Walmart to Pay Truckers $110,000, More Than Double What Average College Grad Makes

[Ray From Cleveland]

Cheap sweatshop labor is always in demand.

That's what they thought in the 70's until automation began to replace humans. Now even fast food restaurants are using robots to make food and prepare drinks. Automation has wiped out more American (and world) jobs than all the outsourcing combined.

 

[Winco]

well i see you missed out on even high school math…might want to look up what the word average means

Mean, Median, or Mode.

 

[XponentialChaos]

Never happen in our lifetime. We can't even get self-driving cars to work properly. The autonomous trucks on the road today can only go straight, AND, you need a licensed driver on board in case something goes wrong, for safety inspections, to drive in the city which self-driving trucks are generations from doing, to back up,drop and pickup trailers.

Not in your lifetime, maybe. But it’s going to happen. It’s just a matter of when, not if.

Walmart is using fully driverless trucks to ramp up its online grocery business

"Taking the driver out is the holy grail of this technology," Gatik CEO Gautam Narang, who founded the autonomous trucking company in 2017, told CNBC.

www.cnbc.com

Waymo's driverless taxi service can now be accessed on Google Maps | TechCrunch

Waymo One, the ride-hailing service that uses driverless vehicles in the suburbs of Phoenix, can now be accessed and booked through Google Maps. This will

techcrunch.com

 

[Cellblock2429]

A lot of people don't or can't. That's why we are currently short 60,000 drivers in this country and it's only going to get worse from here.

Oh, I can teach you how to drive a T/T, but I can't teach you how to be good at it. That's a talent you either have or you don't. If you can get good at it you'd have a very promising career where you are always in demand. If you're not good at it, you could end up in prison for 20 years after wiping out a family in a minivan because you Fd up, or even end up killing yourself.

Driving is in the top 10 deadliest careers in this country, even more deadly than a police officer or fireman.

/----/ This happened recently not more than 3 miles from my home. I drive through this intersection several times a week.

Fuel tanker explosion sparks huge fire 'over multiple blocks & buildings'

TERRIFYING video shows the moment a fuel tanker crashes and explodes in Rockville Center, causing a fireball that lit up the night sky. The incident happened on Long Island, New York at around 2am …

www.thesun.co.uk

 

[Blues Man]

Some do, many do not. There is a reason that there is a 100% turnover rate among over the road truckers.

Doesn't every job have a 100% turnover?

Everyone leaves their job at some point.

 

[DudleySmith]

That's what they thought in the 70's until automation began to replace humans. Now even fast food restaurants are using robots to make food and prepare drinks. Automation has wiped out more American (and world) jobs than all the outsourcing combined.

Automation has been going on since Middle Ages. So what? All that does is reduce workers ability to feed themselves, so you right wingers just keep bragging about it, then watch yourselves lose elections. With a recession/depression coming up, your 'big red wave' will be very temporary if you keep up the class warfare rubbish and spouting nonsense.

 

[DudleySmith]

Doesn't every job have a 100% turnover?

Everyone leaves their job at some point.

not when it per year, and exceeds 100% in several large companies. If the govt. wasn't subsidizing all those driving schools the industry would have to start paying decently and stop being sweatshops on wheels. Of course many right wingers hate that, it smacks of competition that benefits workers.

 

[Blues Man]

not when it per year, and exceeds 100% in several large companies. If the govt. wasn't subsidizing all those driving schools the industry would have to start paying decently and stop being sweatshops on wheels. Of course many right wingers hate that, it smacks of competition that benefits workers.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Automation has been going on since Middle Ages. So what? All that does is reduce workers ability to feed themselves, so you right wingers just keep bragging about it, then watch yourselves lose elections. With a recession/depression coming up, your 'big red wave' will be very temporary if you keep up the class warfare rubbish and spouting nonsense.

Right wingers don't brag about anything since it's not a political subject. It's just what's happening to our country and others around the world.

Companies decide on automation when it becomes an investment. Years ago it took so much money to build a robot that keeping human labor was the smart financial choice. As our labor costs increased and robots became less expensive, more and more humans were replaced.

On my last job we used to service plastic companies. Years ago when I first started the job one of our customers was the top in their field. They invented and made things like the coin sorter and ribbon maker and products like that. As other plastic companies began to invest in automation, our customer kept doing things the old way by having a human run those old injection machines. Those older machines not only required humans to run them, but had a much higher rate of defective products that had to be thrown away.

When I retired two and a half years ago the place was a ghost town. it wouldn't surprise me if they closed down by now. The employee parking lot was always full and trucks waiting in line on the street to get into the place. In their last years five cars occupied the lot and in most cases I was the only truck there when I went for a pickup. You either keep up with competition or they'll put you out of business.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

/----/ This happened recently not more than 3 miles from my home. I drive through this intersection several times a week.

