How much more can a company actually pay the driver, though? There's only so much money to go around in trucking, and you have to divide it into four columns.
Column A is the truck. It eats first through payment, fuel, and maintenance. It also happens to be the largest column of the four, as the truck expense itself will be over 50% of the revenue.
Column B is the driver. This is the second largest column. This includes pay, benefits, etc., to include acquisition costs.
Column C is compliance. This column is completely fixed, as it includes all of the required permits, licenses, DOT regulations, etc. It also includes overhead for the staff required to maintain compliance.
Column D is the actual profit. It is insanely small, as most companies operate around 3% these days.
I hear drivers talking about how they want a big truck with big power and big top speed, but they don't understand that that would increase the cost of column a. That money has to come from somewhere. Column C is fixed. Column D is very small. That means the money has to come from the driver.
I hear drivers talking about how high the gross rate is compared to how much they get paid to drive the truck. They don't realize that they are the second largest column, and that profit is extremely slim while compliance costs are fixed.
In reality, there is no more money to pay experienced drivers a higher rate unless the freight shipping rates increase to support this. This will not happen as long as those mega carriers continue to claim that there is a shortage of drivers. These carriers like to claim that there is currently a shortage of 35,000 to 40,000 drivers. If this were true, there would be freight sitting everywhere on docks waiting for a truck and the drivers could be paid more. In reality, that is how many empty trucks they currently have sitting in their yards across the country. Where did these drivers go? In the last 4 years, there have been 40,000 new entrants, that means there are 40,000 new trucking companies that opened their doors, mostly solo operations run by drivers fed up with what the large carriers are putting them through.
In short, there's no money because there is no actual shortage of drivers. The large companies are still claiming there is a shortage in order to lower the acquisition cost and training time for a new driver in order to keep driving rates farther down and to try and squeeze out all the competition.
Yep
It’s a race to the bottom .
And you’re correct in that unlike other career fields , in trucking there is zero room for advancement
The starting pay after training is basically the same as what you will always earn.
In other skilled trades like plumbing electrical or welding , the sky’s the limit for licenses and certificates and there is no endless stream of immigrants , since it takes four or five years as an apprentice to get your own state license .
The endless stream of immigrant drivers from India and Eastern Europe will make sure there is no shortage of drivers willing to work for minimum wage .
When my kid said he wanted to get into trucking, and I couldn’t talk him out of it , I finally suggested he find a niche that he wasn’t competing with immigrants and people just released from prison for the job .
During the CDL class at thw community college there was a company that does heavy haul oversize loads , that are secure loads .
The recruiter mentions average pay etc and everyone is interested , then says the applicants can’t have any unpaid child support , hapf
The class gets up and walks out ,
Can’t have any repossessions foreclosures judgments or liens , bunch more walk out , can’t have any felonies , or DUIs , no more than two traffic ticket convictions in the last four years and no tickets at all in the last two years .
Now there’s 3 students left , recruiter holds up the application and background check forms , about 120 pages , says it takes 6-8 weeks to get the background done , and drops them on the table with a bang , 2 of the students walk out .
Recruiter points to my kid and says “you’re hired !” ….
“as soon as we get the background check approved “
The shipper requires a passenger that stays awake at night to keep an eye on the cargo while the driver is sleeping . Shipper installed a satellite tracking system in the tractor ,
And the shipper does an extensive background check on the driver and the drivers siblings parents spouse and in laws .
W-900 with big power and after they’ve been there two years the driver gets to go to the KW dealer and pick the color of their new rig .
