Guest workers as truck drivers! Yikes!

Posted on Tue, May 30 2006 @ 3:19 PM [EST]

On May 26th, the Senate passed its Comprehensive Immigration Bill that includes a guest worker program that is above and beyond normal immigration flow and amnesty.

This program is basically an open-door policy to let companies bring in foreign workers. Many Carriers are planning to use this guest worker program to hire truck drivers. And truck drivers, as well as most American workers, can watch their wages erode even faster than they have been.

The Bill has now gone to the House for ratification. It's not likely that the Representatives will accept the Bill as it is. However, over the next few weeks, there will be much haggling and arm twisting behind the scenes. We ALL need to let our representative know where we stand on this guest worker program. It's as easy as logging onto www.house.gov, finding your representative and telling him or her that a vote for a guest worker program is a vote against the American worker and you.

Visit my website www.truckerdoc.com for all the details of what this program means to America.

Category Posted: General

Comments

Y'know, TD, this driver shortage thing has always puzzled me. But not any more. You see, there is no driver shortage. Supply and demand only works in the context of actual needs- not consummeristic wants. We have all that we want and more than we need, so drivers aren't that vital. So, as you pointed out, there's a great incentive to classify drivers as unskilled, since they only satisfy our "wants", which can be done by any unskilled person, as anyone but a truck driver knows. I do believe our transportation sector is about to be devalued extensively, and the errors of this will only become clear after truck driving decends below the level of your common fast-food worker. Check out this special about Iraq Truck Drivers: http://podcastdownload.npr.org/anon.npr-podcasts/podcast/1090/5433330/npr_5433330.mp3

Comment By:
Ken and Karen on Tue, May 30 2006 @ 11:00 PM [EST]

You're right, Ken. It's not a shortage of drivers; it's a shortage of good and honest management. And that should be obvious from the turnover rate. The ATA distributed stats that showed that carriers earning over $30M annually have turnover rates of 116%; those making less than $30M have 94% turnover; LTL's have 20%. I know companies with less than 10% turnover rates and waiting lists of drivers.

Comment By:
truckerdoc on Wed, May 31 2006 @ 5:48 PM [EST]

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