Truckers struggle for work as demand drops | NewsNation Now 

The American trucker is the most abused and under appreciated employee. I left the Industry 5 yrs ago. I miss the road but not the shippers, receivers, 4 wheelers, truck stops, DOT, dispatchers, wrecks, construction or the lack of, etc. Take care of the drivers America. They take care of you day and night.

Honestly truckers aren't appreciated I would be retiring next year and i can't say the thought of retirement keeps me worried. My apologies to everyone who have retired and filing social security during this time after putting in all those years of work just to lose everything to a problem you never imagined to happen. It’s so difficult for people who are retired and have no savings or loved ones to fall back on.

I have been a trucker for 32 years and it is getting worse every day. There is no shortage of truckers there is too many brokers that are crooks and liars. The trucking industry is by far the most regulated industry around. We need a major platform like news nation to bring all of the problems to light.

There is no drivers shortage. There is a shortage of good trucking jobs. Most are low paying garbage jobs with high turnover.. Bring back Regulation like the 60s and 70s when it was a high paying job

To all of you truckers. Thank you for keep our economy moving.

Trucker’s definitely need more places to PARK 👍👍👍

The demand is not down, rates are down, and until we stand together this industry will only get worse, allowing 18 year olds to come in and hold steering wheels is not going to work either, drivers need to take a stance now

A company can find a steering wheel holder, but a good driver that knows the ins and outs of the industry, is priceless. Too bad mega carriers will never realize that.

The bathroom situation is real and it’s disgusting. You want your merchandise but can’t offer me a restroom. Then complain when stuff gets left in the parking lots.

My advice to truckers is to drive for a private carrier that hauls their own freight. For example grocery stores.

It DOES NOT cost $300 to start a trucking company. This will get you a DOT number. THAT'S IT! My start-up costs, not including the truck which I paid for in cash, were roughly $7,000. Just the down payment for insurance, even though I had a clean record, an 800 FICO, and 6 years with a CDL, was $4500. Actually, the plates and registration were about another $1800. So my costs were a LOT MORE than $7000.

Never was a shortage of truckers. Its just a recruiting line to draw people into an industry that sucks!

After trucking for 15 years, this is why I finally quit trucking and sold my truck. I miss trucking when it was fun and rewarding even though it was very challenging when it came time to shut down at the end of the shift but the last few years were getting ever so brutal. I mainly worked enough to simply keep the maintenance up just to drive for free. Its unfortunate the very lifeline of this country and the rest of the world has been neglected and underpaid.

Alot of these issues we drivers face today have been worsened by us drivers....trashing every place we park and every bathroom we've been allowed to use at shippers and receivers etc. Don't haul cheep!

Maybe they could get a job delivering coke to the White House ?

Of course trucking has high turnover because your dispatcher will be begging you to keep moving even if you're tired. Truck drivers are over worked and under paid.

Everybody bought a truck, and slapped on a handwritten sign. The supply over ran the demand. Freight rates tumbled. Now they are going broke. Shocking 🤓

The most horrible thing is accidents on the road. Also, road works everywhere, it never seems to be finished. Sometimes unnecessary and needless traffics because of road work employees didn't put a proper sign before the actual work zone. Another thing that is boring is that in truckstops nobody talks to anybody. It is like a gulag regime in which one has to sleep, wake up, hit the road for eleven hours and do that for month, years and decades. Trucks stops back in the day were fun places to hang out in as far as I understand. Also, food in truckstops is designed for street dogs.

That man explained it perfectly. I quit being a trucker 15 years ago because of these reasons.

Shortage? You can’t even find parking. If we increase more trucks on the road with modern day steering wheels holders. I’m done!!! No more.

Millions of people have walked into the country in the last two years and tens of thousands have a class A.

