A little more cash would be a good start to attract more drivers to the industry.
Currently a person pushing a broom makes way more and does not have near the bullshit to put up with.

When there was a surplus of Truck Drivers they were not treated very well. All the costs were downloaded on Owner Operators, and no one cared whether they went broke or not. Now that there is a shortage, and Companys are becoming aware that they need these drivers they are trying to make up for lost time.

You reap what you sow. I suspect it will be a long time before they have enough drivers.

An article from 2004 ... from a foreign country far away .....

http://www.otds.com/TOStarArticle.htm

from the linked page .....

"Alex Garcia left his dead-end job for the open road.

The 41-year-old former business analyst with the Royal Bank has quit the close-quartered corporate world to take a run at work where he can make a decent living and be his own boss as an independent trucker.

"I wanted to do something different," says Garcia, who's in the middle of a six-week truck driver training course. "I always wanted to drive one of these big rigs. And I really want to do something where I can be my own boss. I come from the corporate world, and I don't want to be doing that anymore.

"There is good money (in banking), but there are a lot of things you have to put up with. I want to be my own boss. I didn't want to have someone looking over my shoulder all the time. I figured this is something I always wanted to do, so I figured maybe this is the time."
-------------------

Maybe that will give the CILA an idea of where to look.

I wonder how much long it will take people to figure out that what was predicted at least two decades ago is now happening?

How come no one began to figure out the way to deal with this when it came? This is no MPB epidemic. This was very predicted and known to happen. If we are this unprepared to deal with the babay boomers retiring, how on earth can we ever deal with the MPB?

Then there is global warming.

I know, we need a "made in Prince George" solution. Heaven help us if we were going to pool resources on a provincial, national or international basis.

I am beginning to think bohemian's idea of getting some people with a more creative background would be far superior in making a dent in some of these problem solving exercises we have to participate in.

BTW. That money that the NDI has is not doing much sitting in a bank. When will they get off their behinds and get some action out of it? I want to see that money spent in another year or so and bearing some fruit failry soon. Do they not have anyone able to assess proposals?

I spoke too soon about the national approach. Wonder if the consultant is telling the CILA that they are wasting their money in trying to deal with a national issue locally.

from one year ago .....

[url]http://www.cthrc.com/en/news_current.php[url]

OTTAWA, Ont. – A cross-section of Canada’s trucking industry, government agencies and training institutions are joining forces to address a critical shortage of qualified truck drivers, the Canadian Trucking Human Resources Council (CTHRC) has announced.

Representatives from these groups recently participated in a Toronto summit to discuss challenges including licensing standards that vary from one province to the next, training programs that don't meet industry needs, and a lack of funding options for future drivers who want to be effectively trained. Focus groups across the country are now being scheduled to help identify related solutions

“We are entering a time in the transportation industry where we are looking at the potential loss of 3,000 drivers per month,” explains Roy Craigen, chairman of the CTHRC, which hosted the Toronto summit. “The cost of doing nothing is that Canada will be less competitive in the world marketplace. We will end up with more dangerous highways.”

The international scene ...

http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2005/05/25/105437.html

To back up wrinkledawg ....

from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Oct 10, 2005

"But a trucker's life can be demanding and the pay isn't all that good, which is the main reason for the dearth of drivers.

"Long-haul schedules can require as much as a third of a driver's time away from home. For many truckers, pay is only given for miles driven and not for time spent waiting for paperwork to clear and cargo to be loaded.

"While average pay in the statewide trucking industry has increased 31 percent since 1995, that amount is about $37,000 per year, according to the state Department of Employment Security."

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/243934_truckers10.html