Fuel tanker explosion sparks huge fire 'over multiple blocks & buildings'

TERRIFYING video shows the moment a fuel tanker crashes and explodes in Rockville Center, causing a fireball that lit up the night sky. The incident happened on Long Island, New York at around 2am …

www.thesun.co.uk

It's amazing the driver survived.

 

[bodecea]

Reason #26 why I support the Mike Rowe Foundation.

“For context, Walmart drivers make more than the average college graduate with a four-year degree. College graduates start out with an average salary of $55,260. Walmart truckers make double that, without the debt and wasted hours in the classroom with a nutty professor. Society sells college as a must. It’s a hustle. For some students, like those who enroll in STEM programs, college is ideal. Then there are the others who spend $100,000 in tuition for some useless degree and make far less than truckers, plumbers and welders do.”

Walmart To Pay Truckers $110,000 A Year, More Than Double Average College Grad Salary

Walmart is raising the starting salary for in-house truck drivers to as much as $110,000 a year and no lower than $95,000, up from an average starting salary of $87,000.Walmart pla

www.outkick.com

Truckers....skilled labor. I know some who work for other companies as truckers who make more.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Not in your lifetime, maybe. But it’s going to happen. It’s just a matter of when, not if.

Walmart is using fully driverless trucks to ramp up its online grocery business

"Taking the driver out is the holy grail of this technology," Gatik CEO Gautam Narang, who founded the autonomous trucking company in 2017, told CNBC.

www.cnbc.com

Waymo's driverless taxi service can now be accessed on Google Maps | TechCrunch

Waymo One, the ride-hailing service that uses driverless vehicles in the suburbs of Phoenix, can now be accessed and booked through Google Maps. This will

techcrunch.com

Your first link discusses driver-less straight trucks. They are not nearly as complicated as tractor-trailers to drive in the city. Once they reach their destination the store employees can back them into a dock and unload the thing themselves. Your second link is more concerning as they will eventually take jobs like taxi and Uber. But I'm sure they too require their passengers to have a legal drivers license in case they have to take over if something goes wrong. That was the problem when Uber went to autonomous vehicles. It would often have malfunctions forcing the passenger to manually drive the vehicle the rest of the trip.

Technology is great and I love it, but it's also fallible. I've yet to own a computer (and I use Apple which are very high priced) or cell phone that always worked perfectly. So total reliance on these things is a long way down the road. Yes, it will happen some day, but not any day soon.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Truckers....skilled labor. I know some who work for other companies as truckers who make more.

People think I'm FOS when I tell them I've worked with other drivers that had college degrees and chose trucking because it paid better than their chosen career. If it were up to me, nobody would be allowed to attend college until the age of 21. A 17 or 18 year old kid has no clue what they want to do in life, and end up putting themselves into debt until they're in their 30's or 40's with training in a field that has no job opportunities. My niece is one of those people. Brilliant girl, graduated college with fantastic grades, and ended up a waitress at a restaurant with her biology degree.

When you work for a few years you are exposed to more fields of work, talk to a lot of people, mature a bit more. Plus college debt would be less of a problem if you worked until 21, lived with your parents and saved a ton of money for college instead of taking loans. During your working years you may decide that college is a waste of time and money, and direct your career choice to something like an electrician or HVAC operator. Up north we can't find enough bricklayers. My father made a great life for himself in the trade. His former union sends their retirees letters to try and find younger people to join the trade. Hard work? Yes it is. But when benefits are considered, it pays over $50.00 an hour, you are laid off all winter (since you can't lay brick below freezing) and one hell of a retirement plan, and the training is paid for by the union.

 

[XponentialChaos]

Your first link discusses driver-less straight trucks. They are not nearly as complicated as tractor-trailers to drive in the city. Once they reach their destination the store employees can back them into a dock and unload the thing themselves. Your second link is more concerning as they will eventually take jobs like taxi and Uber. But I'm sure they too require their passengers to have a legal drivers license in case they have to take over if something goes wrong. That was the problem when Uber went to autonomous vehicles. It would often have malfunctions forcing the passenger to manually drive the vehicle the rest of the trip.

Technology is great and I love it, but it's also fallible. I've yet to own a computer (and I use Apple which are very high priced) or cell phone that always worked perfectly. So total reliance on these things is a long way down the road. Yes, it will happen some day, but not any day soon.

The licensed drivers are in there, FOR NOW, because they’re still testing it. That’s not going to be the case for long.

If they can get a Taxi, RIGHT NOW, to go from A to B then they can get a truck to do the same. It’s just a matter of time. You’re naive if you think it’s that far out.