I drove truck for 14 years. I retired 3.5 years ago. There is a reason why there are so few places for truckers to park their trucks. That is the continual abuse of the facilities and the people who run them by truckers. Imagine having to clean up urine and feces from your lot daily. Imagine finding discarded truck parts and bags full of garbage, bags full of feces, bottles full of urine left laying all over despite disposal facilities being available. Imagine your bathrooms being an unsanitary mess every morning despite your best attempts to keep them clean and sanitary. This has gone on for years. Companies use to let drivers park in their lots until the situation became unbearable and they shut it down. Walmart use to be trucker friendly. Again, constant abuse along with having to deal with drivers with an entitlement mentality drove them to stop allowing truckers to park there. Don't believe me? Talk to the people in major truckstops that have to deal with the drivers. Walk the lots and check out the bathrooms. The level of professionalism among truckers has to go up before anyone is going to invite truckers back onto their property again.

I just drove from Las Vegas to North Carolina. There are more trucks on the interstate 🛣️ than cars! Facts

Never been a shortage, it's just poor pay in addition the general public has less money to spend due to inflation .. Go Biden..

No way I would want to drive a truck in this day in time! Just look at what they deal with when your on the Interstates! 4- Wheelers never giving them time to pass, road raging on them, Being fools trying to beat them passing them on the right. Over regulated with constant law changes, No places for them to park when it is time to sleep, lawsuit abuses out the wazzoo, and on and on. I asked a buddy of mine why he keeps doing it and he was honest he does not like toiling at work he wants to just drive and kick back. I was like you cannot even do that anymore. It is a real mess! I had a driver road rage on me the other day because I slowed down to let a trucker get over so he could pass. I appreciate truckers all of them except for the crappy drivers that have a governed 68mph truck that try to pass 69mph trucks they are the lowest of low and should have their CDL's pulled!

Start paying by the hour, with overtime after 40. And pay for all hours worked

There is no driver shortage! Concocted by the mega carriers! Fake!

There was never a trucker shortage (mega carrier turn over/retetion). If I cant find a place to park there is no shortage. The issue is the over regulation, bad brokers. Also, issues with shippers and receivers. Everyone thinks this is an easy job, its under represented, under appreciated and under paid and mistreated.

Us diesel mechanics are feeling it as well because most truckers aren’t getting their trucks serviced because of being tight on money and I don’t blame them

As a truck driver myself thank you for covering this important topic as the big news stations like fox news, CNN, MSNBC, etc will not cover these kinds of topics that could impact every single person in this country, but also our supply chain as well. ❤❤ God Bless you News Nation!!!

I have a small trucking company and going from 800+ load a day in Minnesota to 150 a day since Biden took over the economy is crashing and people are in major debt

Drove for 18 years gave it up about a year ago so glad I did the industry is horrible these days good luck new drivers..

This was spot on. Driving during the Covid years was just beautiful. Plenty of work and hardly any traffic. Trucking is thee craziest industry on the planet.

Trucking for 25 years. Its just gets worst every year. Its sad because it used to be a fun. Too regulated 😢

Bummer that I have been able to keep my 38 Drivers loaded with the same Dedicated Contract Customer that my Dad Signed up in 1974. I am the ONLY Carrier that Hauls these Customer's products. Other have tried to get them from me but failed.

He didn’t say anything about brokers stealing money off the top

I’ve been in the industry almost 2 years. I thought I was gonna make a lot of money in trucking before I went to the driving school. It turns out that I make 800 dollars per week. That is like a regular job, or a regular job is better than trucking. Every day we put our lives in danger for minimum wage. It is not worth it. I’m leaving the industry very soon.

The one thing i hate about trucking is the parking i cant stand after 7pm its so hard to find spots except paid parking

There was never a driver shortage, just a shortage of drivers that are willing to work for slave wages. I've been a local company driver for over 25 years, paid by the hour for every minute that I'm on the clock. I would never take a driving that pays by mile, the stop or trip pay, especially as a company driver. It's all a scam to not pay you for your time. If it was more cost effective for companies to pay drivers by the hour, then all drivers would be paid by the hour.

The struggle is not to find work the struggle is to get paid a good wage to try and offset how expensive everything is. Including fuel, insurance, fighting the inflation thanks to sleepy Joe.

Trucking Job goes up and down 😂 am a trucker and I deal with ups and downs it's life .

I'm 61 and can't wait to sell my truck and call it quits. 16 years of bs and it's getting worse everyday.

