Rollin' 18 Podcast

Challenging the Status Quo: Driver Loyalty, Female Representation, and the Fight for Safer Truck Parking

• Walter Gatlin • Season 1 • Episode 39

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Can a lack of loyalty among truck drivers be the real reason companies continue to undervalue us? Join me, Walter Gatlin, on the Rolling 18 Podcast as I navigate through the turbulent waters of the trucking industry, revealing the stark disconnect between drivers and the corporations that employ us. With frustration mounting over poor compensation, detention delays, and a glaring absence of communication, we face an uphill battle. I share a personal story about a friend who left a trucking job due to inadequate pay, epitomizing the broader issue plaguing our industry. While truck parking and the economic landscape are shared concerns, it's time we unite to demand the respect and conditions we so desperately need.

Parked on the side of a highway because there's nowhere else to go—is this the future for truck drivers? Along Interstate 80 in Iowa, the shortage of truck parking reaches critical levels, forcing drivers into unsafe conditions. I argue that while there are enough CDL holders, the persistent lack of incentives and unbearable working conditions are driving many out of the industry. And what about the decline of women in trucking? The industry's failure to support female drivers is pushing them away, too. This episode underscores the urgent need to address these issues, improve working conditions, and ensure safety and efficiency for drivers on the road.

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Email me anytime with news, suggestions, and stories at rollin18podcast@gmail.com. God bless, be safe, and keep it between the lines drivers.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to Rolling 18 Podcast. This 40-year veteran is here for anyone wanting to stay up to date in the trucking world. Grab your coffee, hop on board and let's get on down the road with Walter Gatlin.

Speaker 2:

Hello drivers and welcome to Rolling 18 Podcast. I'm your host, walter Gatlin, back after a long break. I did put out a podcast last week and I rambled and ranted a little bit because I know the discouragement we have out there. A lot of people are disgruntled because of the way that things are going and the way people are acting. But I'm going to take a more positive note, simply because of the fact that I understand the differences. I understand what's going on. The only people getting the attention are the ones making all the noise, the ones out there that are screaming and yelling and complaining every single day about certain things, probably because they hate their job. But that goes in perfect alignment with the story I'm going to do.

Speaker 2:

I read a story on FreightWaves and if you go to FreightWavescom you can look it up. The title of the story is ATRI Survey. Drivers and Carriers See Top Issues in Trucking Differently, and that goes to show you that corporations are not paying attention to us. Because we're not getting along. We're separated. We're this out-of-control, chaotic mess of human beings driving semis from point A to point B without communicating with each other. We're not relating to each other. We're not taking a stand against the monster of greed and the monster of irresponsibility by some of these companies and by even all the way up to the top brass in the federal world. Few of the drivers concerns show up overall in this ATRI report. Now the story starts by saying the 2024 survey of the top issues in trucking, undertaken each year by the American Transportation Research Institute, once again finds that what drivers think are the big issues aren't the same as those of the industry as a whole. They're not paying attention to us, and there's a reason they're not paying attention to us because we're out of control. We're out there acting like we're individuals and we're just hey, I'm going to do my thing, you do your thing. We'll do our best to find a parking spot, even though quite a few of us cannot find one. We'll do our best to make as much money as we can, even though we don't.

Speaker 2:

Perfect example a friend of mine just left a job that was paying $21.50 an hour a day job $21.50 an hour with no overtime and he got offered another job doing the same thing at a different place, though for $4.50 more an hour plus overtime. So when he put in his notice, the company's like yeah, okay, well, good luck. You know, knowing that this guy is an excellent driver, knowing that he would be a great benefit to the company, they did not make a offer at all to keep him there. They would rather bring somebody else in and start anew. And that's because we don't stick together. I mean, if we had some sort of loyalty going on with each other, I think the companies would respect us more.

