The Truck Driver Shortage is a LIE! Let me tell you how…

There is a big problem in America! No, I’m not talking about the issues of racism, sexism, classism, xenophobia, homophobia, misogyny, or any of the other blatant types of discrimination that we read about in the media. Instead, I’m referring to an even lesser known, more marginalized group of people… the owner operator truck driver. I know you’ve seen the news headlines recently touting the “driver shortage”, and the impact that it is having on the supply chain. In case you haven’t already heard, let me be the first to tell you… IT’s A BIG FAT LIE! There is not a shortage of truck drivers! There are thousands of valid class A CDL holders, across the United States, who have elected to not drive a truck anymore. These people have not relinquished their credentials. Instead, these valuable people have been forced to seek alternative forms of employment in order to be able to provide for their families. After 16 years in the industry, I am personally questioning the viability of continuing to work as an owner operator. I am close to making a life changing career decision myself…. let me explain.

I am an owner operator, truck driver, who operates my business within the SC ports. I have been a class A cdl holder since 2005. I was employed as a company truck driver, in the ports, from 2007 to 2011. I officially became an owner operator in 2011, and except for a period of one year, I have been an owner operator ever since. Being a truck driver was never my life plan. However, I was a college dropout, who was about to end a bad marriage, with a child that I had to raise. I had already begun driving school buses, and I loved driving. Unfortunately, I quickly realized that driving a school bus at $9.25 per hour, for 35 hours per week, would not be enough to support my child and myself. I needed to learn a skill, in a short amount of time, that would allow me to keep driving and make enough money to support us. I went to truck driving school, and earned my class A cdl. Within a year, I was able to acquire a job driving trucks locally in the ports. Local port driving allowed me to work a set schedule and be at home with my child nightly. I continued working as a local company driver, but after four years I realized that I needed to make a change. During this time, I had another child. Being a single parent required me to have to provide for, and meet, all my children’s needs alone. If I needed to take a day off because one of my children were ill, or had an appointment, it would take me two to three months to financially recover. I found myself in this predicament several times. I realized that I needed to figure out a way to make more money, and at the same time have more scheduling flexibility. At the time, by making $16 per hour, I had maxed out my earning potential as a company driver. Also, my days off affected the productivity, and profitability, of the company. Becoming an owner operator was the natural solution to this problem. It was supposed to be a win- win for the company and myself. So, I pursued this road.

While I have survived for 16 years in this industry, let me tell you it was not an easy feat. I quickly learned the hard way that it was never designed to be a win- win situation. I was an owner operator, but that was a glorified, titular, misnomer that was only accurate in theory. “Owner operator”, is a loose term, in trucking that has numerous meanings. There are lease owner operators, who purchase their truck from the trucking company that is providing the work. These drivers are treated the worst because the entire relationship is designed to benefit the trucking company. These drivers may work all week and earn thousands of dollars. However, they may not take home a dime of it, because the companies’ priority is recouping their money. By the time these drivers have paid their expenses for the week, there is nothing left. They essentially work for free. If there is any money left, it is typically not enough to live on. This model is akin to indentured servitude. Drivers essentially contract their life, and livelihood, to a trucking company for the duration of the contract. However, most just walk away before the end of the contract, because they can’t support their families.

The next type of owner operators are those who purchase their truck from a dealership, and then contract with a trucking company to haul their freight. These drivers have more financial flexibility because the company is not in total control of each variable in the equation. These drivers are contracted to the companies to haul freight, for a set percentage of each load, typically 74%. They must then pay their business, and personal, expenses from this amount. This model would work if there was transparency in the operation. Unfortunately, this model is flawed as well. This model is akin to sharecropping, where workers trust the landowner to be equitable in their dealings. However, the landowner is reporting lower profits, than what was earned, and higher expenses that the worker is not aware of. This forces the worker into a cycle of working, and making just enough to get by, but not enough to be able to better their condition. In essence, a legal new age crack deal. Like the sharecropper, even though the driver is under contract for a set percentage, they have no idea if what they are being paid is what they are legally entitled to. Companies do not give rate confirmations to drivers. A rate confirmation is a legal financial document containing an itemized breakdown of what all the parties in the transportation transaction make. A rate confirmation shows what the freight broker is paying and earns, what the company earns, and what the driver should make to complete a trip. However, since the companies do not give this to the “owner operator” truck drivers, they are able to cheat them, and pay much less than what they are legally contracted for.

