isn-t-a-shortage-of-truck-drivers-they-just-don-t-want-to-drive-for-mega-carriers-anymore/ar-AAVNGWH

[liberalmuse]

1. I actually ran into a Qnut in the wild last week.

I was mentioning how a lot of people at my work are going to new companies. She then responded with, "No one wants to work anymore." and said her brother was having a hard time keeping help. I said maybe if employers paid more and offered good yearly cost of living raises on top of merit raises, they wouldn't have problems hiring - case in point, the place where my daughter works is a bar and they took care of their employees during lockdown. They pay a great wage, give excellent bonuses and are very flexible and have never had an issue hiring or with people leaving unless they move out of the area. The q-lady then happened to mention off hand that her sister in law started taking tips and cutting pay and is shitty to the employees. Jesus, do these people completely lack the ability to make a direct correlation between cause and effect? She said some other horrible q-nut things and I countered or changed the subject. It's one thing reading about their insanity online, but it's quite another hearing someone next to you spout this garbage. It was pretty shocking and sad.

[Bristlecone]

5. Yes. They lack the ability to connect real dots.

Poor critical thinking skills.

[liberalmuse]

6. It's scary because no amount of facts or reason will work on them.

I thought I'd met a friend until she started with that nonsense. I don't want to hear how healthcare workers are murdering Covid patients. She said a friend went in the hospital with Covid and died of kidney failure because of the drugs healthcare workers are giving to "thin the population". Apparently millions of overworked and underpaid healthcare workers get their jollies from following some government order to kill patients. I told her my nephew was a healthcare worker and she shut up about that, but I am willing to bet her friend was taking shitloads of Ivermectin, then waited until his oxygen dropped to critical levels and that's why his kidney's failed and he died.

[stopdiggin]

2. smaller carriers and companies are having a hard time

getting drivers too. (basing this on almost constant advertisement and recruitment efforts) So I think there are a combination of factors at play (and pay might not actually be at the top of the list) The job (particularly long-haul, over the road) just has some real inherent downsides. Some people thrive ... But ..

[ret5hd]

4. I'm just not sure exactly what part of the...

“supply and demand” maxim these people don’t understand…big carriers, small carriers, retail/service industries, etc etc etc.

It’s so goddamned mysterious…they seem to understand it completely when the labor market is soft, when unemployment is high. Yet, when the labor market starts to tighten EVERY ONE OF THEM seems to have been a narcoleptic pot head during their ECON-101 class.

Just fuckin’ mysterious is all I’m sayin’.

[Chainfire]

3. Drivers being treated like crap is the result of union busting.

There was a time when it was a good job, with good benefits. But, of course, that was Socialism.

The reason that the big trucking companies treat their employees like dirt is because they can.