Speaker 2:

Now the story goes on to say laying the results of what drivers say are the key issues in trucking against the results of the overall survey, in which driver submissions are part of the final ranking, shows that in 2024, only two issues made it on both the overall top 10 list and the top 10 list for drivers truck parking and the state of the economy. Now we know that's only a small percentage of what's going on out there. We as drivers, and anytime you want to put a comment down on one of my podcasts, you can listen to my podcast at buzzsproutcom. Just type in Roland18podcast or my Roland18podcastcom will take you to that site. I'm on YouTube and I'm on Rumble, so you can comment anywhere you want to and tell me your opinion of what you think of this story. What you think, just put down your top three concerns and let's compile all that information and see if this story even comes close.

Speaker 2:

Now. Atri is the research arm of the american trucking associations. The results were revealed at the group's annual meeting in nashville, tennessee. Now this story was put out october 14th, so it's not that old, since only the economy was closely ranked by both the overall respondents and the driver's survey. It was at number one and number three respectively. The issue of parking was on the top for drivers, but seventh overall. The final results of the survey are compiled in a complex weighing process that takes into account the submissions of motor carrier, company respondents, drivers and the other industry stakeholders. I'm going to stop there and I'm going to say look, the driver is the one that gets the final results done. Everything else to make the machines roll perfectly are very important, but it is the driver who completes the job to the end. We are the final result. Now it says here the end result, ironically, therefore, can reflect high scores from the driver survey on issues that don't show up on the top 10 list of motor carrier respondents. And what do you think that is? This year, there were two issues that weren't on the motor carrier list but which made the top 10 on the strength of driver concerns. Driver compensation and detention delay issues. Compensation and detention delay issues.

Speaker 2:

Now I would have to say, purposely and for the record, that although the economy and truck parking are very important, the biggest waste of time that a driver has out there on the road besides fueling is the shipper and receiver. A lot of you may not experience this because you go to places that run very smoothly, but the vast majority of shippers and receivers no longer respect the truck driver or the company that's delivering the product. They have their nose in the air. I've heard of some really bad horror stories about shippers and receivers and there's no way that we should be punished like this. There's no way that we should be treated like this, and I can guarantee you, when we all got along in the trucking industry or at least most of us, for the most part we didn't get treated this way.

Speaker 2:

You know I always say that I'm a boomer. Yes, and changes have come. You know a lot of the younger folks think that boomers don't like change. That's not true. We love change. In fact, most of us that get involved with new technology, with new ideas of driving, with new things about trucks. We embrace it with reality, with the understanding that it's going to make our life better. But what we don't do is understand why you would change something that has been proven over and over throughout time.

Speaker 2:

You would change something that has been proven over and over throughout time, why you would want to take something that works perfectly and turn it into something that doesn't work hardly at all and that would be shipping and receiving, because that would be drivers not getting along and then shipping and receiving, knowing this and not caring about us anymore. And you don't think the two correlate, but I know they do, because if we respect each other, they're going to respect us more, because they know that we know how to manipulate the system. They know that if one truck comes in and gets treated like garbage, the nine other trucks behind them are going to turn around and go back out in the waiting lot and wait, and they're going to say hey, where's our stuff? Hey, where's your respect? You can have this solved in 10, 15, 20 minutes. They can sit there with no product at all and they can cry and scream like babies, but it's not going to help them at all because you're the one sitting there with the freight in the back of your trailer and you say, oh no, no, I can't do that, I'll get fired. Well, of course you'll get fired I've been fired twice because of that but I'm not going to put up with their crap. And once they learn that, then they know that you mean business. Look, truck drivers may be a dime a dozen, but I can get two dozen truck driving jobs for the same dime, and I know companies hate to hear me say that, but the fact is there are ways to meet in the middle for drivers and for companies and for shippers and receivers. We can all do it. The companies know this, the shippers and receivers know this and we know this.

Speaker 2:

The motor carrier group constituted 45.9% of all respondents and the industry stakeholders were an additional 22.8%. That leaves drivers at 31.3%. The ATRI methodology, as explained by the group, incorporates various weighting factors. An issue that comes in as particularly important to a group of respondents will carry greater weight in the final rankings than other votes. Besides parking number one and the economy number three the other issues that were most important to drivers were number two driver compensation number four detention delay at customer facilities number five speed limiters number six broker issues. Number seven the ELD mandate, which went into full effect December of 2019 and is not under consideration for repeal. Number eight fuel prices, which last year was number two on the list for drivers. Number nine autonomous trucks. Number 10, driver training standards.

