The American trucking industry today is in trouble. I have wages
Flatline for decadesmeanwhile A fatal accident It has steadily increased. Both of these trends share the same root cause. A large influx of cheap, untrained foreign-born drivers.
It didn't have to be like this.
Illegal foreigners from Mexico
crashes, On the way home from work, he killed another truck driver. He had already been deported 16 times.
When the Covid lockdown occurred in 2020, the industry experienced a very short demand collapse as businesses closed and people lost their jobs. At the same time, people with “email jobs” began working from home, and the government began handing out “free” money to people at work.
This is when online shopping explodes. At one time, truck drivers were in greater demand than ever before.
By 2021, this had been translated into an incredible wage rate, allowing many people with commercial driver's licenses to re-enter the business.
Even while making the usual greasy whine about the American Truck Transport Association about the “sufficient” of truck drivers I had to admit it Research in its own right revealed that there are 10 million active CDLs in the US.
It was all a great example of the original market run. Naturally, the government had to get involved and raise problems that it didn't.
There is a steep slope ahead
In late 2021, the White House was subsequently occupied by the cognitively declined and questionably elected Joseph R. Biden – documented
“Biden-Harris Managed Truck Transport Plan to Strengthen the US Truck Transport Workforce. ”
With this plan, the White House let the real thing go on:
“At the same time, the industry is reporting historic demand for its services. To reflect that demand, wages for drivers employed in all trucking segments rose 7-12% last year alone, but employment in some segments is still below pre-pandemic levels.”
It's hard to ignore the meaning here. The Biden administration (who was undoubtedly encouraged by lobbyists at the American Truck Transport Association) was not satisfied with the increased pay for truck drivers. They also did not believe the market was moving fast enough to revise this bid.
The White House proposed solution? Pay people to get CDLS.
“The country's trucking workforce demands a clear, debt-free path to these good jobs through high-quality training such as registered apprentices. This prepares trainees and provides employers with a stable pipeline of skilled, safe and experienced drivers.”
Taxpayer Lages
Perhaps the Biden administration didn't know that ATA-owned or adjacent truck driving schools were already receiving taxpayer funds for those “unnecessary roads”? As
I wrote November 2023:
Scratches under ad copy of Truck Driver Training School, or local and state-funded retraining programs, as well as government grants and grants will soon be revealed. From the funds supported by
Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Law (WIOA) In Pell Grants Up to $47 million with additional funds from Biden administrationit is clear that the trucking industry is flooded with taxpayer larges.A recent study examining the issue of driver retention in California found that the state spent about $20 million on driver training.
However, the only funding was revolving doors.because those drivers were not entrenched in the industry.
Decreasing criteria
If we could spend millions of taxpayer funds to pay for training, we could not reduce the troublesome wage numbers, maybe that wasn't the case.
Fee The training was a problem.
And the government moved to lower the CDL requirements — or, as the White House stated, to expand “A more seamless path for underrepresented communities, such as veterans and women, to access excellent driving jobs. ”
April 2022 Factsheet update It was scrubbed from the White House website and included some stunning figures that were supposed to raise some eyebrows. Thanks to “cutting the red tape”, dots supported the “condition.”Compared to January and February 2021, it has more than twice the issuance of new commercial driver's licenses in January and February 2022.
These numbers don't work with people who know and understand the industry.
Sudden influx
I'll accept it for a while
ATA's unlikely claim There is a shortage of 80,000 drivers, and that shortage could increase to 160,000 by 2030.
Why did the Biden administration claim that the ATA would provide more than 10 times the number of “sufficients” that would cause repeated nausea?
What's more, where did you find all of these extra drivers that were obviously not pulled out of the existing pool of CDL holders?
Another group asking these questions is a truck driver advocacy organization
American Truck Driver Unitedwe've been digging into all the excess CDL data generated over the past five years. This is probably due to increased community demand, through a legal part of Beeden's plan, but most of it is not the case.
Co-founder Shannon Everett and his team have been looking into the state's DMV records. Calculating their numbers revealed that 10 states and Puerto Rico issued more than 3.5 times the number of CDL, as all of the other 40 states are combined.
