🌟 Editor's Note
There’s still fallout from the Florida U-turn this week, which we are ignoring in favour of the driver non-shortage, two takes on cargo theft, and some new truck stops.
📰 Actually New Headlines
There Is No Driver Shortage
I want you all to read Adam Wingfield’s article “The Truth Behind the Driver Shortage Narrative.” When I first was working in the industry I read the breathless articles about the “driver shortage” and drank the kool-aid, but as time went on the shortage never stopped, and I realized what what Adam says:
we don’t have a shortage of truck drivers. We have a shortage of drivers willing to work under the conditions offered by the largest carriers in the country.
The article has some really quotable passages and discusses what I have come to believe is the truth about labour practices in the North American trucking industry: they’re bad.
The $15 Million Truck Heist
Buried in coverage of Ceva Logistics suffering $25 million cargo theft in the past year is the gem that one single trailer with $15 million of Apple and AMD products was stolen! The trailer was later recovered, empty, and its GPS tracker had never been activated. 🤔
Box Truck: Hero of the Cargo Thief
Ok, now I’ve got your attention I want to bring your attention to this (sponsored, I think) Freightwaves article on preventing cargo theft. Yes, the box truck is the workhorse of cargo thieves, providing cheap, anonymous, and trustworthy-looking transport for stolen goods, but many of these thefts could be prevented by trusting less and verifying more.
🅿️ New Truck Stops This Week
Here are some truck stops that came to my attention this week:
New TA in Indiana on I-64 exit 57
Truckers Paradise in Gainesville, TX
If you know of truck stop openings that we should feature let me know by replying to this email.
Until next week,
