The Source for Trucking News, Opinions and Trucking Jobs | Foreign Drivers Everywhere

This was too good to pass up.

Saudis Fear Foreign Truckers May Throw Them Out of Business.

JEDDAH, 10 February 2005 — Saudi truckers are facing tough price war competition from non-Saudi drivers. The Saudi truckers claim the non-Saudis are lowering prices to steal customers and drive them out of business. They’re hoping the government can put the brakes on the practice.

“I’ve been working in this business for 10 years now, and we are sick of these non-Saudi drivers running their own business using Saudi names,” said Abdullah Al-Bishri, a 29-year-old trucker. “They’re forcing us into a price war knowing that we can’t afford it. We’ve asked the Makkah Governorate many time to solve this problem and put an end to this injustice.”

It’s making it hard for the gearjammers to bring home the halalas.

With all the hoopla in the US about Mexican drivers driving Mexican trucks which I don’t think is going to take a lot of American jobs, but the bigger question I’ve always had has been the foreign drivers driving for American companies at a lower scale. I actually saw a driver recruiting poster in Russian on the back of a truck. I’m pretty sure it was a recruiting poster just from the placement and the phone number and the fact that there are so many eastern European drivers out here.

I liked this one point -

“The problem comes from Saudis who rent their trucks to foreigners for
SR1,500 a month,” Al-Otaibi said. “These foreigners can afford to
reduce their prices because they are singles, and they don’t have large
families like we do. In the past, the Traffic Department used to stop
them from working the trucks they didn’t own. Nowadays, they can work
freely in any truck they rent.”

It’s the same principle here. If  companies can find cheaper labor they will. It’s all about the bottom line.

Can the government rescue the Saudis from the foreign drivers’ clutches?

“We
want to demand that the Traffic Department enforce Saudization in the
truck business,” said trucker Ahmad Al-Qahtani. “Foreign drivers don’t
care if the cargo they’re transporting is stolen or not, as long as
they get money at the end. We Saudi drivers care about this country,
and many times we report suspicious people to police who may be
transporting some furniture and other stolen items. We would not have
asked to have this industry Saudized if foreigners weren’t harming us
by reducing their prices.”

The US government isn’t going to do anything about foreign drivers here. They won’t even do anything about illegal immigration, let alone legal foreigners coming over.

Al-Qahtani says maybe the truckers need an association.

“Our income and family are threatened and we may have to form an organization to protect the interests of Saudi truck drivers.”

Unions have lost their power in the US and OOIDA doesn’t enough clout and probably wouldn’t do anything about foreign drivers even if they could because, like unions, they would cut their membership, their income (dues) and power.

The foreign truckers say they’re filling out the additional
transport needs of the country and point out that the owners of those
trucks they drive are Saudis.

“We’re trying to earn a living,
too,” said Sudani trucker Muhammad Abdullah. “If there’s a price war,
I’ll be its first victim because I’m sharing the daily income with the
owner. If they choose to Saudize the truck industry there will be a
crisis because more than 50 percent of the truck drivers aren’t Saudi.
Who will take care of it if we aren’t here?”

That’s the oldest argument for immigration (legal and illegal) in the book. If they raise the wages they will compete with other industries and be able to get the work done.  Trucking companies have been crying shortage for years and yet store shelves are still pretty full.