Rollin' 18 Podcast

Safeguarding Your Data: Phishing Scams, FMCSA Alerts, and the Truth About Driver Turnover

• Walter Gatlin • Season 1 • Episode 36

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Ever wondered how to safeguard your personal information from cunning email scammers? In our latest Rolling 18 Podcast episode, we promise to arm you with essential knowledge to protect yourself against the latest phishing email scam targeting truckers. This episode is critical for anyone in the industry who wants to stay one step ahead of the fraudsters. We'll cover how to verify email authenticity and the steps you can take to ensure your private data stays private, as highlighted by the FMCSA's most recent warnings.

Think driver turnover is evidence of a trucking labor shortage? Think again. We challenge this common misconception by revealing the real reasons behind the high turnover rates, such as drivers hopping companies for better pay and enticing sign-on bonuses. Explore with us how the current tight labor market actually puts power in the hands of drivers, allowing them to make more informed and beneficial career choices. This episode provides a nuanced view of the trucking industry's dynamics and debunks misleading media narratives. Tune in for a thorough examination of the factors influencing driver turnover and their broader implications for the sector.

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Email me anytime with news, suggestions, and stories at rollin18podcast@gmail.com. God bless, be safe, and keep it between the lines drivers.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to Rolling 18 Podcast. This 40-year veteran is here for anyone wanting to stay up to date in the trucking world. Grab your coffee, hop on board and let's get on down the road with Walter Gatlin.

Speaker 2:

Hello drivers and welcome to Rolling 18 Podcast. I appreciate you folks listening to and or downloading my podcast Now. Today we're going to talk about driver turnover rate, but first I want to mention a warning that has been put out on Trucker News. The FMCSA is warning truckers. Another phishing email is making the rounds Now.

Speaker 2:

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announced a new phishing fake email appearing to come from the agency, from FMCSA. The agency said an email is being sent to registered entities by a party pretending to be FMCSA and requesting the carrier's complete forms attached to the email. These forms ask for a social security number, usdot, pin. Fmca does not require such information on official FMCSA forms. Fmcsa said carriers should not fill out forms attached to the fake email and always refer to the official FMCSA forms for the latest and official documents. Now everybody should be smart enough to know.

Speaker 2:

This day and age, you do not provide any type of information on any email until you absolutely verify who this is from. Websites look real. They're not. You can always check the httpscomorgwhatever. You can always go on google google the organization, see exactly what their website address is and match it up to the one that you've got. If it's wrong, you know damn well it's a scam. Don't put up with this anymore. These people overseas are trying to scam us, and they do. They hit us for billions of dollars every year. It's real funny how we can't get organized enough to realize a fake from a real one.

Speaker 2:

When in doubt, do not send any information at all. Call somebody, talk to a live human being. If you can't do that, don't worry about it. I'm sure they'll try and contact you one other way. So that's all you have to do. Anytime you get an email, verify that email wholeheartedly. If you cannot verify it, do not send anything. And remember a lot of these organizations DOT, fmcsa, etc. Etc. They will not ask you for any personal information to be put on a return email when you reply. So don't do it. Fmcsa also said that in some cases, the phishing attempt also asked for a certificate of insurance copy, of course, and driver's license to help protect the recipient against fraud, while they are committing fraud against the recipient. See what I'm saying. So don't do it. Don't allow these people to get into your head, get into your life. It's just another thing that will take you months, if not years, to get straightened out once they got your information. So do not send anything. Verify everything. If you have to, and you are that scared, tell the FMCSA. They have to send a representative to your front door with a badge. That's all there is to it.

