Shortage of long-haul truckers?

It's interesting. In most cases, when you want more of something, just increase the price you're willing to pay. In the last few years, we've all read articles about a shortage of truckers, the average age of existing truckers increasing, few new participants... So unless something changes, we'll have somewhere around 100,000 open positions in the next few years.

So first, it's surprising to see the range of pay for these guys (and 6% girls). This link gives details but Wal-Mart pays close to $80,000 (probably with decent benefits) and a company named Gardner Trucking pays $31,200. There are probably differences in what these truckers do but that's still a pretty wide spread. My guess is that Wal-Mart has fewer open positions.

https://www.truckdriverssalary.com/best-paying-trucking-companies-list/

I also saw a news report on TV describing how technology now helps trucking companies know EXACTLY where their drivers are, how many miles they've driven, how long they stopped to sleep, eat... That's great for theoretical "efficiency" but who really wants to live that way? This essentially treats drivers as some combination of dopes or criminals. Either they don't know where they're going or they're trying to somehow cheat the company. But life isn't so simple. Perhaps a driver is going slow due to slippery roads or bad traffic. Maybe a car with a bunch of kids is weaving in front... Essentially you either trust your drivers and believe they can make appropriate decisions or you don't. I believe that there is a direct relationship between how people are treated and how they act. If you treat employees as trusted business partners, they'll act as trusted partners. Treat them like unloved cogs in some wheel... you get the point.

While this is described in the media as a big problem, the solution is simple. Pay truckers more and treat them as a highly valued resource. I suspect if we saw that happen, the shortage would get a whole lot smaller.