The perpetual truck driver shortage is not real
Something that is missing from comments in this thread is that companied do not necessarily have the freedom to pay whatever they want.<p>The equation for any business offering goods and services starts with what their customers are willing to pay for their offering.<p>If the product is unique (Armani, Gucci, etc.) and with less competition (or brand differentiation&#x2F;loyalty), prices can be higher than commoditized goods and services.<p>If the good or service is commoditized and has lots of competition, prices have a real ceiling.  For example, nobody is going to go to McDonalds and pay $50 for a cheeseburger.  They might pay half that much at a celebrity high-end restaurant, yet, at McDonalds, the limit is somewhere around $5, or 1&#x2F;10.<p>That, in turn, dictates how much the business can spend on the rest of the cost structure, fixed and variable costs.<p>Some seem to think that just because employees ask for a certain number a company should magically be able to do it.<p>Right now United Auto Workers is asking for a 45% pay increase and working 32 hour weeks while getting paid for 40 hours (which is an additional 25% boost (they are certainly not going to produce 40 hours of work in 32 hours).  And more.<p>This represents a complete disconnect from reality.  This kind of thing leads to outsourcing, automation and job loss.  Entire industries have already been decimated by this kind of thing.<p>Trucking is no different.  Buyers of transportation services can&#x27;t pay double rates.  This (worse than this) already happened during the pandemic and it brought things down to a grinding halt.<p>We were paying $30K to move a container that used to cost $2K.  You can bet that cost had to be passed on to customers.  And the result?  Less orders.  Less work.  We had to let people go.<p>There&#x27;s a utopia being taught out there that vilifies all business.  If one digs, this always come from people who have never run anything even resembling a non-trivial business.  Of course, from a frame of reference rooted in pure ignorance, anything is possible.<p>If you want people at McDonalds to make $50 hour, go pay $25 for a burger.  Heck, if you are passionate about this, lets pass legislation that allows restaurants to charge a variable rate.  They post the minimum they want for their product and the customer is allowed to pay more.  Brilliant.  We can align cost and wages with ideology.<p>How many people are going to go into McDonalds and offer to pay $25 to $50 for a burger.  Yeah.  The number is zero.  Of course.  So much for ideology vs. reality.<p>This is no different from people pushing for higher taxes.  In the history of humanity (I think I can say this) nobody has voluntarily chosen to send the government more than what they are required to pay and lead by example in support of their ideology.  The world is funny that way.  Talk, talk, talk.  And 100% of is is hypocritical.