A Slur on Truckers?

[eastside]

In an article about the deteriorating shipping situation from the West coast, a British magazine has this to say about American truckers:

"JIM YOUNG, president of Union Pacific, America's biggest railway company, told analysts last week that the company was 'preparing for a tough winter'....

"As the railways falter, America's truckers have picked up some of the slack....Bill Zollars, boss of Yellow Roadway, America's largest trucking firm, says that poor rail services have forced him to put 20,000 intermodal shipments each month back on to trucks.

"Now, however, trucking too is near capacity. Roads are congested and good drivers, like railway engineers, are hard to find. Truckers must be over 21, willing to spend long hours away from home, speak English and have no felony convictions. Disconcertingly few Americans actually fit that description, at least among those who want to be truckers."

I guess it's because of the long hours away. [:)]
http://www.economist.com/business/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3337020&tranMode=none
(Requires subscription)

[Anonymous]

I thought that the west coast slow down was done and over with!

[locomutt]

Pay for a subscription just to read and understand the article?!

HA HA HA HA HA

Highway robbery at it's best?!?!

[Anonymous]

Mark, for those of us in the dark, who is their target audience? The idle rich? College professors?

LC

[Anonymous]

Here in Canada you only have to be 19 to get a truckers license, though you only have to be 19 to drink too....

Something interesting about trucking, I was watching a documentary about trucking, and one truck driver was saying that he was making basically the same pay that he was 20 years ago...

I thought that was interesting, 20 years ago he said he was making a great living and now he's glad he's near retirement.

There aren't many people out there willing to dedicate their lives to a job that doesn't pay enough to make a great living, the expected quality of life is much higher now than it was a few decades ago.

Either raise the rates, or suffer worker shortages, it's the simple principal of supply and demand.

....if they paid truckers what they paid longshoremen, there would be line-up's at every trucking company for people wanting to drive.

[dldance]

Anyone seated in business class of an airplane - at least that's the only place I see The Economist.

dd

[locomutt]

QUOTE: Originally posted by dldance

Anyone seated in business class of an airplane - at least that's the only place I see The Economist.

dd

Probably because they can't afford 1st Class!![:)]

[Junctionfan]

I wi***hease businesses would stop their whining and excuse making and get going with the solutions. They are really starting to get annoying.

[greyhounds]

QUOTE: Originally posted by M.W. Hemphill

Perhaps they left out the part about the LOW NET PAY? Considering the hours, expenses, and lack of having a life? Yes, "disconcertingly few Americans" want to work for an effective sub-minimum wage, not when they have a choice -- and yes, that does tend to result in the job applicant pool being dominated by the people who can't get a job anywhere else, e.g., ex-cons, illegal immigrants, etc.

Go figure. The Economist is stumbling onto actual economics and like Claude Rains, they're shocked, shocked, that even truck drivers and other ordinary wage earners have figured it out, too.

Any commercially driven media outlet tends to reflect the beliefs and mores of the people who read it, and since The Economist doesn't have wage earners as a high percentage of their readership, they probably don't feel much need to address the wage earners' point of view. So they tell their class of readers what they think those readers want to hear, and the readers apparently are only too eager to have their belief system reinforced. The readers of such a magazine then resemble the drunk looking under the lamppost for his keys dropped somewhere on the block, while the magazine helpfully points the way to the lamppost.

I read The Economist for amusement, not enlightenment. This article is just more mirth.

Aside from that, Mark, what do you think of the magazine?

Long haul trucking is a terrible job. Just today, east of Chicago, Yellow/Roadway was involved in a wreck that killed four people in a SUV. Big winds today.

Imagine driving for 11 hours through a Montana winter storm - then sleeping in the back of your truck - then driving 11 hours through a North Dakota winter storm. $0.40/mile is considered good pay, but you're never home. You won't keep a marriage or relationship together.

The truckload carriers have a driver turnover of over 100% per year. The drivers take it as long as they can, then quit. Only to go back with a different company in a few weeks when the money runs out. Of course, some just love the life. Ain't enough of them to go around.

[CSXrules4eva]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Junctionfan

I wi***hease businesses would stop their whining and excuse making and get going with the solutions. They are really starting to get annoying.

Hey I agree w/ ya now days I hear so much juck about how much the railraods are doing a shotty job of transporting goods. I remeber a long long time ago when the only type of reliable transportation was the railroad. AND many companys relied on them, without rail they were lost it was back to cannals for them. I don't see the trucking industry taking as much heat as the rails, I don't like that.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by locomutt

Pay for a subscription just to read and understand the article?!

HA HA HA HA HA

Highway robbery at it's best?!?!

Yeah, and just LOOK at tose prices. $30/month for just the website...

FOFLMAO...

The whole magazine isn't worth THAT much...

LC

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by macguy

Here in Canada you only have to be 19 to get a truckers license, though you only have to be 19 to drink too....

Something interesting about trucking, I was watching a documentary about trucking, and one truck driver was saying that he was making basically the same pay that he was 20 years ago...

I thought that was interesting, 20 years ago he said he was making a great living and now he's glad he's near retirement.

There aren't many people out there willing to dedicate their lives to a job that doesn't pay enough to make a great living, the expected quality of life is much higher now than it was a few decades ago.

Either raise the rates, or suffer worker shortages, it's the simple principal of supply and demand.

....if they paid truckers what they paid longshoremen, there would be line-up's at every trucking company for people wanting to drive.

[tup] Canada has cool trucks, good beer.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by M.W. Hemphill

It burns very poorly. Too much clay.

I find clay based paper wanton as a substitute for toilet paper (too slick).

[Junctionfan]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jruppert

QUOTE: Originally posted by M.W. Hemphill

It burns very poorly. Too much clay.