Speaker 2:

Now, if you look at the list of the motor carrier's key issues, they were number two lawsuit abuse reform. Number three driver shortage. There is no such thing as a driver shortage. Turnover rates have been over 90% for years. People are just making moves and some companies get the good ones and some companies don't. We all know how to solve that problem. Major companies and I've told you a thousand times start treating your drivers better, start treating them with more respect and quit allowing drivers that can't drive to get a CDL period. Keep the bad drivers off the road. You keep the good drivers happy. Number four insurance cost availability. Number six compliance, safety and accountability the CSA scoring. Number eight battery electric vehicles. Number nine driver distraction. And number 10, diesel technician shortage.

Speaker 2:

So most of these ideas, the concerns that the motor carriers have, are basically profit-driven and they want to keep things running as smoothly as possible. Less lawsuits make more money. That's all fine and good, but if you don't keep the driver extremely happy and then work on your issues, you're never going to have the top ten that you're looking for, because if the drivers aren't happy, ain't nobody going to be happy. The combined responses result in the following top ten lists Economy, truck parking, lawsuit abuse reform, insurance cost availability, driver compensation, battery electric vehicles, csa detention, delay, driver shortage and driver distraction. Now the overall list. If you combine the motor carriers with the drivers, it came out to the economy, truck parking, lawsuit abuse reform, insurance costs, driver compensation, bevs, csa detention, delay, driver shortage and driver distraction. That was the overall outcome. Comparisons between the biggest issues of 2023 and 2024, whether for motor carriers or drivers, reflect some changes in the industry, but not by a large number. The top 10 list of the two groups did not significantly change over the course of 12 months.

Speaker 2:

So how are we going to solve this problem? Well, we can talk about certain things every single day and bring up different ideas for solutions every single day, but the only way to really solve the problem is to actually go in and do the work and solve the problem. So, parking. Let's start with that Now. If we take these states and we hammer down on our congressmen and women and our senators and say, look, each state needs to take land and mandate it for truck parking only. And we need to do it in the areas, because we've got one of those areas right here in Iowa. That would be mile marker 170, between 173 and 182. We have two rest areas, one on the east side and one on the west side, and those things are completely full, including the on-ramps, off-ramps, almost every single night and we need to make sure that that is eliminated.

Speaker 2:

It is a safety hazard. It is horrible. People get in there, they're super tired, they just park anywhere. They take up all the spots first and then they park anywhere, and once they shut that ELD off, they've got to be down for 10 hours. That's a long freaking time.

Speaker 2:

Okay, so what we're going to have to do is open up some land out here in Iowa in that particular area that I was talking about, and we're going to have to allocate some land for specific truck park, just like you would have a truck parking at a large truck stop, except without all of the, you know, stores and things like that for people to spend money. Just build a lot, put in some restroom facilities, put a big sign up says trucks only. And that is for you to go to bed, for you to be safe, put up cameras, whatever you got to do. And that is for you to go to bed, for you to be safe, put up cameras, whatever you got to do, and set those drivers up to where they've got plenty of parking. Because it seems to me that is one of two spots on interstate 80 and that's only two spots out of the whole country that I know for a fact are clogged up almost every single night. If you relieve that congestion for these drivers that travel from the east to the west and back from the west to the east, you're going to save a lot of problems. And if you identify these spots where these drivers are you know, running out of hours every single night then you're going to identify a massive amount of parking problems. You're going to end up with drivers getting a better rest time and they're going to end a massive amount of parking problems. You're going to end up with drivers getting a better rest time and they're going to end up being a lot happier and a lot safer out there on the road. So I don't understand why that's a problem, but I think getting in touch with our congressmen and women and our senators and trying to allocate some land for this all over the country. Most of us that live in these areas of these hot spots, we know where these hot spots are. They're not going to be hard to find and we need to calm down those hot spots and get that land opened up, get a place where these trucks can park and they can be out of the way of the regular rest areas for the four-wheelers Trucks only, and that way they get plenty of rest and life is a lot better for everybody. Now it says here a driver shortage was third for motor carriers this year and a second last year, while there is no one data point in the market that is considered a barrel meter for driver availability. Comments made on the second quarter earnings call for rider system. Comments made on the second quarter earnings call for rider system. That's N-I-N-Y-S-E. Suggested that for rider at least, driver availability is loosening On the call CFO John Diaz and riders dedicated segment, which provides transportation to clients, continue to benefit from favorable driver conditions as the number opened positions at time to fill for our professional drivers continue to improve.

