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Keep On Truckin’... Please
Everything we produce or consume is transported somewhere, and everything will at some point travel by truck. The issue however, according to Kevin Burch, president of Dayton Trucking, is that shipping tonnage is up, while the number of truck drivers is down. William Cassidy, senior editor of JOC.com stated,
“This year, the availability of drivers, rather than trucks, will determine how tight truck capacity gets in the U.S. Truck manufacturers are expected to churn out hundreds of thousands of Class 8 tractors ordered last year, but where are the men and women who will drive those trucks?”
According to LTX Solutions, one of the largest issues influencing the driver shortage is the demographic of the current workforce, primarily age and gender. LTX stated,
“The trucking industry relies heavily on male employees, 45 years of age or older. Women make up only 6% of commercial truck drivers. Currently, we have a driver shortage of 48,000 and when aligning these numbers with freight forecasts, we could have a shortage of 330,000 drivers by 2024.”
“With the baby boomers retiring, millennials don’t want to get into the trucking business”, said Kevin Burch, ATA Chairman and Jet Express president. So, where do the qualified, skilled drivers come from who are willing to accept the frequent grueling working conditions, weeks away from home, and pay that “lags the average U.S. wage,” as stated by Cassidy. LTX solutions offers what they believe is the only viable option: “If carriers start thinking more strategically about untapped workforce pools and continue to offer comprehensive benefit packages with competitive pay, perhaps we can fix this problem.”
Whether LTX Solutions’ option will in fact solve the driver shortage or not, is yet to be seen. For now, we continue to struggle to find qualified drivers to move the ever-increasing number of loads throughout the U.S.
Contributor: Darrin Long
References:
Gnau, T. (2019, March 11). Lack of Drivers, Demand driving prices up. Retrieved March 25, 2019, from https://www.ttnews.com/articles/lack-drivers-demand-driving-prices
Cassidy, W. B. (2019, January 02). US truck driver pay to rise 'more than normal' in 2019. Retrieved March 25, 2019, from https://www.joc.com/trucking-logistics/labor/us-truck-driver-pay-rise-more-normal-2019_20190102.html
LTX Solutions. (2019, March 21). What is causing the truck driver shortage and how can we fix it? Retrieved March 25, 2019, from http://ltxsolutions.com/truck-driver-shortage-causes-problems-solutions/
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