Tons of trucking jobs ... that nobody wants

[Enrique]

97. thanks for posting that

this CNN story is just propaganda from one side. Here is a long post from the comments section.

Based on all of the trucking propoganda, I figured I'd give it a try. I mean, heck, starting pay according to one of the trucking companies in the article was $39K the first year. For that kind of money, I was willing to be uncomfortable, pay my dues, and work my way into better routes and better hours. After finishing at the top of my truck driving class, I reported for orientation. The motel, if you can call it that, was a mismanaged pig sty, which took me aback, but i said, "Heck, the trucking company probably isn't to blame for this and even so, I'll be on the road making good money shortly". Well, three days later I hit the road only to learn that I would be making $350 for a seven day week. The training consisted of me and an experienced driver keeping that truck rolling non-stop, that is, of course, until the weekend rolled around and we found ourselves sitting in a truck stop (imagine camping out in the parking lot of your favorite convenience store) waiting for freight. I was supposed to serve 270 hours as an indentured servant, but this turned into over 290 hours. Only when I told my instructor and my student advisor that I was not going to drive another mile for $350/week, did they let me out of the truck at my home terminal for assignment to my own truck. OK, again I was taken aback by the blatant abuse of an employee, but I said, "No matter, now I'm gonna double my pay and really start raking in some decent dough" Or so I thought. I was getting paid 29 cents/mile, which when you do the math (70 hours per week over the course of 8 days is all you can drive), and consider the truck would only do 61 mph, and consider that the miles paid are not actual miles, but a straight line from area code (pick-up) to delivery (drop off), my pay on a good week was only about $500. If you consider that you are off 1 day per week, that means you only actually work 44 weeks. 44 weeks x $500 = $22,000 per year. I'm still scratching my head trying to figure out who in their first year as a long haul trucker is making said $40K. In case you're wondering, I drove for over 3 months and quickly realized that the whole industry is built around selling the dream of decent starting wages to saps like me. I dropped off the key after 3+ months and chalked this up to inexperience and willingness to believe what the press and the trucking company are selling (i.e. a pipe dream to desperate workers). Those of you that think these jobs will be filled by 3rd world immigrants are, based on what I saw/experienced, spot on. I envision the trucking companies will, like many other industries, be asking their local congressman "...to allow X thousands of 3rd world workers to come into the good old U S of A and fill good paying jobs that American workers are no longer willing to do". Supply and demand would fix the wage problem, but not if you can simply open the flood gates to desperate immigrant workers. How does the American worker, who needs house, car, food, college, medical care, savings for retirement, compete against 3rd world labor?