Comments on: Women in Trucking May Be the Solution to Logistical Teams’ Labor Challenges https://www.warehousingandfulfillment.com/warehousingandfulfillment-news/can-the-female-workforce-help-solve-the-truck-driver-shortage/ Thu, 12 Jun 2025 19:03:36 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.1 By: Sheryl Owens https://www.warehousingandfulfillment.com/warehousingandfulfillment-news/can-the-female-workforce-help-solve-the-truck-driver-shortage/comment-page-1/#comment-7784 Sat, 25 May 2024 18:33:18 +0000 https://www.warehousingandfulfillment.com/?p=7446#comment-7784 I started driving in 1984. At the time there was still freight regulations which forced companies to pay a good rate. When deregulation happened rates started dropping and brokers really started up. This has always been a problem. There is no transparency with brokers. Never will be. Freight starts around $5.00 per mile but by the 3rd broker there is nothing left but fuel if you’re lucky. That’s just a start to the trucking problem.

Now as far as driver shortage. It’s not a shortage. It’s a RETENTION PROBLEM. Companies that do pay respectfully and do have legitimate bonuses that really are obtainable and insurance you can use and afford and treat the drivers with respect do not have a very high turnover. They get it. Too many in this business have people in positions that can’t even find their way home when there’s a route problem. Let alone talking to a driver. All they know is the freight has to go no matter what. And drivers are too scared for their jobs to stand up and say NO it’s not safe. Wyoming in the dead old winter is a good example of not safe. Hundreds of crashes a year because some driver feared to say no. Not safe. When someone finually cracks down on the shippers and receivers to start respecting drivers at their facilities then the retention problem would change. Anywhere else you go – any other job has access to bathrooms, food other then vending machines, or can drive walk or whatever to. We are stuck for hours and nobody cares. Not there problem they say.

So until there’s change from within the real problems there will always be a driver shortage. Why would anybody want to come out in the world and want to drive when you’re treated like crap.

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By: James Ford https://www.warehousingandfulfillment.com/warehousingandfulfillment-news/can-the-female-workforce-help-solve-the-truck-driver-shortage/comment-page-1/#comment-7775 Fri, 24 May 2024 07:17:31 +0000 https://www.warehousingandfulfillment.com/?p=7446#comment-7775 As 37 years of trucking have passed in my life on the road there is in my opinion no trucker shortage. There is a shortage of shippers willing to pay what it costs to move the freight. For my truck it costs me $1.87 per mile to move my truck to break even and make no cash for me left. Shippers may be paying brokers 5 or 6 dollars a mile but that is not getting passed down to the truck after they take their cut.

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