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Comment by rightbyte | Hacker News Reader

94% attrition rate for long haul truckers? That is insane.

They are probably payed way too little for so many nights away. If they made more they could work less and still have a normal life.

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I worked for a start up that sourced truck drivers. One of the major factors is that sign on bonuses tend to be bigger than any kind of retention pay. So the 94% turnover is misleading. Truckers are generally leaving for a sign on bonus at a new company. They aren’t leaving the industry at that rate.

It's surprising to me it isn't in any company's interest to charge higher rates and offer an actually reliable service.

Optimizing for short term profits has cause so many issues that could have been avoided over these past decades.

Agreed. I used to be pretty libertarian, but the underlying premise companies and individuals act in their own interest is disproved again and again (see also how a company isn't actually profit maximizing if it discriminates in hiring).

Or the company will grow to a point where they buy up all their competition and get to set higher prices.

There are actually quite a few smaller companies that are like this...I drove for one to pay my way through college, although it was short haul LTL. You might be surprised at what types of companies are willing to pay 40-50% more for consistent and fast service. Our 2 biggest clients were John Deere and Caterpillar parts distributors, delivering parts to construction sites, mines, and farms. And we got a bunch of business through logistics consultants that used us to make up for cheaper carriers dropping the ball.

But for the most part, businesses deal with the problems of cheap logistics because they can easily see the prices, but the actual costs are harder to measure.

Interesting. I was assuming that given 94% turnover there couldn't be that many quality focused employers.

There's always going to be turnover. Long haul has always had worse turnover than short haul, although it has never been this bad. Long haul is a terrible way to live, even if you're paid well.

This is where automation will start. It seems trivial to have special on/off areas for driverless trucks that will just stay on route 40 or route 70 or w/e for 2000 miles. Then short range drivers will pickup/drop off trucks to these hubs. By having it being only highway and just staying in the right lane they can run 24/7 without any more complicated things.

Paid, not payed.

payed is the new paid

How many long haul routes could use rail for the long part?

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