Originally published at: Duffy pushes back on truck driver shortage - FreightWaves
During a press conference on commercial driver’s license (CDL) enforcement, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy responded to a reporter’s questions about the truck driver shortage and the potential impacts of stricter rule enforcement. The discussion focused on workforce challenges in the trucking industry and the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) approach to addressing them. The press…
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We’ve been saying this for years. The truck driver shortage is a lie, fabricated by brokers and mega carriers, who’s primary intent is to drive the cost of labor down. Saturate the market with unqualified drivers who are happy to get paid less, and force American truck drivers to either drop out of the market, or drive for less. It has been absolutely devastating to small trucking businesses in America who have been going bankrupt as a result of these practices. It’s long past time something is done about it. And the media has to stop helping these crooks perpetrate the lie.
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I totally agree. When I first got into trucking 6 years ago, I was amazed at how much money I could make every week. I was so happy and proud to be apart of the trucking industry and to help keep America strong and moving. It wasn’t until I started seeing my settlements decreasing from $5k a week to barely $500 a week when I realized something was wrong. I was still working very hard but wasn’t getting compensated the same. What started out as a promising future ended up with me losing everything I worked so hard for and actually living in my semi truck. I’ll be glad when the government actually does something to stop the malicious business practices of brokers who been knew about this and didn’t care to make themselves rich and leave us hard working American drivers poor, confused and homeless.
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I live in the EU, and we have 20 different languages, and truckers from all those different countries traveling all highways in the EU, so I beg to differ that keeping out truckers who don’t speak a specific language makes US highways less safe. Obviously, truckers need to understand English road signs, which seems a given, but I can’t imagine any foreigner passing a trucker’s exam in the US does not at least understand English road signs? If the training is inadequat, by all means, ■■■■■ down on nefarious trucking schools. Yes, all truckers in a specific country need the same rules as far as pay, benefits and labor protection are concerned, and we’re having problems in the EU with truckers from, say Bulgaria, where pay is less than, let’s say, Belgium, ply Belgian roads daily delivering from & to Belgian companies. Yet, the problems must be tackles, but protectionism & laws keeping out foreigners will only make transportation more expensive than it should be.
Europe is no comparison to the US. PERIOD
I see these drivers on the road everytime I get on the interstate. They are always swirving all over the road. Part of the reason for this is companies are also hiring illegals to load trucks or the driver himself loads the truck. They don’t understand English and can’t add weight because of this. With a truck you have to load in a way that evenly distributes the weight, otherwise you’ll have a truck and trailer that can’t stay on the road straight. It’ll sway and swirve and if bad enough the driver will not be able to control the truck at all. This is a 20-30,000 lb tank moving down the road. The truck can’t stop on a dime either. This is not some game for you social justice warriors, you’re playing with people’s lives. .
And truckers do not have to go to trucking school. If they get ELDT training and If they can pass a test for the CDL license then they’re good to go. The problem comes in with criminal rouge states basically just handing out these licenses to non qualified illegal drivers.
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Sounds like the US has an educational & regulatory problem, not a problem caused specifically by foreign drivers? Given the right training, why would a trucker from, say Germany, be worse than an American one? Sounds to me you’re simply trying to get monopoly rents, the fewer truck drivers, the higher the compensation they can earn!
They are bankrupting cause rates are in the toilet cause there’s too many trucks. Go to LA and most of the locals are foreigners. Go to Portland same thing . Go to Seattle and English will get you nowhere. Quick and easy immigrants who don’t know any better, brokers who manipulate the drivers, and schools looking to make a fast buck have driven the rates into the toilets
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Ania, your euro-trash, single digit iq, anti-American pissiness is really on show here. I bet your cats are proud. You are obviously utterly clueless about the transportation industry in either country, and the dangers cheap, non english speaking drivers pose to the public, and the industry as a whole. Grow up, you pathetic womb-■■■■.