Speaker 2:

You know they use a lot of big words for these stories, and it's so stupid because they can condense that whole statement down to about one one and a half sentences, and I don't understand why they have to completely confuse people with this. The point being is we don't have a driver shortage. There are enough CDL holders out there to handle so many jobs. In fact, if all of them were to go to work tomorrow, they would be short about. I'm guessing, with the data that I read a couple of days ago, there's going to be about 300,000 job shortages. So we have enough CDL holders. What we don't have is enough incentive for them to drive a truck. So that's what they need to concentrate on.

Speaker 2:

It's not driver shortage as per se. No drivers, because we have plenty of drivers. What we have is an extremely high turnover rate, and that's because the companies are not taking care of the drivers. Take care of the drivers. Provide them with what they want. Go off of what the majority of drivers lists are in order to have a great earning experience and be able to want to be out on the road, be able to want to drive a truck for a living. That's what you need to do, and all of these stories about women being 12, 14% in the workforce.

Speaker 2:

That is a lie. It has gone down to 6.73%. So don't let them pull you. They're trying to DEI you or something like that and convince you there's a bunch of women on the road. There's not. They're losing women, and they're losing women for a valid reason because they're not taking care of the women, they're not protecting the women, they're not doing what they need to do in order to maintain that significant amount. Because I know there's great women drivers out there and there's quite a few of them. In fact, I would say four out of the seven that I know are no longer driving truck because of the policies and the different things out there in the trucking world, and that's another story we'll get into later. But it is important that we tell the truth and it is important that we get along.

Speaker 2:

The women drivers are quitting the industry and it's getting worse out there. It's not getting any better and it's not so much today of misogynistic things that are going on, as it is the same complaints that everybody else has, and women have less of a tolerance to put up with this kind of BS than men do. Men can put up with a lot more when it comes to things that happen. You know to us that we know are illogical, and yet we just continue. Well, it's going to get better, it's going to get better.

Speaker 2:

Women are like that. They're like you know what, screw this. I can't believe you're putting us through this and you're not allowing us to do our job. You're not allowing us to park safely. You're not paying us enough. There's a lot of things the trucking industry needs to work on, but I can tell you right now, in 1984, early 1990s, I made more money per capita going from Los Angeles to Philly than you ever will today.

Speaker 2:

So how can you expect anybody to want to be in the trucking industry if they're going to work for less than they did 30, 40 years ago? They're not going to do it. And you know all of this confusion about data, this and data that you know. It's really simple. You make a product, you ship it, the truck driver takes it, he or she delivers it. It's that simple. And if we just pull our heads out of our butts and figure out how to communicate this easy fact to everybody, you're going to be a lot, lot better shape.

Speaker 2:

But I would have to say personally, my biggest number one problem today is people being on the road that do not need to be out there. We have drivers driving today that scare the hell out of me and we need to get them off the road. Just because they have a CDL does not mean they need to be driving a truck. We need to put a stop to that. Thank you, guys for listening and or watching Roland 18 Podcast. I appreciate it. Please like, subscribe and, as always, god bless, be safe and keep it between the lines. Driver.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for listening to Roland 18 Podcast. Please visit Walter's podcast site at Roland18Podcastcom or his social media site, such as Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. All links are in the description.