What do you find to be the top three issues facing the trucking industry this year?

roadscholar88

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What do you find to be the top three issues facing the trucking industry this year? What do you think should be done to resolve these?
 
too much continued government intrusion


too little empathy from the general public


not enough (or lack of) real driver trainers.
 
1) Inadequate Driver training.--Trainee/Trainee training was never prosperous and history verifies.
1b) PROPER Driver Training BEFORE being released to team or solo.

2) FMCSA considering new regulation for carriers: FIT, UNFIT.--such, if passed, will have a large impact on ALL trucking companies, with emphasis on smaller trucking companies.
2b) Leaving regulation(s) alone.

3) Potential regulation to include 18-21 year young drivers, traveling INTERSTATE as if 21-23 isn't bad enough.
3b) Leaving existing 21 - 23-year-old regulation in place.

roadscholar88, thank you!
CHEERS!!
 
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What do you find to be the top three issues facing the trucking industry this year? What do you think should be done to resolve these?
Pay
Benefits
Home Time
That's if we are talking otr. For drivers working out of the LTL industry the mileage pay has barely moved in 20 years. The on board logs will make miles harder to get and it's only the employee that suffers. Every OTR company must pay a minimum of 55 cpm. Minimum.
Benefits should be the best available with the company picking up at least 50% of the tab. 20.00 copay and maybe 250 deductable then 90/10 after that. Max employee payout of let's say 2500......and no maximum of like lets say your insurance ends at 1,000,000. Insurance pays as long as you are employeed.
Home time should require a company to get their drivers home every 10 and allow a full 4 days off if requested by employee.

People of tired of low mileage pay with no detention time pay.....they want and need good health insurance for their families. And they want to spend time with their families. Too many broken homes due to trucking companies believing the driver is their slave. Its time to give back to the employee.

People are tired of being treated like slugs. That's why the industry is more than a million people short now. and most people under 21 are not prepared for the responsibility of driving a truck.
 
Detention time at shippers/receivers

Inadequately trained rookies being sent out on the road by trainers that slept the whole time they were "training" their student

Lack of adequate safe parking and amenities
 
Driver shortage & low pay & companies treating driver's like whipping dogs !!! all the younger guys are smarter than us & don't want to work for pennies on the dollar & 60 plus hours a week & never home !!!
 
I don't know if what I'm going to post is an 'industry issue' or a 'driver issue'. In my view they could be two different things.
IMHO, these trucks are getting too damn easy to drive.
We dont have a 'driver shortage', we have a 'qualified driver shortage'.
Nowaday's any darn fool can get a CDL, with the advent of cd players in trucks, Air ride, A/C, power steering , cell phones, fifth wheel unlatch w/the flip of a switch, and the worst offender of them all; the auto-shift transmission. The roads are full of idiots, and nin-com-poops that should never have anything bigger than a rider lawn mower.
Years ago, the biggest stumbling block for anybody was having the ability and skill of knowing how to shift a truck.
but with that now gone, there are more and more people that 30 years would have never thought of driving for a living.
I myself, dont want to see more drivers, I want to see less but better skilled drivers.
The larger the driver pool, the less each driver earns.
 
I don't know if what I'm going to post is an 'industry issue' or a 'driver issue'. In my view they could be two different things.
IMHO, these trucks are getting too damn easy to drive.
We dont have a 'driver shortage', we have a 'qualified driver shortage'.
Nowaday's any darn fool can get a CDL, with the advent of cd players in trucks, Air ride, A/C, power steering , cell phones, fifth wheel unlatch w/the flip of a switch, and the worst offender of them all; the auto-shift transmission. The roads are full of idiots, and nin-com-poops that should never have anything bigger than a rider lawn mower.
Years ago, the biggest stumbling block for anybody was having the ability and skill of knowing how to shift a truck.
but with that now gone, there are more and more people that 30 years would have never thought of driving for a living.
I myself, dont want to see more drivers, I want to see less but better skilled divers.

