Another "trucker shortage" story

Discussion in 'Truckers News' started by bigjoel, Aug 23, 2014.

  1. bigjoel

    bigjoel Road Train Member

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    http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2014/08/22/massive-trucker-shortage-could-hit-your-wallet-soon/?intcmp=obnetwork

    Truck driver Anthony Plummer remembers when he was in the middle of the country on a long-haul delivery when he learned his daughter was sick in the hospital.
    “I was told to get back [home] as soon as possible. But there are a lot of rules that limit how much I can drive, so I told them I would get back as soon as I could.” It was after this incident that Plummer decided to make a career shift to become a regional truck driver. “It blew my mind if something were to happen and if I was way across the country. Every now and then I still go out there to long run because she is doing better, but it’s rare.”
    Plummer isn’t alone with his career move as the trucking industry suffers a shortage of drivers across the board, especially among long-haulers. According to the American Trucking Associations (ATA), the industry is about 30,000 short of qualified drivers. Over the next 10 years, that number is set to rise to 200,000.
    The industry, which has an average 115-120% annual turnover rate, according to Brian Fielkow, CEO of Jetco Delivery, a logistics company specializing in regional trucking, also has an aging problem. Bob Costello, chief economist at the ATA, says the average age in the for-hire truckload market is about 49, and for less-than-truckload drivers (LTL) and private carriers the average is about 55.
    The trucking industry is a vital component to economic growth, with trucks hauling 70% of all freight tonnage moved in the U.S., according to Costello. And as the economy continues to improve so does demand, which is good news for the industry and the economy, but there isn’t enough capacity to keep up. In fact, earlier this month, Swift Transportation reported[​IMG] in its quarterly earnings release that the “the overall driver market tightened more than anticipated."
    “Ultimately everything moves slower which could delay parts not arriving” and back up the whole manufacturing process. I’ve seen construction projects get held up because there weren’t trucks available, that’s a small taste of it."​
    - Brian Fielkow, CEO of Jetco Delivery

    Consumers could also soon start feeling the driver shortage. “Ultimately everything moves slower which could delay parts not arriving” and back up the whole manufacturing process, says Fielkow. "I’ve seen construction projects get held up because there weren’t trucks available, that’s a small taste of it."
    While the shortage could cause prices on goods to increase, experts say it’s not likely it would be passed onto consumers. “It could mean higher prices at the stores, but we will have to see how much of the pay increases get passed along to consumers," says Costello.
    The Great Recession provided a false sense of security with the driver shortage, explains Fielkow. “Demand died down when the economy cooled off so no one was really feeling the shortage. We took our eye off the ball as a country. The slowdown was purely masking an underlying generational trend.”
    Experts cite other job alternatives that don’t require being away from home for long stretches, the age requirement (23), cumbersome regulations and the demanding work schedule for fueling the shortage.
    “A company can’t get into a high school and recruit young men and women who don’t aspire to go to college,” says Lyndon Finney, editor at The Trucker. “There is a three-year gap where they can’t recruit and a lot of career decisions get made during that time.” He says there is movement to get insurance companies to come up with rigorous training standards to get young drivers behind the wheel earlier. “We let them go into combat and go over and face the enemy on the ground and fly a plane, maybe they are mature enough to drive a truck as well.”
    Peter Latta, chairman and chief executive officer at regional truck driving company, A. Duie Pyle launched an in-house training academy in 2003 to help manage their turn-over rate, which is currently only around 5% in LTL for drivers with greater than one year of service. The eight-week academy is open to the company’s full-time employees who are interested in getting their commercial driver’s license. The company picks up the entire cost of the program, including meals and lodging, at about $20,000 per student, and has graduated more than 150 drivers.
    “The shortage is very concerning and we are trying to combat it as best we can….we are making our investments in our people.”
    The industry also has an image problem, says Finney. “We get publicity on the bad things and not on the good things. The image of trucking a lot of people have is when the truck went into the back of Tray Morgan’s limo.”
    Pay has also been an issue when it comes to recruitment and retainment. “Drivers, as of last year, were making, based on real dollars, somewhere between 6-8% less than they were in 1990…and working 70 hours a week.” With that said, as demand continues to outpace driver capacity, pay has been going up. “Lately, we are hearing fleets every week increasing pay in the 10% to 15% range,” says Costello.
    To deal with the shortage, the industry and shippers are getting creative to help lessen drivers’ time on the road. Fielkow says some companies are having drivers meet halfway during a long haul to switch off. “That means they can both get home quicker and help focus on the quality of life. Yet shippers have legitimate demands that need to be met, and sometimes there isn’t an easy way to figure it out.”
    He adds that shippers are becoming more proactive and giving customers more notice about their needs. “It used to be a day or two heads up, now they are giving us one, sometimes two weeks.”
     
