With all of this combo mumbo-jumbo running around there is ample manpower to pull loads. You will never convince me that Landstar will have a sense of urgency about getting a service load 600-700 miles by time required to be there.
I also think that with all of the signs hanging all over all of our terminal's gates desperately seeking more "combo" drivers, my prediction is slowly starting to manifest itself. If you are going to try and run your company on the cheap and not pay people what the competition is paying, the prospects will stay away in droves no matter how much "bonus finders fees" you say you are going to pay. When SAIA starts a driver out at a penny more than our top shuttle driver pay and then over 18 months the pay increases to top pay, why would any driver choose to come over to el cheapo express?
Also adding to the problem that is slowly coming to fruition, the industry wide shortage of drivers in general coupled with the attrition of older drivers. The younger generation wants nothing to do with this business even with it being a much easier job than it was when I got into it. The regulations, the confiscatory rates just to get a CDL not to mention the cost of training, the CSA 2010 rules (ridiculous as they are), government intervention on things like $2700 fine for using a handheld phone (the HEIGHT of lunacy though I use hands free 95% of the time), the lack of pay for the job done (especially at this outfit), drug screens, alcohol screens (that we are not paid for...ludicrous) the law seemingly out to target drivers, the list goes on...younger people are saying the hell with it and want nothing to do with the trucking industry.
If I was a kid in my teens and was considering what I was going to do in my future, I would stay FAR away from this business. All of the hoops to jump through for a $50-60 k a year job? I, myself, would be doing something else. This problem is going to grow bigger and bigger and get larger and larger. The end pay is not worth all of the endless BS that you have to go through.
As the years progress and the older of us retire, there are not going to be the equal amounts of replacements entering the industry. At that point, these companies are going to be forced to adjust their pay scales to compete. I probably won't be around to see it but it is coming!