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Quote of the Day
"Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall."
-- Stephen R. Covey
Drivers Sound Off
According to most accounts, the industry-wide annual turnover rate among drivers exceeds 100 percent. Of course, some carriers do a much better job of retaining drivers than the industry average. . . and some do much worse. To further complicate matters, some industry insiders claim that the high turnover rate is skewed by the 10 or 20 percent of drivers, many of them newcomers, who constantly churn through the system, switching jobs three or four times a year, every year. Given all the job-hopping, it's hard to tell exactly what is really going on out there, which brings up the following question:
Is the driver shortage for real?
Over the Road and Pro Trucker magazines put the question to those on the front lines, the drivers. Here are some of their responses:
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John Stuart, 53, Peru, IN Professional driving experience: 16 years "There's definitely a shortage out here because there's so much that moves by truck and so many of the guys are under the gun to get it done. They get in a jam or they just get tired, so they quit. I'm home every night, but I'm still putting in 12 to 14 yours a day. That wears on you after a while." |
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Don Krouskop, 56, Lima, OH Professional driving experience: 32 years "Yes, because everyone wants just-in-time freight. There aren't any warehouses anymore. Everyone is a new account. They want you to bring in 20 or 30 trailers a day so they don't have to pay for warehousing. It takes a lot of drivers and trucks to do that, and that creates a shortage." |
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Mike Dotzert, 56, Beardstown, IL Professional driving experience: 37 years "Did you say a 'real' driver shortage? Yes. You said 'real,' didn't you? The reason I said that is that most of the drivers you see out here aren't 'real' drivers. They're just steering wheel holders. That's my opinion. So yes, there's a shortage of 'real' drivers." |
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Dave DeYoung, 36, Spartanburg, SC Professional driving experience: 1 year "Yes, at least from what I see. I understand a lot of people are hopping around, but from what I can see, there are a lot of trucks on the road and all of them have signs on the back of their trailers indicating they are looking for more drivers. So I would have to think there's a driver shortage and it's real." |
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Jeff Ives, 44, Coon Rapids, MN Professional driving experience: 20 years "Yes, it's real. Why? Because it's a bad job, that's why. A lot of companies expect you to sit there all day waiting for freight and then drive all night. Who wants to do that? You get sick of it after a while, so you get out of it, especially these graduates from the truck-driving schools. They're led to believe one thing and it just doesn't materialize, so they quit after a few weeks." |