Technology is far more reliable than humans. More cost-effective too. You’re lucky you were able to make a career out of sitting on your ass. Future generations won’t be as fortunate when this career inevitably gets wiped out by advances in technology.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

The licensed drivers are in there, FOR NOW, because they’re still testing it. That’s not going to be the case for long.

If they can get a Taxi, RIGHT NOW, to go from A to B then they can get a truck to do the same. It’s just a matter of time. You’re naive if you think it’s that far out.

Technology is far more reliable than humans. More cost-effective too. You’re lucky you were able to make a career out of sitting on your ass. Future generations won’t be as fortunate when this career inevitably gets wiped out by advances in technology.

Trust me, I drove for a living all of my life, the last near 30 years tractor-trailer. It's not sitting on your ass like driving a car. It's a whole different way of driving. I can understand why you think that way. I did too when I upgraded my license from class B to class A. I thought no problem. This should be a cinch. It's like driving a big straight truck is all; maybe have to make a few minor adjustments. It was less than a minute behind the wheel of that thing when I realized how wrong I was. It was not a big straight truck, it was entirely different.

There are too many human calculations that need to be made when it comes to driving off the highway. They send you to places not designed for those vehicles, but somehow, you have to figure out how to make it work. Sometimes you even have to make calculations on the highway as well.

I was driving down the highway and entered a construction zone. It was one lane both ways. About half way through, I realized I was losing air. My experience told me one of the brake chambers was shot, and if I lost too much air, the vehicle would come to a complete stop and shutdown the highway until a tow truck got there. I gunned that engine until I could go as fast as I could to keep the compressor running as fast as possible so I could and make it out of the construction zone which I was barely able to do. When I got out of the zone I immediately went to the berm and the truck came to a stop. Would a computer be able to figure that all out and take the actions I did as a human?

I could give you examples all day, but the point I'm making is that it will be generations before they are able to design a truck that could do what a human driver does today in any and all situations. Each situation is different.

 

[XponentialChaos]

Trust me, I drove for a living all of my life, the last near 30 years tractor-trailer. It's not sitting on your ass like driving a car. It's a whole different way of driving. I can understand why you think that way. I did too when I upgraded my license from class B to class A. I thought no problem. This should be a cinch. It's like driving a big straight truck is all; maybe have to make a few minor adjustments. It was less than a minute behind the wheel of that thing when I realized how wrong I was. It was not a big straight truck, it was entirely different.

There are too many human calculations that need to be made when it comes to driving off the highway. They send you to places not designed for those vehicles, but somehow, you have to figure out how to make it work. Sometimes you even have to make calculations on the highway as well.

I was driving down the highway and entered a construction zone. It was one lane both ways. About half way through, I realized I was losing air. My experience told me one of the brake chambers was shot, and if I lost too much air, the vehicle would come to a complete stop and shutdown the highway until a tow truck got there. I gunned that engine until I could go as fast as I could to keep the compressor running as fast as possible so I could and make it out of the construction zone which I was barely able to do. When I got out of the zone I immediately went to the berm and the truck came to a stop. Would a computer be able to figure that all out and take the actions I did as a human?

I could give you examples all day, but the point I'm making is that it will be generations before they are able to design a truck that could do what a human driver does today in any and all situations. Each situation is different.

Yes, a computer is going to be able to figure out an effective course of action with safeguards in case of potential issues. You’re naive if you think otherwise.

As much as you’re trying to describe the trucking industry as highly skilled, it’s really not. It’s highly monotonous labor that a high school graduate can do. What’s really good at handling repetitive monotonous tasks? Computers.

Like I said, I’m glad you were able to make a career out of sitting on your ass but future generations won’t be able to when advances in technology wipe this industry out sooner than you think.

 

[initforme]

How much vacation time does a truck driver get? Hopefully at least 6 weeks paid.

 

[Jarlaxle]

Yes, a computer is going to be able to figure out an effective course of action with safeguards in case of potential issues. You’re naive if you think otherwise.

As much as you’re trying to describe the trucking industry as highly skilled, it’s really not. It’s highly monotonous labor that a high school graduate can do. What’s really good at handling repetitive monotonous tasks? Computers.

Like I said, I’m glad you were able to make a career out of sitting on your ass but future generations won’t be able to when advances in technology wipe this industry out sooner than you think.

We've had technology to fly and land planes with no human intervention for decades now. Yet...there are still pilots in airliners.

 

[Jarlaxle]

How much vacation time does a truck driver get? Hopefully at least 6 weeks paid.

Depends on the company. I get 5 weeks.

 

[Correll]

They know how important the truckers are. And it seems they have made them actual employees instead of "independent contractors" like so many companies are doing.

Good for WalMart.

I'm glad to see wages rising. Especially for working class Americans.


Now, if we can keep this going, for about 3 generations, that would be fair.