* Texas - Low-growth wages, crowded roads and a lack of public respect can make it difficult for companies to recruit the next generation behind the wheel who will deliver the goods to consumers
-- There is also little chance the retailer is paying for the delivery. What's probably happening is that the freight company is getting paid less, and that cannot last... Truck driving, like so many blue-collar jobs, is facing a worker shortage brought on by wages trailing inflation and a society that has lost respect for the men and women who operate 80,000-pound pieces of equipment that quickly deliver almost any product we desire with an enviable safety record... The United States will be short 250,000 truck drivers by 2020 as older drivers retire and young people reject driving as a career, according to industry figures... The job, though, is not nearly as glamorous with long hours spent weaving 40 tons around potholes and thoughtless drivers. The irony is that fatalities in large truck accidents peaked with its role in pop culture ... Federal transportation regulations, the corporatization of the industry and safer trucks have brought the death toll down to 3,602 in 2013, a 75 percent drop in deaths per mile traveled since 1979. But young people are no longer lured by spending weeks on the road... In the long term, though, trucks may not need drivers at all. Daimler rolled the first semi-autonomous 18-wheeler onto Nevada's public roads for testing in May, with plans to make the Freightliner Inspiration commercially available in 2024. The driver is not eliminated, but his or her duties are different...
(Photo by Gary Fountain, Freelance/The Chronicle - Stafford Wilson, left, a driver advocate, and Julian Leal, a driver, both for Jetco Delivery, consult during a pre-trip inspection) -- Houston, TXS, USA - The Houston Chronicle, by Chris Tomlinson - September 15, 2015 Labels: truckers shortage, trucking industry news USA
![[Valid Atom 1.0]](valid-atom.png "Validate my Atom 1.0 feed")
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home