Speaker 2:

Now, today we're going to talk a little bit about, I guess, turnover rate, because there is some confliction on the reports of what's going on. Some people are stating that the turnover rate is 90, 91% and it is true that back in 2019, it was around 91%. But they are saying that these drivers are quitting because of lack of wages, because of all kinds of different things, and that they're going home and they're just not driving. We know for a fact there are enough registered CDL holders in the United States to cover every single load this country provides, including more than what we have. So we do know there are some CDL holders that are sitting at home doing other things. They may have a dream job, they may not even be driving truck. They keep it just in case they need it. Blah, blah, blah. But we also know that the turnover rate is not exactly caused by drivers quitting and going home. The vast majority of drivers are rotating companies and they're doing this in order to take advantage of sign-on bonuses and things like that. And I did read a report which I want to read to you Now. Ata put out a story and it says many cite driver turnover rates but few understand what they measure. And part of the story says that as post-pandemic supply chain challenges and I don't know why they're saying post-pandemic we're long past the post-pandemic, but have been thrust into public consciousness A new class of armchair experts have risen to explain all that ails America's trucking industry.

Speaker 2:

Bureaucrats, analysts and other cultural commentators, most of who have no real-world experience in trucking, are quick to explain why, for example, the industry faces a labor shortage as it strives to hire the next generation of professional drivers. They want chaos. They want people to think that there's a lot of problems going on because they want to keep everything low. They want to try and get as many benefits from the United States government as possible. The more problems that they have, the more they can go before Congress and say here's the issue we have Now. Case in point, the New York Times essay put out a story that said for decades, truckers have quit at alarming rates, leading to a chronic shortage. The turnover rate was at a staggering 91% in 2019, which means that for every 100 people who signed up to drive, 91 walked out the door. Plenty of people have the commercial driver's license needed to operate trucks, said Michael Beiser, a Wayne State University economist who has studied the industry for 30 years, but none of them will work for these wages.

Speaker 2:

And this is another typical way that the mainstream media and the New York Times it's not just politics they lie about. They lie about a lot of things. In fact, I would say that all media lies in favor of their narrative, and that includes the left-leaning and the right-leaning. They lie in order to benefit somebody that's probably putting money in their pockets. You cannot trust the news anymore. The fact that these folks are even they even think that they're legitimate anymore is beyond me. They're a powerhouse of nothing but takes money from those that want to do nefarious things in order to collect money, and generally everything boils down to money, and that includes the rumors about the shortage of truck drivers, because they want to go after the federal government to say, look, we need subsidies like the trains, and I lay a 10 to 1. The trains make plenty of money to operate on their own too, but the government's so deep in with them they still get billions of dollars a year because they cry like little babies and say, oh, we can't handle it. And then, when you talk to a train engineer or a guy that works on the tracks, or the guy anybody that works for a train, they think they're better than everybody else not all of them, but most of them and they make tons of money. They get paid hourly wages that are unbelievable. Not because they're taking it out of the money they're making the profits that these train companies are making. They're taking it from your pockets, the taxpayer. Now the problem.

Speaker 2:

The author, robin Kaiser Schatzlin I don't know what the hell kind of name that is fundamentally misunderstands what the annual truckload driver turnover rate measures. He and many others before him. The armchair bandits, the ones that go out and tell these stories that are inaccurate, assume or imply the rate captures drivers leaving the industry and often cite poor pay or working conditions as the cause. Now, part of that time. That is true, but it is wrong. The whole overall narrative is just trying to push people people that have never driven truck into believing that 91%. Now, if 91% of truck drivers were quitting the industry within a year, our economy would have collapsed a long time ago. It's not three people coming in and three people leaving. It is three people coming in and then changing companies. And they do that because of the sign-on bonus. And I'll get to that in a minute.

Speaker 2:

I'm going to read part more of this story here. It says turnover is not an indicator of people exiting the industry. We know because ATA created and tabulated the metric. Rather, it more accurately measures drivers moving between carriers. You see what I'm saying. It captures churn within the industry, not attrition from the industry Okay. While retirements and exits account for a small percentage of turnover okay. By and large, that is not what this figure is counting. So why are drivers moving between fleets at such great numbers and frequency? And be honest with you, it's been happening since the 60s and 70s. There has not been a turnover rate lower than 80% in the last 40 to 45 years and I think a lot of it has to do with boredom.

