Born a hellion, Rick grew into a responsible, successful businessman – attested by his toys, including an ex-wife; a ranchette outside of Austin; a customized Harley; a fancy gentleman’s truck in Texas; a working man’s truck here in Missouri, and a purple Dodge Challenger Hellcat pounding over 700 horsepower onto the unsuspecting pavement.
Alas, Rick goes months without seeing Texas, the working truck mostly gets started to move it out of the way, and, well, the Hellcat after three years has gone through about four tanks of gas.
Rick stands atop the heap of owner-operator truckers. He moves corporate executives and specialized electronics, his reputation so strong that companies and families schedule around his availability. To be successful he really lives out of his truck. Oh, a few times a year he stops by his sister’s place (she does his bookkeeping) and he tries to get in visits to Texas when he can. Most of his days he watches mile after mile of highway through the windshield.
Listen to the radio or open a newspaper and there’s a good chance you’ll hear, again, about the shortage of truck drivers…Expect to hear that same refrain more often.
Despite a jump of 14% in shipping rates in the past year, most trucking companies resist raising wages. Per official reports, in the past year average driver salaries climbed less than 1%. Rob Hatchett, a driver recruiter for Covenant Transport, notes “We’ve finally raised pay enough that we’re beating our competition right now. I’m loving life.” His company gave new drivers an increase to $600 a week from $450 – a raise of $3.75 an hour for a 40 week. [Bloomberg Businessweek 8/27/18, In Search of Bigger Paychecks]
Only, well, over the road truckers see a 40 hour week about as often as they run over unicorns. The trucking system pays based on miles. For every pretty day cruising at 75 mph in Wyoming there’s likely two inching through Chicagoland traffic or idling till a loading dock door opens.
As an editorial in The New York Times noted, many truckers wind-up earning less than minimum wage and some owner operators (the paper cites a Springfield, Missouri firm, New Prime) owed the company money after driving over 1,000 miles. [New York Times 8/12/18]
Oh, by the way, that $600 a week Covenant now pays is less than half the 2017 average weekly wage in St. Louis city. [ https://www.stltoday.com/business/columns/david-nicklaus/st-charles-county-leads-area-in-wage-growth/article_3179fa78-4d51-5fa3-bed2-a829dde62e08.html ]
Wait! What about driving local delivery trucks?
Yesterday I stopped by my neighborhood liquor store. I had to park on the steep grassy slope next to the store. Grey Eagle Distributing sent a 16 bay semi-style truck to deliver about 70 cases of beer. The big rig took up three-quarters of the store’s lot. I commented about the big truck to the driver. He laughed, saying some guys got sent out in 20 bay trucks which were even longer.
Imagine spending a hot St. Louis summer maneuvering a big rig down narrow streets, delivering hundreds of 30 packs of beer (weighing 30 pounds each) each day. That’s real work.
Now, most beer delivery guys are Teamsters so they get decent wages and benefits. Still, it is a physically demanding job beyond the ability of most in the work force. Great driving skills (ever back-up a semi-tractor?), a strong back (a day’s load can top five tons), adherence to paperwork, and, a friendly personality are all required. Every day.
Most local delivery people don’t get Teamster pay or benefits. Based on recent want ads, pay for a local delivery driver with a Commercial Driver License runs from $12.00 to $15.00 per hour, or, up to $31,200 a year. A parent with two kids (but no spouse) working that $15.00 job would earn too much for food stamps but the children still qualify for reduced price school meals and free Medicaid coverage.
So, expect a lot of those truck driving jobs to remain unfilled. Meanwhile, let’s hope Rick gets to drive his Challenger on Labor Day.
Glenn
Submitted by Glenn Koenen, WCD Member