In an edition of the trucking publication, Truck News, there was an article by Bruce Richards, entitled, ‘We Need to Stop Eating Our Young”.
The drift of the article was that older professional drivers are getting out of the trucking industry and they are not being replaced by nearly enough new younger truck drivers.
The article went on to say that we as an industry, need to spend more time nurturing people who are new to the industry, because the ‘industry has such a poor image’.
Although it was well written, the author missed an important point.
Bruce, let’s call ‘a spade a spade’. Forget about political correctness…. a trucking job just doesn’t pay enough anymore to justify the hours and the commitment AND the risk AND the time away from home. It’s just not financially worth it to drive anymore, for a living.
New prospective recruits can see just that and the old timers can see it too. While the cost of everything continues to rise, pay cheques become less adequate every year and that’s why truck drivers are hanging up their keys.
There’s just not enough money in it anymore, period.
That’s also why new truck sales are in the sewer. Owner operators can see there’s not enough return on their investment to borrow money for a new truck to replace their present truck. They’ll run their rigs, until it is no longer financially viable to do so,… a total period of probably 9 to 10 years and then bow out rather than replace it.
It’s all about money, Bruce. Pay it, and they will come. They’ll beat a path to your door, the way unemployment statistics are these days.
You can stroke and fluff the image all you like, but in the end, it still is, all about the money.