Speaker 2:

I think a lot of it has to do with a lot of industries. They get stuck in this wheel of the same repetitive crap every single day, and truck drivers aren't built for that. Truck drivers are built to roam. Like the freedom that they provide, they're made to go out. You know I used to go on a, pick up a load and leave LA and go up to Washington. Bring it back down to LA, go back up to Washington. You think I wanted to go back to LA? No, I would pick up another load of apples and I would go east East, young man. I would head to Philly, or I would head to North Dakota, or I would head to southern Texas. I didn't want to take the same darn route every single day. There's very few people can handle a daily route that is identical, especially a truck driver, because that's not where we're built.

Speaker 2:

But it says here. Rather, it more accurately measures drivers moving between carriers. It captures the churn while retirements and exits for a small percentage of turnover. By and large, this is not what the figure is counting. So why are drivers moving between fleets? There are many factors at play, but one number one demand and number two, opportunity.

Speaker 2:

Trucking is an extremely tight labor market For cynical and structural reasons. Drivers in high demand today, a fact exacerbated by COVID, and then after that it was because of the return from COVID and the return of traffic and the amount of people back on the road and the way they were driving and the amount of accidents. So, in order to attract and retain drivers, fleets must increase pay, which is now happening at an extraordinary rate. We're witnessing unprecedented pay increases across the industry. Now, then, with weekly driver's earnings surging at a rate of more than five times their historical average, and that's up more than 25% for long-haul truckload drivers since the beginning of 2019, fleets are also offering sizable five-figure sign-on bonus and full benefits as they compete for the same limited pool of drivers.

Speaker 2:

So let's say, they offer you ten thousand dollars and they say look, you have to be here six months. You have to be here at least six months, and then you won't have to pay that back. So they go pull their six-month stint, and by that time they found another job that's given out a bonus, and they'll bounce to that one too. I mean, I don't see a problem with that either. We are free, we are independent, we can do what we want, and if it's legal, what is the problem and what does that mean for turnover, though? What is the problem and what does that mean for turnover, though? Driver A who's been working for a fleet for only four months knows he can jump to another carrier or six months and get an immediate $15,000 sign-on bonus plus pay raise. Six months later he can do the same thing again.

Speaker 2:

The churn or poaching, or whatever you want to call it, is what inflates turnover in a tight labor market. So when Kaiser and others point to high turnover figures as a sign of trucker's job dissatisfaction, they're missing the mark. They're way off the mark. One could argue that they're getting it backwards In many respects. High turnover is an indicator of driver empowerment, which the labor market tightens. Drivers find themselves in the driver's seat, he says pardon the pun, putting millions of hardworking men and women in control of their own destiny in ways that haven't been in for years, if ever.

Speaker 2:

And the cool thing about that is that you can pick and choose. I'm not going to work for you unless I get a brand new truck. This is the style of truck I like. You get me one of those I'm hopping on board. This company needs drivers. They're going to do that for you, especially if that's what they carry. A lot of people like the Cascadia, a lot of people like the Volvos and things like that, because of their creature comforts. I personally don't care much about creature comforts. I want something that looks badass and has a lot of chrome on it. But I know several truck companies that hire people. They'll give me an 18 speed with a 550 horsepower engine of my choice and a Kenworth or a Peterbilt with more rivets in it than anything else, and I'll have a million lights on the damn thing. And they'll give it to me because they want me to chicken haul, they want me to go down the road and get the job done, and they know I can do it because I've been doing it for 40 years. It all depends on what you want as a driver.

Speaker 2:

The fact is, truck driving remains one of the steadiest paths to the middle class without requiring a costly four-year college degree. It cannot be offshored and it's essentially to our way of life and standard of living continuing to grow over time. Do you understand what I'm saying? Do you understand here? Let me play this real quick Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth? Because that is a fact. Drivers and we all need to understand that I've always said we're the captain of our ship. We get out there on the big road. We are the man or the woman. We are the ones that make the decisions. If I get sick on the road I'm pulling over and I'm going to bed. I don't give a crap who calls me. I don't give a crap what they say, I don't care if they fire me because I'm sick, because I tell you what I've always said that a truck driver may be a dime, a dozen, but I can get two dozen truck driving jobs at the same dime. You see what I'm saying.