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  3. tow614

    tow614 Road Train Member

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    The problem is most companies dont care about the quality of their drivers life....only the performance of their trucks..

    the companies who advertise home every week are only getting you home for a reset...which is not quality hometime..

    after a while that gets old...

    the ltl drivers who are home daily work 14 to 16 hr days...

    that gets old...
     
  4. bigdogpile

    bigdogpile Road Train Member

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    LTL drivers dont put in 14 or 16 hour days..maybe 12 here & there but mostly 10 hour days,Anyone working more than that is doing it by choice or working for a bottom feeder LTL.yea we got those too.
     
  5. 8thnote

    8thnote Road Train Member

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    Just what we need, CREngland and the like putting 18 year olds thru their stellar training programs. Sounds like a good idea.

    also, what kind of training is Pyle doing that costs them $20k per student?
     
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  6. Chewey

    Chewey Light Load Member

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    If there is such a shortage...why hasn't pay gone up more?
     
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  7. bigdogpile

    bigdogpile Road Train Member

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    Because there is no shortage of drivers,only a shortage of drivers willing to tolorate the BS the companies expect from us..I have been driving for almost 20 years and Swift,Knight CRE and most ALL of the mega-big trucking companies have been "now-hiring" since my day one..
     
  8. Chinatown

    Chinatown Road Train Member

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    INDUSTRIESTennessean newspaper : Trucking industry faces uphill battle to recruit…
    INDUSTRIES[​IMG]
    The trucking industry's marketing catchphrase for years has been, "If you've got it, a truck brought it."
    But as trucks increasingly sit idle because of a growing shortage of drivers, the slogan might morph to: "If you can't find it, there were no trucks to bring it."
    Already, there are up to 40,000 truck driver openings going unfilled nationwide, and it's only going to get worse, said Tommy Hodges, executive board member and former chairman of the American Trucking Associations and owner of Shelbyville-based Titan Transfer Inc., which operates a fleet of 300 long-haul trucks.
    According to the association, more than a million new drivers will be needed over the next 10 years as demand for shipping by truck grows, and more aging baby boomer drivers retire. The average age of truckers is now nearly 50 nationwide, up from 40 less than a decade ago; at Hodges' company, it's 54.
    Now, nearly one in five of Tennessee's over-the-road trucks are sitting idle because there's no one to drive them, according to the Tennessee Trucking Association, where Hodges also is a board member and former chairman.
    "We have to turn down loads every day," he said. "And when companies such as ours begin to turn down significant numbers of loads, and manufacturers can't get their products to market, we're going to start seeing shortages in the retail sector where people can't get the things they want."
    The claim that most goods travel by truck isn't just an industry boast: More than 80 percent of all products consumed at home or at work in Tennessee are delivered by truck, said Dave Huneryager, president of the Tennessee Trucking Association.
    And because "rail goes a lot fewer places than trucks do, 95 percent of Tennessee counties depend solely on trucks," he said.
    "Even now, when the economy is not booming, trucks are sitting with freight on them because they have no drivers to put behind the wheel," Huneryager said. "When it does come back, it's going to be even worse. That's the scary part."
    Recruiting drivers is a key initiative of the state and national trucking associations, but it's not an easy task, said Rodrigo Suarez, an economist for the national group.
    Truck drivers were third on the list of the top 10 hardest jobs to fill in ManpowerGroup's "2013 Talent Shortage Survey" for the United States, which listed occupations that have the most unfilled jobs available.
    'Drastic shortage'
    "Right now, we're facing a pretty drastic driver shortage because of the aging workforce, and it's difficult attracting the younger generation to give truck driving a chance," he said.
    There are "a number of good reasons," Suarez said, including long hours away from home and a feeling that truck driving isn't as glamorous as some other professions.
    Pay is not considered to be one of the problems, he said. "The money is really quite attractive."
    The average driver earns about $50,000 a year, and most companies have good benefits, including health insurance and 401(k) savings plans.
    Drivers can make even more, depending on how hard they're willing to work, Hodges said.