The problem isn't lack of truckers is the greed of mega carriers being too corporate heavy and keeping all the profits for themselves. Brokers make it worse by screwing over truckers taking 30-55% of the revenue. America runs off material cheap consumer goods, inflation has caused most to stop buying junk hence dry van work sucks. Most other areas in trucking are steady.

News: "Driver shortage" But also news: "ToO mAnY dRiVeRs"

1. Too many new owner operators and especially older model 2006-2012 trucks on the road. 2. Too many powerful Brokers (new & old) who are changing the game and making it damn tougher on the driver. Late fees No detention pay Penalties deducted for not load tracking Low criminal freight rates. Too many foreign owner operators and now foreign big company drivers. Too many new foreign broker agents Too much DOT/ FMCSA new rules and truck inspections Shippers and receivers anti trucker attitudes have worsened. AND D.A.T. Load board, Brokers and Shippers are all working on the same team. Oh, y'all ain't heard about this!

Demand drops? There's such a backlog on freight that needs to be moved its pathetic.

That old man knows what he's talking about.

Sick of dealing with broken equipment. So many times narrowly avoided bloody accident. People take your hard work and sacrifice for granted. Deteriorated health. Disgusting industry.

There's a lot more problems drivers have is cameras pointed at them at all times. Anyone in the dispatch office can turn it on remotely. They say it only records when there is an event. It's a lie. For those who don't know. Just about every truck on the road today is recording what's in front of them. Road ragers have no idea they are recorded. More problems is the brokers constantly monitor the driver through required traking apps on the drivers personal phone and sometimes calling 20 times a day. And yes there is no pay sitting at the dock getting unloaded by a rip off lumper service that takes 4-7 hours leaving their trash in the trailer. Some do pay a detention after 3 hours, but it's pennies on the dollar.

um .. theres been a driver shortage for decades . walmart paying like 90k + for newb cdl drivers . garbagemen making 120k . fuelers ,tankers also . Plenty of trucking jobs paying a Ton . 5k for trucking school is a great ROI . Meanwhile folks with 300k in college debt , earning 45k per year 🤦🏻‍♀ . Get in a truck . Lots of Demand for good drivers .

Started driving at in Feb 2023. I was 23, turned 24 and missed so much. The people on the road, even other drivers have literally no respect for you or themselves. I literally felt like i had to dodge accident daily. Maybe it was my experience but it got old real quick. Truck Parking is just ridiculous. We have to stop by law after 11 hours of driving or 14 hours of work. I have no problem with companies making a profit but when you have to hope and pray for a free parking spot, it gets frustrating knowing you’re going to have to pay 20 dollars at the very least to not violate your HOS. Ive never had a problem at a shipper from what I remember but I can’t remember the last time i had a good day at a receiver. My first load in US Foods down in North Carolina. Was 5 minutes late because I didn’t know how to properly utilize my hours. They gave me my door and paperwork to fill out. I backed into the door just a little and tried opening and filling out the paperwork they gave me. The dock worker then tells me “can you hurry up, they didn’t give you that paper for your health.” Then he proceeds to give me shit over the seal because i had a hard time braking it. I told this man that i was new and instead of being a dick he could just help me. The couldnt give two shits. His coworkers was the only person there willing to help me. Little did i know, this was going to be my life for at least 6 months. Long hours. Expensive and unhealthy food. The public restrooms… God the public restroom… Loneliness and somehow always feeling broke. I worked for TransAM at the time and they were okayish of a company. But after doing the same stuff over and over and still felt like a loser, i called my closest marine corps recruiting station and decided to go to the military. I leave for bootcamp in September. I went in thinking it was easy money but then realized how boring, draining and unfulfilling it can be. Its not a job for everyone and I quickly learned why this line of working is a revolving door. Good luck to everyone else still keep our economy going.

All the Executives, CEO need to have any & all compensation seized. Bankruptcy; I really think that the Teamsters & Members have an opportunity to make YELLOW an Employee Owner Business & save jobs & working families.

There was never a driver shortage.

Well $1.30 a mile will kill all truckers….. that’s 1990 pay…..

That's happening with every company. This is what I mean about no loyalty. It happened to me too, they give the new employees the extra money, and they give nothing to us that have been there for years. It's crap.

We need a strong union and some rules for the brokers.

