Rollin' 18 Podcast
Welcome to the "Rollin' 18 Podcast." With over 40 years of commercial driving experience, I can share some of my learning experiences. We can also go over the changes happening in the trucking world. Like any job, trucking is not all about work. Learning how to balance life with trucking can be daunting, but knowing how to do it can be rewarding and comforting. Let's roll on down the road driver, together. Text me anytime with news, suggestions, and stories at (641) 990-5641. God bless, be safe, and keep it between the lines drivers.
Rollin' 18 Podcast
Tackling Industry Myths: Driver Wages, Cross-Border Disparities, and Building a United Trucking Community
Ever wondered why the trucking industry is facing challenges despite having millions of drivers on the road? Join me, Walter Gatlin, as I promise to uncover the real issues plaguing the trucking world, from the myth of driver shortages to the pressing need for respect and incentives. With over 72% of the country's freight tonnage being moved by trucks, the importance of this industry is clear, yet drivers face a struggle for recognition and fair wages. As part of our journey, I also share my passion for vinyl records through my project Vinyl Bound and recommend the thrilling series "Lioness" on Prime for those moments when you need a break.
Let's shift gears and address the stark wage disparities that truck drivers face across borders. Discover the significant differences in pay between U.S. and Mexican truck drivers and delve into the gender pay gaps affecting women in the industry. Reflecting on the history of trucking wages, we advocate for fair compensation and unity among drivers to create a more equitable environment. Safety and community remain our top priorities, so stay connected with the Rolling 18 Podcast community through social media, and let's work together to uplift every driver 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.
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, I hope everybody out there is having a great week. This is Walter Gatlin yes, your host with Rolling 18 Podcast. I'm hoping to make things a little more exciting and a little more better for everybody to listen to this podcast. Each podcast is Tuesdays and Fridays. We're going to try and get back on schedule because harvest is finally over, thank God, and it's a lot of work. It's a lot of work trying to keep up on everything plus do a podcast. Plus I do Vinyl Bound. If you go to VinylBoundcom, I do stories about vinyl records. That's Vinyl Bound, v-i-n-y-l-b-o-u-n-d. All one wordcom and I'm on YouTube and Rumble. So if you search up Vinyl Bound on YouTube or Rumble, you'll be able to find it, just like Roland 18 podcast.
Speaker 2:As you know, being in the trucking world, trucking isn't all we do. There's breaks, we have to take entertainment. That we need, especially when we're down for an entire weekend. Or you know, 10 hours is a long time. You get your shower done, you get fed, you still got 8 hours. Most people don't like to sleep 8 hours. End up watching a movie or a series. I started watching Lioness L-I-O-N-E-S-S on Prime Really good show. I'm on episode or season one, episode five. So I do recommend that. So if you want to see a great series, look up Lioness. I think it's awesome.
Speaker 2:As far as Vinyl Bound goes, I do stories about albums from the 60s, 70s and 80s. They quit making albums in the 90s because they went cd pretty much in the late 80s. So that's pretty much why I like to do stories about vinyl to me. When they recorded music back in the day, they did so more authentically because they didn't use all this digital stuff like mp3 and stuff which basically duplicates the music. It doesn't actually record it. It breaks it down into little chunks and files and things like that. I've had it explained to me but I can't repeat it. But it doesn't really authentically put everything back together the way it should. Analog has a more clarity much better clarity, I would say, than digital, and digital sounds all right. I mean, it does the job. It keeps you pumped, you're going down the road listening to a good song. That's great. But if you get a chance to slap an album down in some real fancy old equipment this equipment that duplicates the analog perfectly as you're playing it then you're in great shape and I would suggest getting an old sound system, maybe on Facebook Marketplace or eBay or something like that, because to me it's fantastic and, yes, you can play a record player in your truck. They, they sell, uh, small portable ones at Walmart, so you can have a good time doing that as well.
