Not making very many deliveries these days....
"Trucking jobs abound, but applicants are few" by Russ Bynum |
Associated Press, October 31, 2012
SAVANNAH, Ga. — Even amid high unemployment, trucking companies have had a tough time
hiring young drivers willing to hit the road for long hauls. Now the
United States is speeding toward a critical shortage of truck drivers as
the economy recovers and demand for goods increases, an expert in the
inner workings of supply chains said in a report Tuesday....
The Department of Labor says the median yearly wage for
tractor-trailer drivers is $37,770, with some earning more than $57,000.
And meaning some earn a lot less because the median is the exact middle, not an average. Just a subtle distortion, obfuscation, and omission, but that's life on the AmeriKan media road.
Matt Handte, executive vice president of Tribe Transportation, and Tom Pronk, vice president of recruiting for C.R. England, a Utah company that employs 7,500 truck drivers who deliver foods from companies like Hershey, Nestle, ConAgra, and Coca-Cola to retailers, said some drivers can clear $100,000 a year.
Both men said older drivers are feeling pressured to retire by 2010
federal regulations that keep a closer watch on drivers’ work hours,
drug testing, and traffic citations.
And the job can be hard to sell to younger workers, who don’t think it’s worth the money to spend days and weeks on the road.
Yeah, I've heard about those lazy American kids.
‘‘For our new generation who’s coming into the industry, the job is
not as romantic to them as it was to their predecessors,’’ Pronk said.
Truck drivers need a commercial driver’s license. That can take a month or longer of classes costing $3,000 or more.
‘‘It is truly a special breed,’’ said one new driver, David Sheehy, 32, of Greely, Colo.
--more--"
Related: Sunday Globe Special: Truck Stop
Going to have to revise those health standards.
"Aging drivers present new transportation challenge" by Joan Lowy |
Associated Press, November 09, 2012
WASHINGTON — Important ramifications for all
Americans.
If boomers stop commuting in large numbers, will rush hours ease? As
age erodes their driving skills, will there be a greater demand for more
public transportation, new business models that cater to the
home-bound, or automated cars that drive themselves?
It was the boomers who made ‘‘his’’ and ‘‘hers’’ cars the norm when
they started building families and helped spread a housing explosion to
the fringes of the nation’s suburbs. Traffic grew when boomer women
started driving to work like their husbands and fathers. With
dual-earner families came an outsourcing of the traditional style of
life at home, leading to the emergence of daycare, the habit of eating
out more often and the appearance of more and more cars and SUVs....
As well as the jobs that went with it.
--more--"
Turns out we won't need you truckers anyway.