This is a receipt for a recession

That’s a lie for people that don’t know the trucking business. When you go to shippers and receivers everyday and you have to wait to get unloaded…..

Abolish the PAY-BY-MILE SYSTEM, THE PERCENTAGE SYSTEM, THE FLAT RATE SYSTEM, THE LOAD SYSTEM !! THE ONLY FAIR SYSTEM IS BY THE HOUR: NO MORE FREE HOS !!

Theres lots of work in trucking . The problem is us the drivers we need to stop taking cheap freight from these damn brokers. Who get loads for 6 to 7 thousand but find a driver who will do it for 1500-2000 and the broker pockets the rest. We need to come together and stop this . Stop taking cheap loads. Open your eyes a borker gives u a cheap load . Thats what your life is worth to that broker. Stop being stupid .

The rules and restrictions make it undesirable to be a trucker.I hit the road in 1978.When treated like a 3 year old,that sucks.

Almost $7k to go to truck driving school. So, yea, not as 'easy' as he says it is. Then good luck making it through an orientation with a company, a couple weeks with a trainer, on the road and getting a truck to drive. Not that easy

Unbiased is nearly impossible. Get ATA on here. They want to reduce the driver age to 18 to alleviate the driver shortage that's been made up and explained by Todd in this episode. ATA is supported by a few major companies and the doors of congress are open to push forward their agenda...OIDA has to stand on the steps and beg for an ear to hear the independent drivers.

True, it's absurd how many shippers and customers don't let drivers use the bathroom. That number should legally be 0 but it's closer to half.

Lol he didn’t even mention brokers and all the scams

Thanks, I disagree, companies are cheap, they know they can hire someone, but one mayor problem its safety,another issue it's the government they want money,if you can't find a job, parking space, they go after the drivers, it's a brutal world, today's economy owners are not making money, I was a trucker for 20 years I quit, and advice my friends not to go on business driving, sorry.

Imagine delivering a full load from Toledo, OH to Houston, TX for $2600, it's absolutely ridiculous.

what leaves me frustrated is to drive for Uber you must have 1 year of driving experience but you can apply for CDL the same day you got your regular license! P.S. I'm a trucker myself

I have a friend who bought 2 box trucks and now he is screwed on making money to even pay for his trucks

They keep saying there is shortage of truck drivers

Brokers needs to be regulated. They shouldn't get more than 20% of what the shipper is paying. Who can afford to live on $1.5/mile!

They bring drivers from overseas .Company visa solutions drivers pay 30k to come here with visa solution they get cdl right way.And you ask what going on 😮😮😮

And I’m pretty sure this is news for OTR(over the road) drivers. Local, company drivers got no problem finding work.

Make matters worse is my son-inlaw is a "Longshoreman" and his father is a Longshoreman at the Port with 16 years senority with the Union. Son-inlaw had to get a job at target as he couldnt get assignments, and his father is lucky to get 20hrs a week. Hes looking at possibly working part time at Amazon.

What's going on here is that right now there is too much capacity. When covid started, freight rates sky-rocketed. So every Tom, Dick, and Harry said, "I'm gonna go buy me a truck and make a gazillion dollars!" For awhile, that’s exactly what was happening. Newbie owner-operators were making money hand-over-fist. But then the music stopped and reality hit. So these folks are now stuck with truck payments for a truck that they paid triple book-value, with hefty interest rates. Between the truck payment and insurance, it is safe to assume that these folks are shelling out over $4000 PER MONTH. Fuel cost is about .50 cents a mile if they have a fairly efficient truck. So if they run 10,000 miles a month, they're looking at another $5000 a month in expenses. So that brings their total to $9000 a month in monthly expenses, on just these THREE ITEMS! Welcome to trucking! A lot of owner-operators, and even pretty big companies, have gone belly-up already. More to follow.

To start a trucking company it cost $300 wtf to get my own operating authority from DAT it was $1000 down payment on insurance $5000 register the truck and trailer 1700 brand new truck 160,000 trailer 45,000 to get my CDL that cost me $3000 $300 where not to mention, all the permits you need an electronic logs 😢😢😮😮

Complete BS. I've been driving long as this guy. The insurance and brokers is killing the industry. I pay 2800.00 monthly per truck. Then the brokers keep 80% of what the shippers pay for delivering the load. Brokers should only get 3% of the load and the rest goes to the trucking company because we have all the burden and fees.

