[larz0142]

Originally Posted by silvan

The interesting part is that in the three months I've been here, there has been about 75% turnover in management. Every week they announce the teary goodbye of some other manager I don't really know. They haven't had a night dispatcher in over a month (glad I don't run after day dispatch closes!) I have the impression that things at the corporate level are a real fuster cluck since I've been here.

I find it worrisome.

I would too..Do you think that you being there had something to do with mgt. leaving :P It just goes to show how hard it is to find good workers..Do they think by assimlating the U.S. work force with a culture that takes siestas everyday is going to help....lol..I might not be a driver yet.. I know what it takes to work hard..maybe I'm a Reaganite and, I find it hard to swallow what the Rep. had become it's a sad day when the counrty I love so much had become what it is now..Makes me sick sometimes

[Cluggy619]

So we all agree that there are many companies where the turnover rate is much lower than 127%.

The last company i was at had 10 drivers,, and none quit during the time I was there.

So is the turnover rate a top of what one company have, or a average of all companies? Because that would mean that the turnover for some companies is well over 200%... could this be right?

[allan5oh]

Jbenson that article on the "nafta superhighway" is pure bullshit. I cross the border regularly, there's no way in hell these trucks will "bypass" anything. Even with a FAST load, you can still get sent inside or to the scanner.

[silvan]

Originally Posted by BigWheels

Silvan...you lost me :?: :!: :?

What I'm getting at is that I've run into more people who are more or less content than not, and it seems like a stable place where I might enjoy a long stay, but with management flipping around like this, it seems like it might suddenly go all to hell.

I'm really kind of paranoid about that after I lost my last job. I was there 10 years, and we had very low turnover overall. To give you an idea, when we got our three weeks' notice, the second most senior driver and I rounded everyone up and got them to come in on a Saturday (we never, ever worked on Saturday) to get their pictures taken in front of their trucks, so I could composite them into a poster for our old boss, with our signatures on the pictures. We gave our boss a 24x36 poster on the day we turned in all our keys, and a bunch of grown men stood around crying for an hour. Our old boss was about as country and about as far away from "metrosexual" as they come, and there's something really sad about a 50-year-old hillbilly in a flannel shirt and well-used bibs whose voice is all torn up from repeated bouts of sobbing all day.

When I had to find another job, one of top criteria was finding some other place with low turnover, where the drivers cared about where they worked, and it wasn't just another evil billionaire megacorp getting rich off the broken backs of downtrodden men.

I haven't exactly found such a place, but it's sort of in the right ballpark, more or less, and I'm getting used to it. The number of days when I feel neutral to positive about my job is greater than the number of days I just want to pull the pin and leave their trailer in a ditch on the side of the road, and that's about all you can really hope for in any job. My old gig wasn't a bed of roses either, and there were days when I wanted to tell them to shove that truck where the sun don't shine.

So the moral of the story is that things seem to be getting back on the right track, and I'm worried that all this management turnover will screw things up. I couldn't make a living without my stop pay, for example. I know the guy who ran this route before me made half as much stop pay as I do, but I can't afford to work for that. If they decide to cut my stop pay, I have to leave.

I've never been a real OTR driver, and I'm damn sure not about to start now. If they decide to screw up this dedicated short haul thing, then I have to leave.

There are so many things that could go wrong. I'm a worrywart. Especially being so recently burned. In spite of all my worrying, I never once worried about getting laid off from my last job, and that one actually happened.

[mirangermanll]

Just my humble two cents worth!

YAAAAWNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!


As far as I have been able to tell- this high turn-over rate has been going on for quite some time, and will be a problem- for several factors, for several more years, if not- decades!

Even if Mexicans are allowed to drive from Mexico City to Bangor Maine!



-charles

[Skywalker]

Originally Posted by scania

The Mexicans are coming,for real????NAFTA super highway,you're joking right???
Wow,where do you get this hot info??

Ummm, it hasn't been much of a secret for the last year or so....

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=15497

Not only is Bush pushing this highway, but there is supposed to be a customs clearing place in the Kansas City area that will be given to the Mexican Government.....and it will cease being "American land".... Go figure?

[GMAN]

Politicians have been selling or giving this country away for years. Clinton did it in California when he was in office with his deal with the Chinese government. Until we start holding them accountable for their actions, there is no need for them to cease having their way. I don't know how much Clinton got for his deal, but I am sure it was plenty. We can only speculate what Bush and his cronies are making out of this deal. Congress is also guilty of corruption. They only give lip service to doing anything about things such as this. I think we need to throw them all out and start over with a new batch. Give them one or two terms and throw them out. These politicians tend to get a GOD complex once they are in office for a time. They may tell us one thing, but still do what they want. When was the last time you saw a politician leave office without full pockets?

[GMAN]

Originally Posted by JBenson2

This is disturbing news. The turnover rate has always been high due to the demanding nature of the job, but the softer freight conditions are making it worse this quarter.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (June 22, 2007)— The driver turnover rate for large truckload and less-than-truckload carriers increased during the first quarter of 2007, marking their highest turnover rates since the end of 2005.

ATA, which began collecting driver turnover statistics in 1995, reported that turnover for large truckload carriers was at a 127 percent annualized rate for the first three months of the year. This figure was 6 percentage points higher than during the last three months of 2006.

“The softer freight demand contributed to the increase in large TL driver turnover,” ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello, said. “Nearly 80 percent of the large carriers in our sample saw their number of employee drivers fall during the period. In some cases, the drivers that left were not replaced, due to soft and choppy freight levels.”

The last figures I recall had the turnover rate at around 136%. In any case, those numbers are high. However, they are less than fast food. At one time fast food had a turnover rate of around 300%.

These numbers fail to differentiate those who simply move from one carrier to another. It isn't that all of those people are getting out of trucking. Most are leaving one carrier for another. I think there are several reasons for the turnover. Part of it is how some companies treat their drivers. Most has more to do with the drivers themselves than the companies. There are many drivers who will leave a company rather than attempting to work out any problems with their current employer. There are some within the industry who feel that it is much too easy to leave one carrier for another. Drivers will leave a company for as little as a penny per mile. That may not give the driver any more money at the end of the year. Some enter this profession with false or unrealistic expectations. When they are disappointed, they may leave the industry. I am amazed at how many people enter this business with the idea of leaving their first company before they even go to work. This is evident when they use the term "starter company." It seems to me as though it would be best to stay with those companies and try to build a career than leaving for another carrier.

[poserpunk765]

i think another blindly obvious reason turnover is so high is that trucking really isn't just a job. You either dig the lifestyle or you don't. You can't just muddle through 9-5 just waiting for the whistle to blow. It's kind of like the military in that you don't know what the life will be like untill you are there. only here you can quit before your time is up. I bet if the military didn't have service terms turnover there would be just as hard.

Both driving and the mil aren't crappy jobs. Just not for everyone...or for many at that.

[kc0iv]

Originally Posted by allan5oh

Jbenson that article on the "nafta superhighway" is pure bullshit. I cross the border regularly, there's no way in hell these trucks will "bypass" anything. Even with a FAST load, you can still get sent inside or to the scanner.

All you have to do is look at the present inspection rate for container shipments. I believe the present rate is around 5 - 6%. If this rate transfer over to the trucking industry, and I see no reason it won't, you might as well say there won't be any inspections.

Secondly, if present inspection are so good how is it that human trafficker move approximately 18,000 to 20,000 people into the U.S. each year. And I think you would agree it is harder to move people than most commodities.

kc0iv