Speaker 2:Now today's topic. I want to talk about how many truck drivers are on the road and, as of this year, the United States has approximately 3.55 to 3.6 million professional truck drivers. I mentioned part of this in the last podcast about how we really don't have a shortage of drivers. What we have is a shortage of respect for the driver and a lot of drivers not coming back to work, so you can produce all the drivers that don't really want to drive or don't act like truck drivers and they're just going to quit in a few weeks or a few months anyway. But the trucking industry employs around 8.5 million people in total, including roles related to logistics, maintenance and support for trucking operations. This sector is really crucial to the US economy, you know, transporting over 72% of the country's freight tonnage, and that's why I always try and remind you, folks out there, we are the largest industry in the world. We do that deal, we are the deal, and that's why we need to get along as drivers. That's why we need to start respecting one another. That's why, when you're done fueling on the fuel island, pull forward right away. Don't waste any time. All you cats that are from a different country, the rule is here in America you get done fueling, you pull forward. If somebody sees that somebody's not doing that, you all need to get on them phones, get on them emails, blast it out to Flying J Pilot Loves whoever and let them know it's not happening and you're getting tired of it and you're not going to fuel there if they don't stop it. You understand what I'm saying. That's how we get things done Now. Revenue expected to exceed $1 trillion annually.
Speaker 2:The industry is largely composed of small businesses, with a vast majority of trucking companies operating with fewer than 10 trucks. The vast majority of trucking companies. So they're licensed as a company and you're thinking 50, 100, 200, 1,000 trucks? No, the vast majority are fewer than 10 trucks. The demand for truck drivers remains high, partly due to the ongoing need for freight transport and a looming here's what they say a looming driver shortage. There's not a driver shortage. There's plenty of CDL holders out there. We don't have a driver shortage. Let's not a driver shortage. There's plenty of CDL holders out there. We don't have a driver shortage. Let's get that out of your head. What we have is the incentive by these companies, by some companies not all, but by some companies by the United States government over-regulation by all of these different entities that are causing drivers to say look, you're pushing too much on us. You know we're done with that. We're not going to. You know we're going to sit back on the sidelines and we're going to wait for you to clean house, but I'm not sure if that's going to happen if we don't start getting along and working together Now.
Speaker 2:It says to address these challenges, the industry is looking to attract younger and more diverse drivers to sustain the workforce in the years to come. D to sustain the workforce in the years to come Diverse drivers. We don't need diverse drivers. We don't even need younger drivers. What we need is to call back the drivers that have decided to quit because the industry sucks. That's what we need. We need to figure out a way to entice them to come back. And that's not just money, folks, that's not just benefits, that's respect and that's the understanding that we have certain roles we need to play individually to get that load from point A to point B and, like I said before in the last podcast, getting the load from point A to point B is your only concern. But when you have some shippers and receivers treating drivers like dogs and we need to put a stop to it making them sit there for hours at a time and wasting their time you know they don't get paid by the hour, most of them you need to stop that.
Speaker 2:I would say take all of the drivers that are owner-operators, all of the drivers that are company drivers that drive over the road that do that. You know 1,000 mile, 1,200, 1,500 mile run. They drop in a yard somewhere on the outskirts of the city. You let the city deal with it. You let the city get these day cabs, pick up that load and finish the delivery. You grab a trailer and start heading the other direction. That's going to be the easiest way to solve this. When you have these guys over the road and they're sitting there messing around with the shipper and messing around with the receiver, we know where that you.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of stuff online that is misleading, like this stupid, more diverse drivers. That's BS. We haven't had racism in America in years. People have gotten along with people of color, people that live differently sexually, people that do things differently. We're past all that. The only people pushing all this narrative are politicians and people with a political agenda or greedy people that want to suck the money out of your wallet. And oh, you shouldn't do that. That is not diverse. You shouldn't do that. That isn't right. No, we're human beings. We're going to do what makes us feel better.
Speaker 2:And if the the good percentage of these drivers are going to sit at home and not drive a truck because the industry wants to be an ass about it, that's just the way it's going to be. You have a turnover rate that's 90% or better for the last 20, 30 years. And how do you change that? Exactly the way I'm explaining it to you now. And who's going to make that happen? Well, it isn't the companies, it isn't the brokers, it isn't the federal regulations, it isn't the brokers, it isn't the federal regulations, it isn't the state regulations. Who's it going to be? It's going to be the driver. You take 90% of the drivers and we stop those trucks and go wait a minute, we ain't doing that. Guess what the industry is going to do. Oh well, what should we do to make it better? Well, you're going to do it this way. Well, I think we can comply with that. And then we go back to work and everything's fine and dandy, until they try and screw us in something else.
