Rally-car drivers wanting to be helicopter pilots...helicopter pilots wanting to be truck drivers...truck drivers wanting to be, well judging by the turnover rate
anything else...it's a crazy, topsy-turvy world that makes me want to run around in circles ululating like an Iraqi woman!
Mr. Acklie may moan about his 100% driver turnover rate, but let's be honest. First, for the turnover rate to be that high there must be other problems at his company other than low pay. Secondly, it might seem a little obvious to point this out, but HE IS PART OF THE PROBLEM! As long as there has been a steady stream of applicants who want to be truck drivers, the trucking companies have kept the pay down. Supply and demand at it's finest, eh? (See any parallels here?)
Not to zing off on a union tangent, but there are those anti-union among us who feel that a pilot's pay is absolutely and directly proportional to the revenue his aircraft can generate. 300 seats = big airline pilot pay, 5 seats = puny helicopter pilot pay.
Now here comes this Acklie guy, former Chairman of the American Trucking Associations throwing that equation out the window. Here he is saying that even though truck drivers are, to coin a phrase, "a dime a dozen" (geez, I should save some of this for the JH forum), the industry should RAISE their pay to a level above the going supply and demand rate just to stop the turnover! What the...? Who the...? What a concept! You'd think the geniusi who run the helicopter companies would have come to that same conclusion long ago, right?
Alas, saying it does not make it so. We'll have to see if Mr. Acklie's dreams become reality - or if that big Klank you hear
is Mr. Acklie's idea falling flat on the floor.
SAS, I really hope you don't trade your cyclic for a gearshift of an 18-wheeler. It would be a pity for our industry to lose an experienced pilot such as yourself. ...On the other hand, your departure might allow everyone (including both Whirly's) to move up a notch, and make room at the bottom for...oh, I don't know...a disillusioned race driver desperate to switch careers?
Hey, when they put automatic transmissions in those big rigs, lemme know, willya? I been watching re-runs of "Smokey and The Bandit" and I'm ready! So keep the shiny side down...er, up...er, whichever way it needs to be, good buddy. 10-4?