That is right, no place to park especially in Kentucky. The midwest GA, Florida is terrible to run through too no place to park and truckers are doing a service to shippers and receivers and no bathrooms that is not right for them to treat truckers like that especially when they make us wait for a long time to get loaded/unloaded. What the lumpers charge is a total rip off too.

Funny they are talking about training, but these old timers never received much training themselves!

Lesson learned - don’t rush into something during a boom period with the expectation times will keep on going forever

Nonsense have you seen any less traffic, any less people eating out, flying, vacationing, shopping, nope me neither.

It will pick up when the weather cools down and when the cost of living goes down People are struggling just to put food on the table 😢

Maybe this applies to dry van but flatbed and tankers are still short .

Please don’t let this video fool you. It take $300 to apply for an operating authority. You aren’t given then authority till you’ve spent thousands on commercial auto insurance. Then you need to spend money to get a truck and/or find an owner operator. If you spend the tens of thousand of dollars to get a truck you needs to spend money to find an employee to drive it if you don’t have a CDL yourself. Plus you don’t get paid the good rates till you own your own trailer. That’s another couple to tens of thousands. Don’t get me wrong the barriers to entry are low but only if you have money to spend. Plus the DOT does random safety inspections all the time on trucks. It’s not like you can buy a beater and you’re set. Failing an inspection can shut down your whole operation.

There are all kinds of jobs for good, experienced truck drivers.

Todd knows what he is talking about!

I just got my CDL and am starting with a new company this August 28th. So far everything I have heard sounds very discouraging.. Low pay, poor conditions, DOT, ELD, Not able to set your own hours / schedule.. No where to park / sleep.. Shippers/ receivers taking excessive hours to load / unload.. and being away from family & friends for weeks or months at a time.. is it even worth it?.

Nebraska really really needs to provide bigger truck parking.

No Truckers, No Grocery Stores, No Farmers, No Banks, No Food, No More People. Thank Billy Boy Gates + New 🌎 Order.

Trucking has always run in cycles and right now many hard good retailers are dealing with an overstock of inventory where shipments were delayed during the "pandemic" and then opened up last year filling up their warehouses with inventory along with a somewhat slowing economy and consumers cutting back on unneeded spending. Truckers for decades are either getting run to death or struggling to get loads to keep the trucks on the road, just the nature of the business and the owners/companies need to take the excess from the good times to weather the bad times.

This man is a smart trucker, he adress some of the cammon problems that the average truckers are facing daily.

6 months ago I heard from every microwave you have a truckers shortage. What should people do now, who dropped everything and switched into trucking?

things are just going back to normal now. nothing to see here

It DOES NOT cost 300$ to start a trucking business. You would need at least 5,000$ just on permits. Not including truck down payment and Insurance

Everything has changed after COVID. Rates are low the middle person taking more then 20% of the load and diesel prices are skyrocket things got harder but knowing the business and making the right choices it’s a win.

Just a shortage of truckers who will work for free. 😢 Truckers should get paid by the hours at work, not the mile or hours driving the truck. My sincere condolences to all of the Yellow line drivers. My dad and all five of my uncles were truck drivers.

I've been driving 42 yrs and have seen lots of changes it's gotten worse over the yrs This is what happens when the govt gets involved

But everyone on twitter says truckers make millions. I don't get it. You mean to tell me that if I work 70 hours driving and sleep in a truck for weeks at a time without getting home. That I will only be paid 800-1300/week? So $11-$19 hour with no overtime pay. Man trucking sounds GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!

It’s not the struggle of demand of work it’s the decrease of the rates that has cut revenue in half. Drivers are struggling to service and maintain their trucks and same time forced to drive farther for less paying load with increases wear and same time while shops service charges is at it’s high. Many drivers are leaving the industry due to cost of moving their trucks is way lesser than demand. There are company drivers that profits more than owner operators and by the day it only seems to get worst.

Trucks are great, but we need to reinvest in rail to keep more truck drivers local.