https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/07/business/walmart-truck-driver…
$95k to $110k starting pay.
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"https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/07/business/walmart-truck-driver……
$95k to $110k starting pay."
I think the message here is that $100K is no longer high pay…
Inflation just beginning perhaps?
think the message here is that $100K is no longer high pay.
100k would still put you in the top 34% of HOUSEHOLD income and close to the top 10% of individual income in 2021.
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/wkyeng.t05.htm
https://dqydj.com/average-median-top-household-income-percen…
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$95k to $110k starting pay.
How long are you able to physically take the pounding that comes with driving truck?
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (in an article on truck driver life expectancy CDC provides this information) has said that the average life expectancy for a commercial truck driver is 61 years, which is 16 years lower than the national average.
Dr. Eric Wood of the University of Utah conducted a study that reported half of all truck drivers smoke tobacco, 28% suffer from high blood pressure (compared to 17% of manufacturing workers), 25% had high cholesterol (compared to 16%), 10% had diabetes (compared to 5%), and nearly 15% had sleep apnea.
Obesity is also a health concern because 55% of truck drivers are obese, having a BMI of 30 or greater (compared to 33%).
http://orlandodotphysicals.com/shorter-life-span-for-truck-d…
The average age of retirement for truckers is about 55, because they are so beat up from pounding down the road: back problems, arthritis, high incidence of DVT from sitting all the time.
NFL players make really good money. The average NFL career is 3.3 years.
Steve
Wall Street Journal has excellent article today. Walmart has 12000 drivers. They have a four month training program. They encourage their warehouse workers to apply.
Median income is only $47k for truck drivers. $110k and $8k+ signing bonus to start give Walmart an advantage filling their slots. Up grading skill level of existing employees is excellent strategy.
The average age of retirement for truckers is about 55, because they are so beat up from pounding down the road: back problems, arthritis, high incidence of DVT from sitting all the time.
BIL is a retired trucker. He said it’s not the driving that is the issue, but the jobs you are expected to do when you drop off or pick up a load. If he only had to drive, he would still likely be doing it. Rotator cuff injury requiring surgery put him out on workman’s comp, leading to retirement.
Bet there would be more truck drivers if driving the rigs was all they had to do.
IP
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Walmart used to have a very difficult truck driver test for applicants with a 90% to 95% failure rate. Walmart was the “Harvard of Trucking” with drivers in the top 5%-10% of skill level. That’s why Walmart was paying $80,000/yr in an industry where the median wage was $47k/yr.
The truck driver shortage has boosted wages to $110,000/yr and Walmart has dumbed-down the test so that 50% of applicants pass.
Robo-Trucks can’t get here soon enough.
Walmart’s trucking fleet used to be as selective as Harvard, but a truck driver shortage has changed how Walmart hires
https://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-truck-driver-shortag…
intercst
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BIL is a retired trucker. He said it’s not the driving that is the issue, but the jobs you are expected to do when you drop off or pick up a load.
Was he union or non-union?
At the Steelcase dealer, at union sites, only members of the carpenter’s union were allowed to touch the furniture. At some sites, only the electrician’s union members were allowed to touch the task lights. I remember one coworker telling of being at a site where the carpenters unloaded the furniture, but told him he had to wait for an electrician to come and unload the lights. Bill threw the lights off the truck and went on his way.
At RS, the non-union driver would push the boxes to the back of the truck, and I, in my suit and tie, would lift the stuff down off the truck and put it in the store, until the driver had the last of the stuff at the edge of the truck, then he would help get it into the store.
Steve
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Was he union or non-union?
Not sure. He worked for Conway.
IP
Not sure. He worked for Conway.
Con-Way was formed as a non-union subsidiary of the union Consolidated Freightways. There were claims made that management transferred assets and business from Consolidated to Con-way, before they spun Consolidated off, where it sank into bankruptcy and closed.
US trucking companies have been more successful than most industries in breaking unions.
Steve