The final type of owner operator, the independent owner operator, is the ideal situation. However, few owner operators ever achieve this status. The independent owner operator purchases their own truck, pays their own bills, establishes their own company, and hauls their own freight that they receive directly from a broker. The reason that few owner operators become truly independent is because there is a lack of information available. Most drivers don’t have the capital, resources, connections, network, or knowledge to be able to complete the process. It is this breakdown that trucking companies use to their advantage. Instead of educating drivers on how to become truly independent, the trucking companies abuse them and use their ignorance against them to fatten their pockets. Trucking is the only industry that I’m aware of, where the person contracted to do the work is not allowed to set their own price for the work. “Owner operator” truck drivers are forced to accept the scraps of money the trucking companies allow them to have, with no room for negotiation. It’s a take what we give you and make this amount of money work, or don’t take it and I’ll find another desperate sucker scenario.

Unfortunately, the business aspect of the “owner operator” model is not the only force that is set up to hinder the owner operator truck driver. There have been regulations put into place that have unfairly marginalized owner operators as well. From 1980 to 2010, a driver’s ability to earn gainful employment as a truck driver was based primarily on their personal state driver’s record. Starting in 2010, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) implemented a program called Compliance Safety Accountability 2010 (CSA 2010). Compliance Safety Accountability 2010 (CSA 2010) is a set of metrics that were put in place to help reduce driver fatigue and the number of accidents caused by fatigued drivers. The metrics were quantified based on the number of points issued during roadside inspections. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) required each company and its drivers to keep their metrics below the 74th percentile, out of 100. However, Compliance Safety Accountability 2010 (CSA 2010) penalized drivers for not being able to make enough money to afford to maintain their trucks. “Owner operators” were also being held responsible for maintenance issues on equipment that they did not own and were not responsible to maintain, such as a chassis and a container. For example, if a driver was inspected by a transportation police officer, and the chassis was found to have 3 lights out and the brakes were out of adjustment, they would be shut down and receive over 100 points against them. 100 points could then make the driver ineligible to continue to drive for the company and make finding gainful employment difficult. In the rare event that a company did retain a driver with high points, the company would be at risk for a federal audit and the potential loss of the ability to conduct business. Once a driver received the points, it would take three years for the points to go away. Thousands of drivers were deemed ineligible to drive, nationwide, due to these metrics. These people still held valid cdl credentials, but the government deemed them unemployable.

When I hear the narrative being construed by the news agencies, about a nationwide driver shortage, I laugh. The supposed driver shortage was created by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and corrupt trucking companies. When drivers left the industry, due to Compliance Safety Accountability 2010 (CSA 2010) or the inability to make a living, they retained their valid credentials. Meaning that there are thousands of drivers on state motor vehicle rosters nationwide that can drive trucks, but just don’t. The supposed driver shortage, that is being purported, is a problem that is being ballooned into something different than what it is. By claiming that there is a driver shortage, and by showing that the problem is uncorrectable and is now leading to a break down in the supply chain, the powers that be can now begin to shift to automation. Automation of the ports, rails, and the trucks that move goods. Equating to the justified loss of thousands of more jobs, but I’m just a truck driver…what do I know?

I know that this shedding of jobs can be avoided, and the problems can be corrected. It is not too late to do so. In order to do so, some further truths must be illuminated first. The first truth is that the unions control the ports. In most states, the ports authorities are simply storage yards. Some ports are even privatized, and are being operated by a governmental lobbying group. In both cases the workers that load and unload ships, check containers in and out, and repair containers and chassis are union. Don’t get me wrong, the union is a beautiful entity when it is used to set fair wages, enforce fair labor laws, ensure job security and safety, and help increase productivity. However, the union uses truck drivers as pawns on a chess board that they manipulate, and use to their advantage, during contract negotiations with the ports. When there are contract negotiations, or lawsuits that arise, the union slows the port work pace to a crawl. Once the pace of work is slowed, productivity decreases, and “owner operator” truck drivers earn even less money. Aside from using them as pawns, unions don’t have much use for the “owner operator” truck drivers. The union cannot help owner operators in their fight for change in their industry, or against the illegal practices exercised by trucking companies, because drivers are spread out at too many companies. Essentially, this means that there is no centralized way to collect union dues, and no way to fight the same issues at hundreds of companies at one time. So no union help for “owner operator” truck drivers.