The implication that I'm less skilled than another driver because my truck happens to be an automatic is one of the more ridiculous thoughts I've read. Taking shifting out of the equation didn't make my trailer shorter or less wide. It doesn't enable me to make tight turns or get into bad docks easier than a shifter. It also doesn't magically make traffic easier to deal with. I learned to drive on a shifter and on occasion still have to drive one. When it happens, I don't feel any miraculous increase in my abilities just because of a stick and an extra pedal in the cab.

Technology has increased distractions in the truck. Sub-par training by people who don't even have 100,000 miles experience is turning out drivers that shouldn't be on the road. Shifters or the lack thereof aren't the problem. Arrogant attitudes from experienced drivers who think they're superior because their truck has a shifter is a problem, as well as drivers who have experience but are too busy recording a driver struggling to actually get off their lazy arrogant rears and help a fellow driver.

The only way to change this new culture is to lead by example and show new drivers the right way to behave out here. Otherwise all this talk is absolutely worthless.
 
I on occasion use a truck that has an auto-shift tranny, and true, the docks are not easier, the roads are not easier, the trailers are just as long and wide with the auto. What I was trying to say is the introduction of the auto into the trucking industry on the scale that has happened the last few years has enabled many more people that would have never otherwise given driving a thought in their minds as a way to make a living.
The company I work for now has many drivers that have the restriction on their CDL that limits them to automatics only. I asked them if they were required to learn how to shift would they ever have considered driving truck, and everyone so far has answered no.
 
The implication that I'm less skilled than another driver because my truck happens to be an automatic is one of the more ridiculous thoughts I've read.
I dunno, I came away with different thoughts on what he said. I didn't hear that anyone who drives an automatic is a nin-com-poop I heard that if one is too incompetent to shift a manual gearbox then they are too incompetent to handle the other responsibilities that come with the industry. Sort of a test of competence. Like they are dumbing down the driving factor to get more people qualified to perform the job. I would tend to agree with him and have even had management basically tell me that.
 
I on occasion use a truck that has an auto-shift tranny, and true, the docks are not easier, the roads are not easier, the trailers are just as long and wide with the auto. What I was trying to say is the introduction of the auto into the trucking industry on the scale that has happened the last few years has enabled many more people that would have never otherwise given driving a thought in their minds as a way to make a living.
The company I work for now has many drivers that have the restriction on their CDL that limits them to automatics only. I asked them if they were required to learn how to shift would they ever have considered driving truck, and everyone so far has answered no.
How do you get a restriction to drive automatics only? Shouldn't it be a requirement to be able to drive both?
 
How do you get a restriction to drive automatics only? Shouldn't it be a requirement to be able to drive both?

Here's how it works:
If you take your CDL test in an automatic then you are restricted from driving a standard shift truck.
If you take your CDL test in a standard shift truck then you can drive both. You have to take the CDL test in an auto shift truck you do that and you can't drive a standard shift truck.
 
Here's how it works:
If you take your CDL test in an automatic then you are restricted from driving a standard shift truck.
If you take your CDL test in a standard shift truck then you can drive both. You have to take the CDL test in an auto shift truck you do that and you can't drive a standard shift truck.
That's crazy. If you're going to drive a truck, you need to be able to drive both. What if your truck breaks down and they gift you a standard shift?
 
If you break-down with an auto, and they bring you a standard shift truck, you and the truck are screwed. I would be more sorry for truck than I would be for you.
 
What happened was some not all, but some driving schools did have to clean up there act and have people test in standard shift trucks. I'll be honest, good gravy I was an awful shifter when I started, by far one of the worst ever.
However I worked at it and worked at it some more and worked at it and kept working at it and eventually got better at it only took a solid year ha-ha! However what I think what it was, was because there's a steep learning curve in the beginning for people like my self and I think most places don't have patience for that.

I'll tell you what thought, once you get shifting down, you get it and it just comes naturally. I react to things now when it comes to shifting with out even thinking I just do it, but god when I first started I was awful ha-ha! Drives that now I don't even think about gave me a panic attack before. The down shifting killed me I was awful at down shifting by far the worst.

Now shifting is no big deal. Backing ends up becoming the bigger issue after a while and it's a good idea not to become complacent when it comes to backing maneuvers, we just had a safety meeting and they said backing is where most medium and heavy duty truck accidents occur.
 
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