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. His last conviction
Edmiston said there remains the matter
was in 2008 for second-degree assault, a of the drugs Barragan had on him at the
felony.
time of his arrest, but he has yet to face any
The car club needed a new treasurer, related charges.
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STAFF WRITER
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