Speaker 2:I didn't start this podcast to whine like a little baby. I didn't start this podcast to be a real truck driver or a plastic truck driver or you know this type of truck or that type of truck. I started this podcast to get us all to work together. I started this podcast to get us all to work together. I started this podcast to get us all on the same page of understanding what it's going to take. Now.
Speaker 2:We're never going to give up on the fact that if you're a foreigner and you've come from another country, that's fine and dandy, but you have to assimilate to our laws in this country. You have to drive the way we drive in our country, because that's how Americans do it. We know what the signs say. We do what the signs say. There are certain things you don't do, no matter what, and if you do it, you make the rest of us look like idiots and we're sick and tired of it. Parking on the fuel island is one of them. You get done fueling. Put your butt back in that truck. You move that sucker up front where it needs to be, or you go find a parking spot who cares? Get the truck off to fuel on them. And we need to start making noise about those places that they don't do that, because one way or another we're going to get this to change. And the other thing is going to be the shippers and receivers. We're going to get them to respect us one way or another.
Speaker 2:But it all boils down to the fact that we all have to be on the same team. It's a small group of people that are making it bad on the rest of us. Most of us do the right thing. You know this to be true. Now, if you go to the American Trucker Association or other industry sources, they'll provide in-depth statistics on trends on the trucking sectors involving landscape, but it always seems to be the same Every single year. They put out the report and the report looks the same as last year's, except for the fluctuations because of COVID and things like that. That was a major, drastic change, which I don't think we're going to fall for again. But here's the deal we go up and down the road. We make the country move. We haul the stuff that people order. We deliver, we pick up up. It's up to us to stand up as a team and that's the only thing that's going to make any of this work. You guys want to jump on board with this? That's fine. Send me an email roland18podcast at gmailcom. Let's start working together and let's start getting things done the way it needs to get done.
Speaker 2:Now, if you want to hear, there was a story that was put out by Freightwaves, and I use Freightwaves a lot. There's a lot of trucking news outfits I go to to get my information because they're reliable and I do my due diligence. I started using AI to verify the truth, to see how many other companies were reporting the same thing, and generally it comes out pretty good with Freightwaves, so it seems like they're telling the truth. If there's any hidden things that are beyond, like dark hidden things in a story, there's ways to find out, but it's a lot harder. But when I read this story about borderlands mexico and this is the title borderlands mexico truck driver salaries in mexico $423 a month in 2024. So if you think you got it bad in America, folks, you need to wake the heck up.
Speaker 2:Wages in Mexico's professional cargo trucking industry averaged $423 a month during the second quarter of 2024, according to the recent statistics from Data Mexico and the Ministry of Economy. As of the second quarter, the monthly average comes out to $5,076 annually, with an increase of 8.4% from the same period in 2023, when truck driver wages averaged $390 a month. So, ladies and gentlemen, if you think you have it bad, you're wrong. Now I understand our cost of living has gone up and that's why we've got an election coming up in exactly one week, so be sure and get out and vote. But Mexico's trucking industry employed 1.18 million people during the second quarter and that's a 1.7 increase compared to the same period a year ago. The average age of truck drivers during the quarter was 41 years old.
Speaker 2:Men make up most more than 98% of the drivers in the country, and men in America make up about 90, 94%. I would say, well, 93.8%, I think it was. I know women trucking has gone way down. It says women, who make up to about 1.29% of truck drivers in the country, earned an average salary of $260 a month during the second quarter. Now you talk about that's pretty bad. You talk about misogynistic pig. That's where that needs to be. I'm glad we don't do that in America. We don't pay our women any different for driving truck truck. In comparison, recent data from the American Truck Association found that the average US truck driver made $76,420 in 2023, a 10% increase over the previous two years.
Speaker 2:Salaries across Mexico's trucking industry varied widely by location, the type of cargo truck or van driven, the size of company and the the industry. It doesn't matter. None of that matters in the story, because even the highest paid latino in mexico is getting paid two-thirds less than what we are, and that's kind of sad. Now it says here that the highest average salaries for drivers were seen in construction material hauling at 876 a month, which is double. But that's not on the road trucking. That's actually construction type hauling, dump trucks, things like that and I imagine they work about three times harder just to get that money. So they're getting paid about twice as much Well, maybe a little less than twice as much, but they're working probably two to three times harder. The industry with the highest concentration of truck drivers included the automotive industry at 62,400, food and beverage 60,500, and raw materials 57,500.
