I Used To Make $100K As A Trucker. Now I Make Minimum Wage.
How did trucking go from a high-paid, highly coveted job to an unstable and unsafe gig? In a word: deregulation.
Truckers used to make $110,000 per year on average. Now many are homeless. So what happened? We dug into it as part of our new Class Room series, which looks at how jobs that used to provide a solid, middle class life now barely provide a living.
With trucking, that story starts with deregulation. Big box stores like Walmart were allowed to crush worker power and wages across an entire industry.
Now there’s a perpetual trucker shortage as drivers get sick of low wages, long hours, and constant surveillance.
What’s happening?
Every day, long-haul trucking move freight across the country. Trucking used to be one of the highest-paid and most coveted blue-color jobs in America. Now, it’s one of the worst.
There’s currently a driver shortage–and not because there is a shortage of truckers, but because there is a shortage of jobs that allow drivers to break even. The turnover rate at most companies is well over 100%.
Long haul trucking is an $800-billion dollar industry that moves 70% of all freight in America. Without a new generation of truckers, the high turnover rates in the industry threaten our supply chains.
