What's new

XPO | Driver shortage

anosyone said:
In light of what is going on with ConWay here's an interesting article. Might be a good thing in the end concerning pay and benefits. Any company that has long term employees will want to keep them.

http://www.drivershortage.ca/?p=506#.VfTBvrROgUU
Click to expand...


This article is from 2013. They have already eased some of the rules. There will still be a shortage. But not as a result of legislation.
 
There is not a driver shortage, there is a shortage of good company's to work for. It used to be hard to get a job at CCX because they treated the employees good and had great benefits. now look at it. They will hire anyone they can find, truck driving schools and also their own driving school.Why? It went from a company that cared about their employees to caring more to the stockholders. It used to be hard to get a job at what is now YRC. What happened? The management and the Union sucked the company dry and the employees have to pay the price. I went to a interview at Holland last year. They wanted to start me out at 17$ hr, top pay I think was 21$ hr, no pension for the time being, NO 401K, mediocre medical plus pay union dues. The only thing keeping YRC alive is Holland. If it wasn't for them YRC would go belly up. No wonder company's can't find anyone to hire!
 
Last edited:
@Dodge Ram , you're exactly right. Every freight company has a thorn in some sort of way these days. They're all sorry to work for, just have to pick your poison and colors. Where you win in one way you lose in another :-/. They all used to be harder, much harder to get on with. Nearly any of them will hire a driver with the minimum qualification having a pulse.
 
I am looking at this as a good thing. I have 13 years left. Why should I jump ship. Why do you think YRC has so many employees? The benefits? Hell no. They are in the same boat that I am in. A lot of their people are close to retirement. They have no choice. I do and I see it as a good thing.
 
Dodge Ram said:
I am looking at this as a good thing. I have 13 years left. Why should I jump ship. Why do you think YRC has so many employees? The benefits? Hell no. They are in the same boat that I am in. A lot of their people are close to retirement. They have no choice. I do and I see it as a good thing.
Click to expand...


This whole thing should end up very positive in the long run. That don't mean it won't suck short term.
 
Dodge Ram said:
There is not a driver shortage, there is a shortage of good company's to work for. It used to be hard to get a job at CCX because they treated the employees good and had great benefits. now look at it. They will hire anyone they can find, truck driving schools and also their own driving school.Why? It went from a company that cared about their employees to caring more to the stockholders. It used to be hard to get a job at what is now YRC. What happened? The management and the Union sucked the company dry and the employees have to pay the price. I went to a interview at Holland last year. They wanted to start me out at 17$ hr, top pay I think was 21$ hr, no pension for the time being, NO 401K, mediocre medical plus pay union dues. The only thing keeping YRC alive is Holland. If it wasn't for them YRC would go belly up. No wonder company's can't find anyone to hire!
Click to expand...
I think you hit the nail on the head. I started driving 16 years ago and back then if you wanted a good local job you needed 3 years experience before you could even apply, now we got guys right out of trucking school. Plus where I am at we have a driver that has been driving for a little over a year training a driver who just got his license. I hope this practice changes.
 
Dodge Ram said:
There is not a driver shortage, there is a shortage of good company's to work for. It used to be hard to get a job at CCX because they treated the employees good and had great benefits. now look at it. They will hire anyone they can find, truck driving schools and also their own driving school.Why? It went from a company that cared about their employees to caring more to the stockholders. It used to be hard to get a job at what is now YRC. What happened? The management and the Union sucked the company dry and the employees have to pay the price. I went to a interview at Holland last year. They wanted to start me out at 17$ hr, top pay I think was 21$ hr, no pension for the time being, NO 401K, mediocre medical plus pay union dues. The only thing keeping YRC alive is Holland. If it wasn't for them YRC would go belly up. No wonder company's can't find anyone to hire!
Click to expand...
You are correct about YRC, except they are paying .25 for retirement now it isn't much but it is better than zero and the medical is actually quite good with very low deductible 200 per person and 400 per family with zero taken out of your check. You are correct though I can remember going to apply at Holland in the early 90's and the TM told me if I wanted to fill out an application I could but it would go to the bottom of the pile and never see the light of day again. Now they are on billboards and radio stations it is almost embarrassing.
 
the5tolls said:
You are correct about YRC, except they are paying .25 for retirement now it isn't much but it is better than zero and the medical is actually quite good with very low deductible 200 per person and 400 per family with zero taken out of your check. You are correct though I can remember going to apply at Holland in the early 90's and the TM told me if I wanted to fill out an application I could but it would go to the bottom of the pile and never see the light of day again. Now they are on billboards and radio stations it is almost embarrassing.
Click to expand...
And radio ads , internet ads , trucking magazines..... I don't know , did I miss one of the ads?
 
