Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/441527
Voices 4 | Overdrive | January 2015 In response to a story about fleet rep- resentatives discussing the challenges of driver recruitment and retention, owner-operator Robert W. Walker Jr. of Ohio wrote us: I find it very humorous that every time I see discussion on this subject, the basic point is always missed! I hear about the need for health and wellness and nice trucks to drive, but rarely do I hear the words more money! The rea- son older drivers are leaving is simply too many regulations and not enough money! I have the same problem. I am an owner-operator. No one wants to come up with enough money so that we are able to make a decent profit. … It always amazes me that a company can find money to do almost anything it needs to do except pay a decent wage to their drivers. Recent reader views on the com- pensation issue have ranged from satirical takes on the "driver short- age" term to nonplussed reactions to breathless mainstream reports on modestly improving pay condi- tions. However, as plenty of readers realize, truckers today do stand on the winning side of trucking's supply-de- mand imbalance. The savvy job/lease seekers and rate negotiators stand a much better chance to come out with positive income results than at any time in recent years. However, some like Walker are thinking beyond just the here and now. Washington State-based Tecco Trucking owner-operator Tilden Curl criticizes the self-insurance "privilege," as he calls it, that motor carriers enjoy. Self-insured carriers, rather than buy- ing from insurance carriers, essentially establish their own in-house financial mechanisms to satisfy the insurance requirement. Curl and other watchers believe this option is much cheaper for carriers and does not produce the same pressure to use safe drivers because there are no safety-sensitive premiums to be paid to an insurance carrier. Removing the self-insurance option would enhance safety greatly, Curl contends. "First of all, it would reduce turnover" because companies would have a greater incentive to retain safe drivers. As they are valued more, those drivers would "have something worth hanging on to." The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association long has advo- cated for removing the self-insurance option, commending the Obama administration for its inclusion as a provision of its "Grow America Act" highway bill draft earlier this year. On the need for greater earning po- tential for drivers across the industry, Curl notes that one reason "I chose a long time ago not to grow my busi- ness" was that he did not want to hire Pay key to industry's future Todd Dills Many readers believe the principal cause of the driver shortage is inad- equate compensation. Tom Teissire, commenting at OverdriveOnline.com, contended that company driver pay should come in at a "minimum 54 cents per mile with $24-per-hour downtime" pay. If a fleet "can't pay it, get out." No. 2: Ranking of "driver shortage" in the American Transpor- tation Research Institute's 2014 Critical Issues in the Trucking Industry list, based on carrier surveys.