Letter to the Editor: Driver Shortage
would like to explain the so-called “driver shortage” to the executives who keep complaining about that hot-button issue in this newspaper.
I have been an owner-operator with one truck for the past three-and-a-half years. The driver shortage is not based on a quantified number of drivers; it’s based on a real shortage of good, ethical standards by business executives.
In my short time as an O-O, I have seen too many “creative” settlements where pay-per-mile has been skewed through short-paying the contractor or company driver out of hard-earned miles and/or pay.
You can’t blacklist good drivers, then turn around and complain there’s a driver shortage. And did you know that your company could be held liable for any injurious commentary on the [screening] reports that could be interpreted as slander? These reports are public record and any good, lawsuit-happy attorney could extract that information and make your life a living hell.
Besides, leasing or hiring a driver doesn’t give you license to violate that driver’s constitutional civil rights just because he or she has a disagreement with a member of your management team over safety compliance issues.
Several executive readers of this newspaper are actively petitioning regional congressmen to allow you to hire thousands of foreign drivers through the U.S. government’s H1B visa program, just so you can increase your operational margins to your shareholders while driving down the wages and compromising homeland security here stateside.
When you start to clean up your collective acts and replace dishonesty with honesty, your driver shortage will abate. Your profit margins will climb higher and you’ll feel better about your day, knowing some attorney out there won’t be knocking on your door with a subpoena because you slandered a driver’s good name.
David Ritter
I>Owner-Operator
emper Fi Transport
lamath Falls, Ore.
This letter appears in the Dec. 4 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.
