With the advent of better educated drivers must come the realization that those of us who have taken the time and made the effort to better educate ourselves will look at the ROI of our time on the truck. We will figure all the related costs of this occupation and calculate the overall compensation being offered. If the entity wants to govern their equipment for fuel savings, then it should be willing to take into consideration the time and inconvenience it will cost me and compensate me for it. Whether I am OTR , regional, or local, from the time I step into that truck, I am on duty and should be on company time. That is a disadvantageous situation for OTR drivers who work in a setting that keeps them out for 14-21 days at present. They are actually gambling that they will be provided with loads that will make it possible for them to defray the costs of being out there and still bring home a living wage.
The present Trucking Industry paradigm is not conducive to less turnover. If anything, it is the perfect setting for greater turnover than ever seen before if the demand for capacity increases. The better educated professional driver isn't going to settle for giving away his or her valuable time. In the end, the industry will have no choice but to change its operating model in a way that lowers its costs, ensures optimum compensation for those doing the work at the level where the rubber meets the road, and creates greater profitability by reducing the enormous cost of high turnover.
Those who do so before the peak of crisis will be the survivors that move on to the next level. The time of the dirty, foul-mouthed, ecessive speed junkie, druggie truck driver is over (thank God and all the changes being brought about by the implementation of CDL, CSA, & Drug Testing for that), but you get what you pay for; and there is no caviar on the menu at the price of a cheeseburger!
