Issues of the Trucking Industry
As an over the road truck driver a few years back, I was talking to a young driver in a truck stop in Texarkana. I had told him of my truck being hit during the night by another driver who drug his trailer over the right front fender of my tractor. It bent the bumper a good bit and did some damage to the fiberglass hood but was still driveable. But before I could get out of the sleeper, half asleep, there was no moving truck in sight, only parked ones. Sad reality being the driver may have been too tired or too inexperienced to even know he hit me. This young driver I was speaking with proceded to show me some pictures on his camera phone of the damage someone did to his truck. The entire hood was ripped off laying on the ground in a mangled heap. He had to have his company bring him another tractor to continue on his trip. So, you're asking, who hit him? Another driver from the same company. He said it wasn't the other drivers fault, he was just a rookie. I asked him how long he'd been driving and he said just over one year, a seasoned veteran by todays standards.
That's the biggest issue in today's trucking industry. Retention of experienced drivers is steadily declining bringing more rookies to the highways. There is a huge demand for drivers and most of the larger fleets will fill this demand with trucking school graduates. What one must understand is that a driving school doesn't teach someone how to be a truck driver, they teach them how to drive a truck or, better put, how to pass the CDL exam. There is a big difference. Not to say the schools are doing anything wrong. The only way to learn to be a truck driver is to get out there and do it. Four weeks of schooling can't compare to steering an 80,000 pound, 72 foot long commercial vehicle through New Jersey during rush hour the day before Christmas Eve. The schools do exactly what the trucking companies require of them though, get the students a CDL and let them do the rest.
The trend, though, of more experienced drivers leaving the industry creating the need for more rookies is the industry itself. I hear alot of discussions about how dangerous drivers are by not following the rules and regulations of the DOT, most importantly hours of service. What most people don't understand about that is the driver 99% of the time doesn't want to break these rules. He or she is forced into it by companies expectations of freight being delivered regardless of what the drivers log book tells them they can do. The trucking industry is a very competitive business. Noone makes any money on a truck that is sitting still. When booking a load for a driver in Dallas Texas headed to Atlanta Georgia, the company could sometimes care less that the driver doesn't have enough hours on his log book to make it there legally. And then when the driver gets caught for breaking the hours of service rules, he is stuck with the citation to pay for out of his own pocket. Not to mention, his truck is put out of service until he completes a ten hour break so the load still didn't get delivered on time which, of course, the company will blame on the driver.
Over a period of time, this business practice leaves a truck driver drained of his or her desire to continue in this occupation and they give it up for a nine to five job to be home with the family every night instead of propping his eyes open with toothpicks at 2AM because a dispatcher can't do simple math. Not to worry though for the trucking industry. There will be a rookie waiting in the wings for the chance to get his own truck and make "$35,000" a year just like the ad stated in the local newspaper.
My last trip in a truck was coming out of Dallas back to Georgia where I lived. I worked for a pretty good company that kept to the hours of service rules as much as possible and I had plenty of time to get there and was well rested when I started my trip. Just outside of Dallas, I pulled to the fast lane to pass a slower truck. Half way up his trailer he started to fade over into my lane. Not wanting to go for a ride through the median, I slowed and fell in behind the other truck. Once satisfied the driver might have been just a little distracted, I pulled out to attempt another pass. When I got to the door of his tractor I slowed to check on the driver. It was a young rookie with his chin touching his chest, fast asleep. It was about a month before Christmas and this guy would be lucky to live to see it. I called the Texas State Patrol to get him off the road then called my dispatcher and told her I was retiring from truck driving when I got back to Georgia. I loved driving a truck but I hated being a truck driver wondering whether that driver spent the holidays with his family.
The point of this discussion is that until the DOT can come up with ways to enforce the rules of operating a commercial vehicle at the management level, the drivers will be forced to break those rules time and time again. In an industry with so many driving schools growing an abundant crop of rookies, the companies will just replace a driver that doesn't do what's asked of him. So, you either do or you go look for another job where that company will more than likely ask you to do the same thing.
Let's face the facts, we've got to have commercial vehicles on the roads. If you bought it, a truck brought it. If you want it brought there safely, just like dusting your home, start from the top and work your way down. You'll find the dirt way before you get to the driver.
