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About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 16, 2019)
NEWS A7 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM WEDNESDAy, JANuARy 16, 2019 Trucker shortage puts drivers in high demand By PHIL WRIGHT STAFF WRITER If dozens of new, qual- ified truck drivers popped into Umatilla County tomor- row, Bryan Medelez argued they would have no problem finding jobs. Good paying jobs. Medelez is the director of operations at his fami- ly’s business, Medelez Inc. and BJK Transport, Hermis- ton, and they rely on lots of truck drivers. “We know seed potato is right around the corner, so we’ll be using 150 truck drivers,” he said. That would fill all the semis the company owns. Come the fall harvest, he said, the ranks of the busi- ness swell to 400, almost all of those are truck drivers. The company will contact the hundreds of drivers it keeps in a database and hire dozens of subcontractors to handle all the loads. “There’s certain times of the year that you better have all your trucks filled up because there’s money to be made out there,” Medelez said. And that’s the issue. According to the American Trucking Associations, the nation is short more than 50,000 truck drivers. The American Transportation Research Institute pegged the driver shortage as the top trucking industry con- cern for 2017 and 2018. Bud Stephens teaches truck driving. He said he plans to reopen his driving school this spring in Herm- iston because the need it there. He also said the short- age problem goes back for some time. “We will never fill all the trucks that need divers,” he said, “and that’s been going for at least 20 years, espe- cially for long-haul drivers.” That is due to the lifestyle. Staff photo by Kathy Aney Michael Kennedy, a long-haul trucker who works for Medelez Trucking in Hermiston, checks his tires before heading to San Diego with a load of frozen french fries. Staff photo by Kathy Aney/ Staff photo by Kathy Aney Michael Kennedy, a long-haul trucker who works for Medelez Trucking in Hermiston, drives his rig Wednesday in Hermiston. Later, he headed to San Diego with a load of frozen french fries. Michael Kennedy, a long-haul trucker who works for Medelez Trucking in Hermiston, drives his rig Wednesday in Hermiston. Later, he headed to San Diego with a load of frozen french fries. “Imagine,” he said, “camping out the rest of your life, fighting every- day for parking … not see- ing your family, staying on the road two to four weeks at time.” The list goes on, he requires a minimum of 160 hours of driving time to get a commercial license. And the cost of the training can run a few thousand dollars. Oregon does not require a minimum number of hours to enter the field, but said, but little of living on the road is attractive to most people. He also said changes in laws have made it easier to disqualify driv- ers while making it harder to be a driver. Washington, for example, Stephens said, new drivers still have to go to school and pay plenty of fees. The knowledge test is $10, the driving test is $70, the certificate of test com- pletion is $40, the license is $75 if you already have an Oregon driver’s license and $135 if you don’t. Medelez said he sees truckers aging out of the workforce with no one to replace them as another major factor. According to the transportation institute’s report, 28 percent of truck drivers are 55 and older, a situation putting “signifi- cant pressure on the indus- try to increase the avail- able pool of qualified truck drivers.” One way to do that is pro- vide better pay and benefits. Medelez said his fami- ly’s business offers a heath insurance package, a 401K for retirement and an annual savings program in which the company matches 50 percent of an employee’s contributions. He said that’s a popular item for some extra Christmas cash. And rookie driv- ers can make $60,000 a year, Medelez said, while Walmart pays its drivers more than $80,000. Driv- ers at Medelez and BJK can earn that, too, he said, “But you’ve got to hustle. It doesn’t come easy.” Stephens said the com- petition is giving drivers freedom to pick where they want to work. Drivers are willing to jump from one company to the next if they see a better deal, he said, and companies need driv- ers so badly they overlook someone who may have left their last employer in the lurch. Medelez said all the competition compounds the shortage. Large companies, small companies with just a handful of semis, even bus companies are looking for folks with the golden com- bination of a CDL and clean driving record. That’s why Medelez and BJK keep on top of who they have avail- able to handle big rigs. “I think we manage it well,” Medelez said. “We’re here all the time.” Former Umatilla County drug boss out of jail after dismissal Larry Storment said, so he was handling the club’s checkbook and one day tucked it away inside his desk at home after pay- arlos Joaquin Barragan of Herm- ing a club bill. He said that’s when Barra- iston used to run one of the larg- gan had access to the checkbook. est illegal drug operations in north- He took five checks from the book in east Oregon. Last week he was in jail on early August, Storment said, and wrote charges for stealing jewelry, which came them for $200 each and cashed four at a in the wake of ripping off the local bank machine. Hermiston Classics Car Club. “You can take checks to an ATM Barragan’s family made res- and 30 minutes later withdraw the titution to the club, and Umatilla money,” he said, and Barragan did County Circuit Judge Christopher that four times. He gave the fifth Brauer on Friday dismissed the check, Storment said, to another theft case. According to the court guy who cashed it at a local credit documents, the Umatilla County union. Barragan District Attorney’s Office “failed “That guy fled the country to to provide all discovery [reports, Mexico, but Carlos they got,” he documents and other evidence] to the said. defense.” The Umatilla County District Attor- Brauer dismissed the case without prej- ney’s Office charged Barragan on Nov. 19 udice, meaning the state can charge Barra- with multiple counts of forgery and theft. gan again. His defense attorney, Herman Bylenga of Barragan, 40, in 2009 helped set up Pendleton, filed to dismiss a month later the largest illegal marijuana crop in Grant because the parties reached a civil com- County, and in 2011 in federal court he promise. Storment said Barragan’s fam- pleaded guilty to conspiracy to manufac- ily made restitution and gave the club the ture and deliver more than 1,000 mari- $1,000 it was out, and that’s significant for juana plants. He served almost six years in the club’s work. the federal prison in Sheridan and returned “We give that money away,” he said. to Hermiston. “That’s what we do with it. We give it Police there arrested him Nov. 17 and away to some needy organizations around booked him into the Umatilla County Jail, town.” Pendleton. Hermiston police Chief Jason Court records show Circuit Judge Edmiston said Barragan is the subject of Christopher Brauer on Dec. 20 signed the a drug possession case and the two theft motion to dismiss due to the restitution. cases, one involving the Hermiston Clas- But the law was not done with Barragan. sics Car Club. The district attorney on Dec. 23 charged Larry Storment was the recent club him with first-degree theft. Edmiston said president and recalled Barragan as a “nice, the charge stems from stealing jewelry friendly guy.” They lived a couple doors worth more than $1,000 in November from apart, Barragan would visit when Stor- residents at the Country Squire Estates, the ment rolled out his 1955 pickup, and Bar- trailer park at 1500 N.E. 10th St. ragan hung with Storment’s son, Richard The dismissal nixed that case and freed Storment, who state court records show Barragan. has a criminal record. 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