Speaker 2:

I love truck companies. I love the fact that they put millions of truck drivers to work. I love great brokers. I love honest brokers. I love anybody in the industry that's not a truck driver, that works with us, that helps us do what we all need to do, and that is the basic minimum of picking up a load and delivering it somewhere. That is it. It's simple as that. There is no in-between.

Speaker 2:

The main thing in a trucking job is to pick up a trailer load of freight and deliver it to somebody and empty that trailer. How easy does that sound? Well, it sounds extremely easy to me and we need to understand that. We need to be empowered. Yes, we do, and any truck company that understands a truck driver and everything they go through out in the road. They don't clock out at 5 or 6 o'clock at night and go home like dispatchers or like people that work in the office at trucking companies, and I understand they work hard too.

Speaker 2:

Don't get me wrong, but we are the final destination of where the money comes from. So we need to be pacified a little bit more than anybody else. We're the drivers. It doesn't mean we need to get cocky. It doesn't mean that we need to stick our nose up in the air and act like we're better than anybody else. We are a team. We understand that too. But the point is, if we're not happy out on the road with all the other stress we have to deal with, then you can pretty much forget about any type of normalcy until you either get rid of that unhappy driver or until that driver is made happy by the company they hear cheer with, and then everybody is going to work together and have a great day.

Speaker 2:

Now, remember, truck driving is among the three most common and last remaining routes to a middle-income lifestyle. Without a bachelor's degree, everything is going electronic Everything is going. Computer Everything is going. App Everything is going. Ai.

Speaker 2:

Truckers' earnings are currently increasing at five times their historical rate. There's no better time to become a truck driver than now. All you have to do is take all that silliness out of your head and place it in logic, and that's what I plan on doing for you and for me and everybody else. That's why I started this podcast is to bring you the information you need to succeed on the road information you need to succeed on the road. The average weekly earnings for long-haul truckload drivers is over 25% since the beginning of 2019, and we can keep that motivation going by making sure that we continue doing things the way we're doing right now.

Speaker 2:

But if we don't get along on the CB, if we don't get along at the truck stops, if we don't get to start eating better and feeling good about ourselves and being happy on the road and knowing we're out there to do a job and be able to separate your work ethics along with your home style ethics, to be able to make sure you get enough home time but you're also getting enough work time to make that money, then you can have that full circle. You can be okay with being a truck driver, you can survive out here, you can love it and you can just do all kinds of things with your life that you never possibly could have by working at a convenience store or a dollar store or a Walmart or something like that in your town. The medium salary for a truckload driver working a national irregular route is more than $53,000. There are people out there I know a guy that works for Walmart. He makes over $100,000 a year. The average private fleet driver earns more than $86,000 and I would say it is between $86,000 and $110,000 annually depending on what you're doing. The money's out there, ladies and gentlemen, the lifestyle's out there, your love for trucking everything.

Speaker 2:

And the easiest way to and I can go into that on another podcast stay in the right lane in the cities, relax, do it a little bit less than the speed limit if you have to in order to just cruise through the city real good Hammer down on the open road. There's all kinds of ways to be happy and the best way to be happy in the trucking industry is not sit there and complain that somebody's in your way or somebody keeps you in the brake. Just keep rolling smoothly, no matter how slow you have to go or how fast you have to go. Keep rolling smoothly. Don't let the other people irritate you. Be happy with your job and love what you do. Thank you guys for listening to my podcast. As I always say to you guys okay, god bless, be safe, keep it between the lines.

Speaker 1:

driver. Thank you for listening to Rollin' 18 Podcast. Please visit Walter's podcast site at Roland18podcastcom or his social media sites such as Instagram, facebook and TikTok. All links are in the description.