The second truth is that there has been an influx of freight coming from across seas, after COVID shutdowns. It has been proposed that everything- ports, warehouses, rails, companies, and truckers- need to operate on a 24/7 basis to clear up the backlog. The only way that this can happen is if a federal state of emergency is declared. Allowing federal hours of service driving rules to be lifted from truck drivers (and rail workers) so that they can drive for more hours per day. Right now, truck drivers are only allowed to drive for 70 hours in an eight-day period, before they must take a 34-hour break. Those 70 hours can only be worked in 11-hour increments, that must be followed up by 10-hour rest periods in order to gain the next 11 hours. Even if drivers are granted the provision to drive as much as necessary, to move the freight, there would still need to be 24-hour dispatch and emergency structures in place at the ports, warehouses, rails, drop yards, brokers, and trucking companies as well. With all of these structures in place, there would still be a problem with getting the freight moved. There is a nationwide shortage of chassis available to move intermodal cargo. The chassis is the steel frame and wheels that a shipping container is placed on allowing it to be transferred from a port to a truck, to a train, or a warehouse, and back again. Those can’t be built over night, and it would be impossible to get all the freight moved by any other means. Besides additional chassis inventory, more union and port employees must be hired to ensure that there is enough equipment, operators, and workers to service the increase in workload. Finally, the ports would need to immediately expand the sizes of their terminals in order to be able to handle the freight volume. Since most ports are at capacity already, in congested areas, this idea is unfeasible also. The reality is, most of these very pressing issues are the result of the inability of the intermodal industry to properly forecast changes in the industry, and to plan for them. Since the issues weren’t created overnight, they will not be alleviated overnight.

The third, and final, truth is that truck drivers are among the least respected, widely unprotected, and most abused groups of workers. “Owner operator” truck drivers are at the bottom of the totem pole. Meaning they bear the most weight in the transportation industry. Like most industries, all the profits are circulating at the top. The only things that trickle down to the “owner operator” truck drivers are responsibilities, and problems. Owner operators work long hours and are not properly compensated. Here I am not referring to the contracted pay between the trucking company and the “owner operator”. Instead, I am highlighting how the inefficiencies in today’s supply chain, causes owner operator truck drivers to work without pay. When drivers go into the ports and must wait in long lines, due to conditions that are out of their control, they do so for free. There is no one to compensate for these holdups. In some ports the wait times can be as long as four hours, which cuts driver productivity and profitability in half. Being detained at any other delivery site or warehouse is no different. Drivers must wait for one to two hours before the company requests that the driver be compensated for their time. Some delivery sites do not pay detention at all, no matter how long they detain the driver. On top of not being compensated for detention, drivers are also charged for the malfunction of the equipment, they are using, that they do not own. When a driver accepts a container and chassis, from the port or rail, it is assumed to be road worthy. The trucking company accepts liability for said equipment from the steamship line or chassis leasing company. However, if the driver gets a flat tire on the chassis during that delivery, then the driver will be billed for the charges associated with replacing the tire. The cost of repairing a tire on the side of the road is about $500 dollars. So, this means the “owner operator” truck drivers who aren’t being paid what they should by the trucking companies, are required to pay for defective equipment that is leased by the trucking company and maintained by the union. At this point, I hope I am not the only person who realizes the irony in this conundrum. As you can see everyone is sticking it to the “owner operator” truck drivers.

Due to these recurring abuses, that no one seems to care about, “owner operator” truck drivers are tired. The ones that have left the industry, are gone and don’t desire to become reacquainted with such an abusive industry. The old school “owner operator” trucker drivers are retiring. Glad to be able to remember trucking in all its former glory, and quickly forget the headache it has become. The new age veteran “owner operators”, like myself, are getting burned out or squeezed out. Tired of carrying the country on our backs, but being disrespected, used, and abused in the process. Unsure of what to do next, as the fabric of the industry that we’ve invested so much of ourselves into continues to decline. The new “owner operator” truck drivers are coming into the trucking industry unsure of what it is supposed to be, but understanding that the current model doesn’t work. There’s no glitz and glam, and hardly enough money to maintain a business and a household. If the trucking industry continues its present trajectory, it will be unable to sustain itself. It will implode under all the weight that the people on the bottom of the totem are bearing. It honestly seems as though that process has already begun. Like many before me, and even more on this journey with me, we must now decide whether to stay aboard, or to abandon ship as it quickly takes on water. At this point in time, I haven’t decided what my next move will be, but I have options. I was fortunate enough to complete my undergraduate degree a few years ago, so I have something else to fall back on. Not everyone has that luxury. Some people have invested every ounce of their money, time, and well being into being an “owner operator” truck driver. No matter what I decide to do, as long as my health allows, I will always maintain a valid class A cdl. I will always be a trucker at heart. There are plenty of other drivers who have valid credentials and the heart of a trucker, but just can’t drive a truck anymore. They will tell you that the truck driver shortage is a LIE! Drivers are available, they're just tired.