I am still curious what this Jacobs guy is going to do to " win " drivers the way he " wins " customers. Especially if he sells off Truckload.
 
highspeeds said:
I am still curious what this Jacobs guy is going to do to " win " drivers the way he " wins " customers. Especially if he sells off Truckload.
Click to expand...
well, for one thing he said in a video interview on Bloomberg business news that he would show us Conway drivers..." even more love". What this means, I suspect, is for him to keep his promise to maintain our current pay and benefits through 2016 and hopefully well beyond just next year. If he does maintain our current P&B after 2016, he'll win me over. He's quite the smooth operator. I saw him in a you tube video, (an XPO advertisement), talk about how he treats all his customers like gold. He even surveys customers that have just had their freight delivered asking about the service. Apparently he does this to try to improve his customers experience and to keep his delivery guys accountable to perform well. As for another thing, winning truck load drivers will no doubt prove to be a considerably more difficult task. If he sells that division off,(word is that he is a little indecisive on that idea for the time being), hopefully he will offer those guys XPO LTL jobs if they want them seeing how there will be a real need for more drivers and everything else if he truly intends to scale up his business by going after economy LTL freight.
 
vetran peddleman said:
well, for one thing he said in a video interview on Bloomberg business news that he would show us Conway drivers..." even more love". What this means, I suspect, is for him to keep his promise to maintain our current pay and benefits through 2016 and hopefully well beyond just next year. If he does maintain our current P&B after 2016, he'll win me over. He's quite the smooth operator. I saw him in a you tube video, (an XPO advertisement), talk about how he treats all his customers like gold. He even surveys customers that have just had their freight delivered asking about the service. Apparently he does this to try to improve his customers experience and to keep his delivery guys accountable to perform well. As for another thing, winning truck load drivers will no doubt prove to be a considerably more difficult task. If he sells that division off,(word is that he is a little indecisive on that idea for the time being), hopefully he will offer those guys XPO LTL jobs if they want them seeing how there will be a real need for more drivers and everything else if he truly intends to scale up his business by going after economy LTL freight.
Click to expand...
All drivers are not created equal. I won't put it in a post on this public forum , but , be careful about offering jobs in LTL to Truckload drivers. The bar is set even lower in Truckload than it is in LTL.
 
icuicp said:
All drivers are not created equal. I won't put it in a post on this public forum , but , be careful about offering jobs in LTL to Truckload drivers. The bar is set even lower in Truckload than it is in LTL.
Click to expand...
thanks for the info... I'm enlightened. My only experience in trucking is strictly LTL. Had no idea TL guys were undesirables to LTL companies.
 
vetran peddleman said:
thanks for the info... I'm enlightened. My only experience in trucking is strictly LTL. Had no idea TL guys were undesirables to LTL companies.
Click to expand...
Some of the best drivers in my barn were OTR, some from Truckload and some from others. That being said, some of the worst came from that sector as well. I include myself, in the good group.
 
radman said:
Some of the best drivers in my barn were OTR, some from Truckload and some from others. That being said, some of the worst came from that sector as well. I include myself, in the good group.
Click to expand...
Glad to hear that you consider yourself 'in the good group'. thx for your honesty & candor.
 
highspeeds said:
I am still curious what this Jacobs guy is going to do to " win " drivers the way he " wins " customers. Especially if he sells off Truckload.
Click to expand...
Even though the article is from 13, the writer obviously has never looked at a BN, or any other railroad container train lately. JB Hunt, Schneider, Swift, UPS and many others discovered they cannot find people to stay out in a truck for weeks on end. Now their drivers are running containers in a 400 or less mile radius and getting home way more.
 
I'll restate what's already been said. There's a good job shortage not a driver shortage. 40 years ago if you got a job with a LTL carrier you were the "elite", now look what you can pick from. Sure the top drivers at the better companies on the longest runs maxing out on hours with no life can probably hit $100k. Think of all the BS a kid has to go thru to get there and it ain't worth it. And with this race to the bottom these days it probably won't even be possible.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top