I’ve written about trucking and truck drivers before.  A lot.

Those folks (the ones about which I write) are the ones who own their own tractors and carry trailers to various sites, making deliveries to one location or several along a route.  (For example, our trucking firm had its own tractors and trailers, since we were transporting our own goods- or bringing in raw materials for our production facilities.)

But, many of the truckers you see at ports- like the ones in Long Beach (CA) are what are called intermodal port truck drivers.  These folks pick up containers that have been offloaded from supercarriers and bring them to the rail yards or to warehouses.  Their routes are local- rarely if ever even leaving the state.

Over the past few years, there’s been a sea change for these folks. They used to work for local trucking firms.  They were employees.  But over the past two decades, the trucking firms dumped them as employees.  (They used the justification of the Motor Carrier Act of 1980, plus containerization of all the shipping around the world, as justification.)

Now, these drivers are considered to be owner-operators.  They own their own tractor and flat bed trailers, upon which the cranes at the dock load the container.  They haul these containers 20 miles or so to the rail yard or maybe 50 miles or so to a warehouse.

But, instead of being paid by the mile (as are most tractor trailer drivers), they get $50, $ 75, or $ 100 per container. (That’s despite the fact that the Masersk or Hapag-Lloyd [container firms] is getting paid 10X that amount.)   Which becomes an even bigger problem if you have to wait to get loaded.  Because then it means you make nothing, after costs.

Even if these folks bought used tractors (which they really can’t, since the ports require newer engines that don’t pollute the air), costs are a big factor.  Monthly payments for the tractor and insurance easily run $ 750 a month.  And (assuming there’s very little wait to get loaded), a round trip to the rail yard runs about $ 25 in gas.  If they’re kept waiting, you can add another $ 5 or $ 10 in gas.

If these guys are only getting $ 50 a container, then they need to make 50 runs a month, just to cover their costs.   No personal revenue at all.  If they get 100 runs (that’s more than 4 a day), they’ll clear maybe $ 750.    No way they even make minimum wage.  And, no coverage for health care, worker’s comp, unemployment insurance and the rest of bare-bones benefits.  (Since they are owner-operators, they can’t even join a union to demand better compensation!  However, they are trying to join up together into coops to force better conditions, though.)

(If they are lucky enough to get $ 100 a trailer load, then they might clear $12 to $ 15 an hour!)

Are you still surprised there’s a backup at the ports?  Or that there is a truck driver shortage at the ports?

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