I find clay based paper wanton as a substitute for toilet paper (too slick).

I can't imagine what a paper cut would be like....[:(]

[Anonymous]

Bottom Line:

The world is jealous of our prosperity. The left may whine about a 5% unemployment rate, but the bottom line is this. Our eeconomy is booming and there are not enough trained workers to get the job done. You won't read about how rough things are over seas because the news people don't want you to know the facts. They only print garbage like the Economist story turning and twisting the news to make prosperity look like a disaster. Doom and gloom sells well in their newspapers.

[broncoman]

Unfortunately as much as I like the trucking industry it would be nice if there was a level playing field umongst them. Trucks from the company that I work for get frequently scrutinized at weigh stations, (not undiservedly at times) and when the driver asks the inspector what about that tractor, (the one broke down looking one pulling the container) the inspector replies we would have to red tag it and they would just abandon and the state would have to deal with it. I work for a utlilty company that is very strictly regulated by the state. Usually what we get stopped for is small infractions such as mud flaps, but how many times have you seen that truck with lights out, a brake chamber hanging by the rod, or nearly bald tires. Its hard to for legitamte companies to compete with haulers that are able to cut corners like that.

[soapbox]

[Anonymous]

This is probably one of the few times I agree with Mark on political/economic issues. The Economist tends to play to an elitist audience, mostly those with leftist leanings. You will find no dirt under their fingernails.

[Junctionfan]

Well I'm a lefty and think their is more going on than meets the eye but generally speaking, after learning more from others, I would have to say that both sides are a bunch of complainers and really would be better off if they solved their own problems without nagging at the general populace who doesn't really care.

They don't want government interfearance so why have put it in a newspaper where voters and politicians can read it?

[passengerfan]

Having been a long haul trucker for 28 years I wam the first to admit it wasn't always easy or fun. I have driven 49 states and all of the Canadian provinces and two territories in that career and looking back now I don't beleive i would change anything. When i first started on the road the intersate system as we have it today was only in its infancy. You might drive twenty-five miles of interstate then it was back to the old two lane highway for the next seventy miles and then maybe another thirty mile stretch of interstate. When I drove most of the Alcan was unpaved great for winter driving but dusty as all get out in the summer and the traffic was horrendous in the summer months. My CB handle was Moose gooser at one time as I hit two that left me high and dry one I killed the other I dont think I even cripled but ended up with half his rack as a souvenir. He left me with $15,000 in damages and six weeks to get my rig repaired and road worthy again. . When I first began driving 185 hp diesels were considered big power along came the 220 cummings and we thought we had died and gone to heaven. Today the big cats, cummins and detroits top 400 hp and i listen to drivers still complaining. But some of us still have more sense than to take the interstate west from Larimie in the winter when the weather is snowing and blowing we remember the old route that runs alongside the UP mainline takes about thirty minutes longer but sure is less prone to closure in the bad weather. When U S 30 was all their was we got to see all of the UP streamliners and the turbines in their last years and then the centennials. So the old route wasn't to bad if you were a rail fan as well. Not many of the interstate routes are conducive to train watching but the old highways where they still exist certainly are in many cases running right alongside the railroad right of ways. I have seen recent highway maps that don't even show some of the old routes anymore. .

[railman]

Didn't most of the old highways follow RR alignments? In Minnesota most of the old roads follow the tracks.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by greyhounds

QUOTE: Originally posted by M.W. Hemphill

Perhaps they left out the part about the LOW NET PAY? Considering the hours, expenses, and lack of having a life? Yes, "disconcertingly few Americans" want to work for an effective sub-minimum wage, not when they have a choice -- and yes, that does tend to result in the job applicant pool being dominated by the people who can't get a job anywhere else, e.g., ex-cons, illegal immigrants, etc.

Go figure. The Economist is stumbling onto actual economics and like Claude Rains, they're shocked, shocked, that even truck drivers and other ordinary wage earners have figured it out, too.

Any commercially driven media outlet tends to reflect the beliefs and mores of the people who read it, and since The Economist doesn't have wage earners as a high percentage of their readership, they probably don't feel much need to address the wage earners' point of view. So they tell their class of readers what they think those readers want to hear, and the readers apparently are only too eager to have their belief system reinforced. The readers of such a magazine then resemble the drunk looking under the lamppost for his keys dropped somewhere on the block, while the magazine helpfully points the way to the lamppost.

I read The Economist for amusement, not enlightenment. This article is just more mirth.

Aside from that, Mark, what do you think of the magazine?

Long haul trucking is a terrible job. Just today, east of Chicago, Yellow/Roadway was involved in a wreck that killed four people in a SUV. Big winds today.

Imagine driving for 11 hours through a Montana winter storm - then sleeping in the back of your truck - then driving 11 hours through a North Dakota winter storm. $0.40/mile is considered good pay, but you're never home. You won't keep a marriage or relationship together.

The truckload carriers have a driver turnover of over 100% per year. The drivers take it as long as they can, then quit. Only to go back with a different company in a few weeks when the money runs out. Of course, some just love the life. Ain't enough of them to go around.

While the life of the long haul trucker is no bed of roses, neither is the life of the railroad train and engine crew in road service. The same long hours, the same long hours away from home with all the problems that brings to the marriage and family realationships. 12 hour horseing a train to 30 mile from the destination terminal, 3 more hours waiting for a ride to the destination terminal. Tieing up in the company mandated motel, eating at whatever food chain is near the motel. After getting rested waiting 8, 10, 12 or more hours to be called back to your home terminal. Battling the train and the railroad for another 12 hours trying to work your way back home only to be held at the last signal entering the destination yard until you go on the law and then wait for either a ride or a yard crew to get you into your tie up point where you mark off, go home an get called back out on your rest to do it all over again.