Speaker 2:It is pretty sad what's going on in Mexico. So, if you know, we have a cost of living issue here in America with the, with the, I say we're in a recession with the cost of living. That's gone way up. Food, gas, rent, utilities doesn't make any difference, everything's going up. Insurance companies don't want insurance anymore. They're not making their billions anymore, so they're getting upset. There's a lot to deal with in the trucking industry but, like I've always said, the grass is always greener on the other side until you get there.
Speaker 2:And one thing I'm trying to get across to everybody with this report is that, yes, we do have it good in America, but another thing is there's no way that we should be sitting, and especially what we've gone through. You know, if you take the wages from the 70s and 80s, you're saying that the average truck driver in America made $76,420 in 2023. Do you know how much money that was in the 1970s? Now, if you look at truck drivers, what they made in the 1980s, it was anywhere from $38,000 to $39,000. That's $131,000 in today's dollar. That's $131,000 in today's dollar. Okay, now what I was saying in the prior podcast about me picking up a check for $5,200 to run a load as an owner-operator from LA to Philly, and now they're paying less than $4,000 in most cases. So $38,000 to $39,000 in 1980, and that's equal to $131,000 today. And what are we making today? What did I say? Huh, can you repeat it? Repeat after me $76,420 as of 2023.
Speaker 2:So, ladies and gentlemen, I'm not wrong. We're not doing something right here, and I honestly believe it all boils down to the fact that we are not getting along. The trucking industry knows that, the brokers know that, the companies know that. They know that you will stab a brother in the back as long as you can get an extra buck a mile or 75 cents a mile. We don't have to live that way. We can bring our honor back. We can bring our moral values back. We can bring the trucking industry to the forefront and say you are my brother and sister and I love you and I want to make sure you make money as well as I make money, but I'm not going to stab you in the back to do it. And I don't know if we can ever get to that point again, because moral values have dropped to an all-time low in this country and most other countries, and lying is at an all-time high. It makes a big difference when you talk about values like that and when you talk about the differences between what Latinos are making in Mexico compared to what Americans are making in America.
Speaker 2:But then you go back to the 1980 and you realize that today we should be making $131,000 minimum to drive the same truck that we drove in 1980. And listen to me, 1980, it wasn't easy to drive a truck. You know, most of them didn't have power steering. A lot of them didn't have air conditioning. A lot of them didn't even have full-size sleepers. They had the mini coffin sleepers. So there was a lot less to be comfortable about in 1980, but you're making a lot more money. So maybe if we get rid of some of these creature comforts, maybe the companies will start paying a little bit better. $131,000 is what each and every one of us driving down the road with a sleeper on our truck should be making today, but we're not.
Speaker 2:And guess what? Check out the price of rent, your average rent in america. So if you look at the average rent in america today, it's between 1300 and 1700 per month. I know in 1980 I was paying about 350 to 400 a month for rent. So what has rent done? It's gone up quite okay by more than three or four times. But what has wages done? It's gone down compared to where we should be, at the minimum of $131,000. Because that's exactly what $38,000 and $39,000 was worth in 1980. Today it was worth $131,000. So do you understand what I'm getting at $131,000. So do you understand what I'm getting at Now?
Speaker 2:On the next podcast, I'm going to talk about how we can manipulate the system, how we can get together and we can work this out together. I want to start an organization. I really do, and I want some real honorable people to get on the board with me. We need to start an organization that can become a powerhouse and start negotiating for the driver and the companies. There's a lot of companies out there that want to do the right thing, but maybe they're getting ripped off by the shipper and receiver who knows? You know, I mean, we got to find out where the answers are right and that's where we can do it right here on Rollin18 Podcast. So I appreciate you folks liking and subscribing and listening to my podcast. Be sure and check out all the future episodes, because we're going to talk about some important ways to make life better for all of us. God bless, be safe and, as always, keep it between the lines. Driver.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to Roland 18 Podcast. Please visit Walter's podcast site at rollin18podcastcom or his social media sites such as Instagram, facebook and TikTok. All links are in the description.