Oregon dumped 98,872 truck drivers into the system in 2022, throwing away 77 times the number of truck drivers that are normal per year. South Carolina counted 77,580 new truck drivers in 2021.
“Is it possible to even get tests, training, or qualifications 43 times the normal throughput?”
I asked the ATU on X. “Have FedEx and UPS moved all their businesses to South Carolina?”
These increases in CDL numbers are too expensive for existing trucking schools and technology or community colleges to accommodate.
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Bureau
Everett and his team have different explanations. Most of these drivers rarely get in the way of the screening and are surrounded by other countries.
English is not required
These employers also used it
I'll change it quietly On the day of the Obama administration's decline in 2016, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration issued a highly curious memorandum of understanding, ordering DOT and police to halt the implementation of federal regulations requiring CDL drivers. Proficiency in English.
US Department of Transportation
Why drop the requirements for completely wise English? One clue is found at Biden in 2023 Management Update About the Truck Transport Action Plan announced that resources will be directed towards “increase [the] Ability to train veterans and their families [and] Individuals in underserved and refugee communities. ”
A similar language will be displayed in Updated for next year, Includes the pledge of “.Increases training opportunities for candidates from rural, refugees and underserved communities. ”
A lot has been done this week about President Trump suspending components of Biden's refugee program.
It will affect hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians. in x Thursday's postInsider Craigfuller of the industry cited a confidential source claiming immigrant truck drivers are one of the nation's largest insurance companies and account for 52% of premiums. 14% of them are Ukrainians.
Ukrainians seem to be specially adopted by CDL Mill
This is Pennsylvania.
Arkansas fights back
According to Everett, exemption from language requirements is just one tactic to increase the number of migrant drivers. In its Arkansas homeland, legislators have rewritten regulations that manage potential administrators who may qualify for CDL, remove the requirements for residence, and allow learners' permission from other countries to be sufficient evidence to obtain CDL. This made Everett quite careful
Invoice lobby To prevent Arkansas from allowing future non-dominant foreign drivers to operate in the state.
I also found an ATU
Unsettling correlation Between a massive spike in the published CDL and a steady increase in truck-involved collisions and deaths. This period has also risen significantly Cargo fraudif the trailer is stolen, the dangerous load broker cannot pay the truck driver who moved the cargo, and the suspicious trucking company holds the ransom load.
Needless to say, the original 2021 “Truck Transport Action Plan” didn't mention any refugees or immigration. Nevertheless, the increase in the presence of foreign drivers on American roads is “refugees” or simply illegally in the country – a clear evidence that the Biden administration has been blessed with that promise.
The steady rise in the country's fatal massacres of highways and goats has also been spotted in person or in steady streams of online video, as well as a stable depression in wages for American truck drivers.
The road ahead
Will someone in the new administration do something to protect American truckers and the car public?
The first step is for the Trump administration to assign leaders to the FMCSA. The FMCSA investigates anomalies in these CDL spikes and finds out why many foreign truckers are still active on American highways.
Recent trucking company closures It has driven thousands of American truck drivers out of work.
New Transport Secretary Sean Duffy will need to work with state dots to find out why they are driving trucks in America, putting Americans at risk, and diluting the reasons why non-crunched operators are allowed to employ cheap labor and enforce market rates for tracker payments.
President Trump has a clear mission to make America great again, but he cannot do so without the help of an American truck driver.
Massacres on American roads
Below is a partial list of fatal road accidents involving foreign-born truck drivers over the past 12 months.
- Illegal foreigners from Mexico crashes, On the way home from work, he killed another truck driver. He had already been deported 16 times.
- A man from Uzbekistan who has since disappeared and is believed to have fled the country. Killed tow driver in Kentucky While he watches YouTube and drives.
- The Central African man did not speak English and requested a translator for court proceedings. I drove the wrong road on the Nevada highwayplowed his cicadas into three motorcyclists and was killed soon.
- Clear asylum seeker with rear end of a vehicle near Detroit He killed two women. He didn't have a commercial driver's license.
- An Indian man driving a truck in West Virginia has been accused of pushing a car from a bridge and pushing it out. Kill a man driving a car. The truck driver requested the translator to communicate with police and investigators.
