The truck driver’s job is much harder to do day in and day out. It’s also much more necessary. However, it’s also significantly easier to train a truck driver than it is to train developers and there’s no infinite upside potential for delivery like there is with software projects in some cases (unicorn startups) and there are so many other expenses to run a delivery company that a software company might not have that they need to run on pretty thin margins, otherwise we’re all paying more for all of our food.
First job where I worked as a dev, they took on 3 of us on the same time, all entry-level. One of us was a physicist who was laid off by the university since the government reduced spending on academia. Absolutely an intelligent person. Didn’t last past the probationary period, he just didn’t get things naturally on his own, he needed a lot of guidance. Over the years I’ve seen that nearly half the people hired into entry-level roles don’t learn to become independent enough by the end of their probationary period to be retained after it. Sometimes it’s seniors too, they’ve worked at a place that just cranks out very similar solutions day in and day out (e.g only done frontend and only with one framework, or only a bunch of CRUD applications in one single tech stack) for like 7 or 8 years, that place has a downturn and then they apply for a job elsewhere and they just don’t adapt.
Not everyone’s cut out to be a truck driver either, but once someone has learned to drive trucks, they can drive trucks for another company too. Whether your new employee starts pulling in profit on the first week or you need 4 months to determine if there’s a decent chance of them being a net benefit by the end of the first year has a lot of bearing on how badly you want to retain your existing talent.
Anyway, in my country only the top talent at a couple of companies gets paid significantly more than truck drivers. A junior developer might make less than someone who just started driving a truck.
GladiusB@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
Driving is the easy part. Finding a bathroom at 4 am on Sunday. Taking a break without someone asking you a question. Just seeing your family with energy after a 12 hour day. That’s where trucking sucks.
oppy1984@lemdro.id 10 hours ago
I was not CDL driving but I hauled New York Times from the print site on one side of Ohio to a distribution hub on the other side. I spent a lot of hours on the road 6 days a week. You aren’t kidding about trying to find a restroom at night and all the hassles from construction, other drivers, detours, ect. If it weren’t for highway rest areas and truck stops, there would be basically nothing for drivers at night.
I always had an overnight bag with me, but thankfully never had to use it. Nothing but respect for drivers, the nation runs on their backs, we really should be taking better care of them.