    "They get paid by the miles they drive, so they have to run the miles to make the money," he said. "In our company, about 30 percent make well over $50,000, up into the $70,000 range; about 30 percent are in the middle, making $40,000 to $50,000; and the rest are making $30,000 or less because they only want to work four days a week, or want to take a lot of time off to do other things."
    But like most trucking companies, Hodges said his firm has "incentives for them to drive more. As the driver goes more miles, the pay per mile goes up."
    Recruiting new drivers will take more than great pay and benefits, Hodges and other industry experts say.
    "We've seen companies offering higher pay, but I don't think that will solve the problem," Hodges said. "What that does is just bring in marginal people who will try it for a while. What we need is a new generation of dedicated, professional drivers."
    Image is one of the key issues, and one that will be hard to overcome, especially when even truckers themselves don't recommend the business to their kids, he said.
    "We don't even hold our own drivers in very high esteem, and until society starts putting value on someone who holds this job, it's not going to get any better," Hodges said. "But it's not just truck driving that's suffering from that attitude. It's any job that requires manual labor. Nobody wants to do that anymore."
    The minimum age to get a commercial driver's license (21) and the lack of affordable driver training programs also are big issues, Suarez and Hodges said.
    "We could go recruit at the high schools, to find people who aren't planning to go on to college and want to enter the workforce instead. But they're not old enough to drive a truck, and most of them aren't willing to wait three years before they can get a job," Hodges said.
    Scholarships
    While there are training programs available through private and public vocational schools, the cost can be prohibitive, he said. Trainees often have to invest thousands of dollars before they can finally get a job and start to work.
    "We're raising money now for scholarships for driver training through our Tennessee Trucking Association Foundation, which we hope will help some," said Hodges, who is the foundation's chairman.
    Nationwide, the industry is pushing to make truck-driver training "more commonplace in community colleges," Suarez said.
    "There's some misconception of what trucking is all about," he said. "It's more professional and safe than most people realize. But it's also a very scrutinous industry, which requires a high level of professionalism and stringent background checks. It's tough to find qualified applicants."
    For now, "The driver shortage continues to be our biggest operating problem," Hodges said. "We find it increasingly difficult to attract the professional driving talent we need, and it's in all of our markets, especially the rural sections of the state like Shelbyville or Pulaski.
    "We're now spending more money to retain our drivers, and doing things to make their quality of life better, such as giving them more time at home and making trucks more driver-friendly. But it's still a chronic problem, and we're beating our heads against the wall to find answers."
    Reach G. Chambers Williams III at 615-259-8076 and on Twitter @gchambers3.
    Now hiring
    30,000
    The American Trucking Associations estimates the current shortage of drivers to be roughly 30,000 in the for-hire truckload market.
    239,000
    If current trends hold, the shortage could balloon to as much as 239,000 by 2022.




     
  9. Chinatown

    Chinatown Road Train Member

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    Maybe their tanker division. They haul dry bulk.
     
  10. Chinatown

    Chinatown Road Train Member

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    Pay won't go up as long as some are willing to haul cheap freight.
     
  11. 201

    201 Road Train Member

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    Hi Chewey, we have to remember, trucking never was really a high paying job. When I started in the late 70's, sure there were high paying trucking jobs, mostly union, but my 1st real trucking job, the "dedicated" load I was hired for, paid $41 dollars a turn, and took almost 6 hours, or $6.80/hr. But it was an improvement from my last job of $5.25/hr. However, it was an easy job, a fun job, regulations were loose, and I could run around the clock if I wanted to. It wasn't until 1986, when I finally broke the $10 dollar range, when I got a route job at $11.25/hr. Still well below union scale, where companies like UPS drivers were making $22 dollars/hr. Even when I bought my own truck in 1988, .87 cpm was a fair wage, and $1 dollar/ mile was rare. The last trucking job I had in 2006 was for a friend( some friend) where I got $220 dollars a turn, and it took me 16 hours to do, or $13.75/hr on a 1099. So $40-50K today may sound attractive, as others have pointed out, with 70 hour weeks (and that's just driving, doesn't include sitting somewhere), it still comes out to peanuts, especially when a computer programmer( or whatever) makes the same money,puts in half the hours, and goes home at quitting time. Peoples perception of truck driving always was and still is, " You just sit there and drive, how hard can it be".
     
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