Shortage of Truck Drivers?

Yesterday I read an article reporting a shortage of truck drivers in the United States.  I disagree.  There are plenty of qualified, licensed truck drivers.  They don't want to drive!  Why, you might ask?  Let me see if I can help you to understand.

Truck drivers are in one of the highest regulated industries.  They are mandated as to when they must work, how they must work, how often they must "rest", how many hours they may work per week and they must furnish law enforcement the means to incriminate themselves.  The 5th amendment does not apply to truck drivers.

They are told they cannot rest when they are tired, but must rest when the government says they are tired.  They may not drive when they are not tired, but rather when the government says they are not tired.  The work rules change every few months so they must keep abreast of government actions.  They must have permits for various loads.  They must recertify their qualifications every two years.  They must submit to medical qualification in order to provide their families a living wage.

Just last month new regulations came into effect that will potentially cut drivers' wages by over 15% when cost of living is increasing.  Line haul drivers are expected to be away from home for 1-3 weeks at a time, but are prohibited from driving more than 11 hours per day.  That way they can sleep 7-8 hours per day and be bored out of their mind for 4-5 hours per day. 

Team drivers, meaning 2 drivers on a truck, still cannot manage their time in order to work efficiently.  They must still  take 10 hours off after each shift of 10-11 hours.  I know of few drivers that can efficiently sleep in a moving truck for 8-10 hours.  It used to be that a team could work to their best advantage.  Most of them would work in 4-5 hour shifts.  Sleep was sufficient, driving time was not overbearing, and best of all, the drivers were always alert.  Today's new rules do not permit efficient and safe operation.  They are that a driver must take a 30 min break by the end of 8 hours, but can't exchange drivers until the end of 10 hours in order to make a team operation work. 

Drivers are tired of having to adapt their lives to government issued nonsensical rules, so they are exiting the industry for greener pastures all thanks to over regulation.

Many other professions are suffering similar exits.  Local, State, and Federal governments are regulating business and industry right out of business because the people do not want to be fettered with unreasonable, incoherent rules written in unintelligible language that do not make an ounce of sense and cannot be understood by reasonable non-lawyers.  Added to the mix are law enforcement officers that also do not understand the rules and often do not even read them, but who make determinations of how the rules ought to be enforced. 

After all we live in 1930's Nazi Germany, I guess.  Or at least it feels that way.