There is this myth surrounding the trucking industry that there is a shortage of CDL drivers however the real problem is driver retention. The turnover rate at some companies, especially megas, is extremely high and its not uncommon for a CDL driver to work for multiple companies in a short time frame. Now this particular article is going to focus on experienced CDL drivers and not the newbies who quit in droves once they figure out that a truck driving career was completely different than what they had expected
Lack Of Miles
So you see an ad online advertising a CDL job that promises three thousand miles per week and when you talk to a recruiter for that company they basically say the same thing however when you start driving for that company you very quickly find out the miles are not there. Sure you may get three thousand miles per week once in a while or certain times of the year however the rest of the time the average is closer to two thousand miles or lower.
When you question the company about the lack of miles they will point to Bob who never goes home and stays out seven days a week for months on end. Yep Bob is getting three thousand miles per week but he is the only one.
Home Time Issues
CDL drivers make sacrifices to family and relationships in this line of work and they rightfully believe that a company should honor their off time/home time. For OTR drivers we have to schedule all of our appointments for the time we are away from the truck plus family events and basically everything else. So when a trucking company consistently screws up your home time it becomes very frustrating very quickly. Dispatchers will blame the load team and the load team will blame the dispatchers but at the end of the day the company promised you to get home and they failed to deliver.
Crap Equipment
The recruiter told you over the phone that all of the equipment the company use averages three years old or newer however when you are assigned a truck at the yard you find out the reality. The truck they do assign you was driven by the guy or gal who just quit. Why did they quit? Because the truck spent more time in the garage than it did on the road.
My first truck when I worked for Schneider National was a 2012 Freightliner Cascadia that broke down at least once per week. This truck had no inverter, the heater in the bunk did not work and I am pretty sure someone died in it judging by the smell. When you are driving OTR you only make money when the truck is moving and not sitting in the garage. If the company does not care about the upkeep and maintenance on their equipment you can bet they treat their drivers the same way
Bad Dispatchers
Now for this particular category we are not talking about dispatchers who are bad at their jobs and have no business working in the trucking company (and trust me there are loads of them out there) what we are talking about dispatchers who will tell you one thing one minute than something else entirely different a minute later. All this particular type of dispatcher cares about is getting the load from stop A to stop B and does not care how you do it. Whether that is driving in unsafe conditions to failing equipment to breaking HOS regulations the dispatcher does not care and will use every excuse and threat under the sun to get you to do it.
I have personally heard dispatchers threaten to reduce a drivers miles if they did not deliver that particular road through a snowstorm that saw multiple highways shut down. Dispatchers have their favorite drivers and it shows with the amount of miles they receive and getting the better runs. If you do not play their games your bank account will suffer
Lack Of Respect
Driving a truck is not easy and a CDL driver has to make a million choices a day to keep the vehicle driving shiny side up and getting the load to its intended target at time. However when it comes to doing something wrong or what they perceive as wrong the company quickly jumps down the throat of the driver and do not take the time to understand it from the drivers perspective.
It could be violating their following too close rule when in actuality the only reason the driver did jump over to the middle lane was that he/she was about to be cut off by some four wheeler deciding to jump onto a major highway twenty miles below the speed limit. Instead of taking the time to understand the complete situation the driver is written up
Money Or Lack Of It
This tends to show up more with Over The Road drivers as they do a ton of work that is not paid or not paid adequately. Sure the company may have a high CPM (Cents Per Mile) however when all you are doing is waiting on a load or a shipper/receiver the driver is not making any money. The CPM system is old and favors the trucking companies and not the driver. If you spend the week living in your truck then you should be paid for that time and not just the time the truck is moving
I am a regional driver who is paid by the hour so everything I do I get paid for it which should be the standard in all trucking positions however it is not and I honestly do not see the day that it is
Grass Is Greener
Your trucking company is starting to get on your last nerve so you begin to look at the wanted ads posted online. The company down the road is offering more money, more miles and better benefits plus a shiny new truck. Loyalty does not really exist in the OTR realm and it has to do with the reasons that I have mentioned in this article. If I am going to do the same job somewhere else but I am paid more than what is the risk of leaving. Worst comes to worst I give it a period of time and just move on to the next company making promises that the grass is greener just down the road
Like I mentioned at the beginning of this article that the driver shortage is a myth and driver retention is the real problem. When it comes to trucking companies the most important aspect is the CDL driver however they are not treated as such. Too many companies treat CDL drivers as a position that is easily replaced however the sheer cost of recruiting, hiring and training a CDL driver is pretty significant. Companies need to stop focus on bringing in new drivers and come up with solutions to keep the qualified drivers that they already have