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How is this Secretary’s weepingly pious commitment to ‘safety’ anymore than cover for their harassment/profiling of drivers that don’t look the right way (migrant or not)? Or the blanket non-domiciled overly broad kneejerk ejections? Or the cadre of federal inspectors supposedly finding every fourth driver they talk to can’t speak English to their satisfaction? Even the most inclined states ate only at single digits percent on their ELP finds.
Somebody buy those federal inspectors a beer and a Mick Jagger album—otherwise they ain’t gonna get no satisfaction….?
Trailer trash insulting me instead of producing thoughtful answers; typical Trumper, go play somewhere else..
First off, the info needs to be straightened out. THERE IS NO DRIVER SHORTAGE AND NEVER WAS. There’s an over abundance of driver’s and a shortage of freight for the number of drivers that there are. Half the freight that we move as drivers gets moved from multiple warehouses 3 and 4 times before going to a store to be sold dropping our wages in the process. November 1st there was a nationwide wage increase for everyone but the truckers. In fact, the company I work for cut wages efective the 1st of November. With wages going up everywhere but trucking, the cost of living goes up with it. Also, truckers are losing their homes and being forced to live in the truck they drive for these same reasons. I am 1such driver. It’s also, finally been realized that the “shortage of drivers” is more accurately the same drivers moving around from company to company seeking better wages that are never actually there. My company advertises on their trailers “Industry leading pay per mile” but the funny thing is…I make about the same as a cashier at Walmart if they worked 60 to 70 hours a week, like truckers do. The reporter doesn’t know anything because their sourses are people who operate companies and hiring statistics, not actual drivers. Company spokes people are liars looking to paint a good image on a crooked enterprise. People who can’t speak or read our language have no business driving any kind of vehical in the US because of the danger they are to everyone on the road. There are even people that do speak English that shouldn’t as well, like people have can’t keep their hands off their phones or can’t be bothered to signal their intentions like changing lanes. Essentially, if the problems that I mentioned were properly addressed, 90% of the deaths on the roads and the degradation of the trucking industry wouldn’t be issues. Of course the way people think is, “I’m just a stupid trucker, I can’t possibly know anything about what I’m talking about.” Nevermind I see these things on a daily basis, I manage my money by finding the cheapest reasonable food there is so I can keep halfway healthy and breathing, and still maintain my phone, storage unit, and auto insurance on my personal car. It currently costs me $300 a week to eat and have beverages while it costs a family of 3 about the same to buy groceries and cook at home.
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I dont know who is pushing the lie there is no driver shortage. There has been a shortage for decades. It means THERE IS MORE FREIGHT THAN THERE IS DRIVERS.
The industry is very reluctant to fallow the pressures of capitalist supply and demand BUT around 2013 they gave and mileage rates nearly doubled.
DRIVER SHORTAGE IS GOOD FOR DRIVERS. use your leverage to get paid better. Dont listen to these liars.
If you need 10 people to a job and you only have 7 you are short. If you cant get anyone to bite on you job offers YOU WILL BE FORCED TO PAY MORE MONEY TO ATTRACT PROPLE TO DO THE JOB.
Its not actually an issue
Cry me a river. Should we have the government intervene in all industries when “Americans” aren’t making all the money? You’re a yellow belly whenever it benefits you! Back to Canada, joker.
The Department of Transport put up highway signs that sometimes say “Traffic Delays Ahead” or Traffic Accident Ahead" or “Detour Ahead”.
When a bonehead non speaking or reading driver impersonator drives at 70 mph into a row of cars that had to stop, and he kills, they should bring out the noose and deal with him there, to set an example.
This is great news — as long as the current and future administrations actually follow through on this commitment. Maybe then we can finally start weeding out the bad actors in our industry.
Next up should be the 26-foot box trucks operating with illegal hours of service. Many of them run without sleepers, proper insurance coverage, or active authority — and in some cases, without even a basic understanding of English.
It’s the government involvement that created the issues. So yes, the government will need to fix what they broke!
Isn’t it truck tires and freeze/thaw that breaks up the roads your dear government works each year to fix? There are a few other ‘endless tasks’ they take on that we’d be a bit sore over if they suddenly stopped…