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You are a former dispatcher with in-house experience. Can you elaborate on this? What is the reality?

I'm not so sure about that. A common figure cited is that it costs a carrier $5,000 to bring in a new driver. I have seen higher numbers too but $5,000 seems to be the frequently cited one. But for the sake of discussion, let's go with $7,500. If a carrier has a 100 percent per year turnover...

Diane and I have taken trucks on a few ferries in our time on the road. Our routes have not been wonderful scenic in great weather but the ferry rides were interesting nevertheless.

Representatives of three expedite carriers have confided their annual turnover rate numbers to me when I have asked. I have not asked more carriers because it has never been a topic important enough for me to research more deeply. The topic comes up in conversations about other things and I ask...

Your post #20 is one of the best mini history lessons I have seen. Thank you for it.

I kinda like that country club idea. We can all pay to park, put on our ascots and dinner jackets, set up the lawn chairs in the parking lot talk all sophisticated like ... my good man.

Or you make decent money, manage it well and retire before your body gives out.

Yeah, what he said.

Very true. But driver turnover and a driver shortage are two different things. When a driver leaves and is quickly replaced, that's a turnover but not a shortage. A shortage would be when a driver leaves and cannot be quickly replaced for lack of other drivers or prospective drivers. As long...

CSA has turned things upside down. When it was first announced, I cheered it, thinking that CSA would motivate carriers to hire good drivers and weed the bad ones out. But what has happened instead is that customers, carriers and insurance companies have become hyper-focused on carrier CSA...

I agree. I have listened to carriers cry about a driver shortage for years but have yet to see a load of freight sitting on a dock because no driver or truck could be found to haul it. Shippers may have a hard time covering a load when the pick up time is 4:00 p.m. and the order went in at 8:00...

Last June, Panther was purchased by ABF. Very little has been said in the Open Forum about changes in the company since then. Last year, Bradley Jacobs purchased Express-1. Similarly, very little has been said in the Open Forum about changes in the company since then. For those of you who...

That view has been around for a long time but I'm not buying it any more. It's as if the carriers are saying, "Gee, ain't it awful that we have no choice but to hire every scum bag that walks through the door." They could up the standards anytime they wished on their own initiative. And where...

This would not be difficult for motor carriers to do. Why is it that they do not? If there are companies out there that do, I'd love to hear more about them.

If you were told a hurricane was coming but did not believe it -- really did not believe it -- would you prepare? How would your thoughts and actions been different if you genuinely believed a hurricane would not come?

The Florida vacation house Diane and I have is six feet above sea level and 200 yards from the Intracostal Waterway on the East Coast. A thin barrier island separates the Atlantic Ocean from the shore, forming the waterway. If a hurricane was predicted to hit that area, Diane and I already...

If one of these reserved parking places smells of urine, does the next user get his or her money back?

When you're not on the ground in the middle of it, it's easy to oversimplify and armchair supervise these things. Say the military magically received immediate authorization to deploy their equipment in a way that is not part of their mission, and say they were able to move 500 generators to...

When it affects your parking place and truck, it becomes your business. Everyone responds in their own way to such events. I would have kept after the guy, expaining to him that his act brought a new person into his life who has now made him my personal project. I would then proceed to take...

As xmudman said, there is no shame in talking this out with a counselor or therapist. And as ChanceMaster said, you are savey enough to recognize your anxiety. When you get the chance, you might want to visit a bookstore to review books on the topic of emotional well being following a...