A new report issued by the American Trucking Association shows that the driver turnover rate for large truckload fleets has jumped again in the third quarter of this year to 95%.
According to an ATA press release, the driver turnover rate is increasing thanks to a strong economy and is as high as it’s been since the end of 2015.
Bob Costello, Chief Economist at the ATA, says there is now a “fierce competition for drivers” which could drive up pay and benefits.
The ATA also claims however that the higher turnover rate is a function of a worsening driver shortage. Currently the ATA says that there will be a shortage of over 50,000 drivers by the end of 2017. They expect that number to grow to over 174,000 by 2024.
But the driver turnover rate and “shortage” seems to be the biggest issue in the large truckload segment of the industry. The turnover rate at small truckload fleets actually fell one percentage point to 84%, and the turnover rate at LTL fleets dipped down to 7% last quarter.
Nevertheless, the ATA seems to be pushing for new regulations to help them fill their trucks.
“Unless steps are taken to make it easier for individuals to pursue careers in trucking, demand for drivers will continue to outstrip supply – eventually even leading to supply chain disruptions,” warned Costello.
Source: transporttopics, fleetowner, ATA
Shortage is due to low wages and they know it!
I agree, down with the greedy capitalists.
No such thing as shortage
Theres plenty of drivers
The reason we don’t want to drive is because we give up our life like endentured servants to be treated like crap and wind up virtually stranded all over the place
Unstable pay
And constant harassment
Ata is to blame not the drivers
increase pay, get more drivers
ITS THE PAY!!! I have been driving for 13 years. 5 of those were over the road. I have been driving fuel tankers the last 4 years. Home every day, plenty of sick and vacation days, paid 6 holidays, awesome 401k, and hourly pay overtime after 40. The bottom line is these mega-companies suck. There is a reason LTL has A much lower turnover rate. They receive the same benefits if not more than I do. Just recently my buddy went over the road for One of those mega carriers. Some weeks he’ll bring home $700 other weeks he will bring home $375. Some companies don’t even offer holiday pay or a 401(k) match. I know for a fact Western express does not offer a match on 401k. I have another buddy who works at heartland express. He’s been there a few years his best year was 53,000. For staying out two weeks at a time that pay is just pitiful. They pay HHG miles, so basically he is not getting paid a few miles on every load. Not to mention all of the other things a driver does for free. It all comes down to the sacrifice is not worth the money. If you stay out two weeks and go home four days a month, that means you will only be home for 48 days a year. Hell I even put a week of vacation in there now it’s 55 days a year. For sacrificing your family time and personal life anything under $85,000 is an insult in my book. I would suggest people just get off the road and go to LTL, or fuel. You Will be paid much better, treated much better, and your quality of life will improve.
Excellent summary man. Excellent.
Everything else can be dealt with so long as the pay is above that 85k and over 100k when you’ve been out here for years.
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I’m in Houston’s airport right now.
Left big truck in Chicago.
Completed my Rigging certifications classes ($2000) of my own money.
These guys are averaging $2200 weekly up to $3000. I’m looking at their checks, hence why I’m here.
Far better money for my time in the Rigging secter.
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These are the very same guys that unload my flatbed all over America.
Now I’m joining them. And my CDLs is a plus to enhance my resume.
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I’m flying back right now. Passed all exams written and practical yesterday after an intense week of classes.
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Going to run this flatbed until the end of the year. The Elogs are being installed right now. Last responsible cowboy hanging/exchanging is hat.
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Point is, adapt, reinvent yourself or go down with this underpaid under appreciated industry we love like the Titanic.
Peace and prosperity.
Emphasis on the prosperity.
Sorry kwf it is not just the pay. This has been coming for a long time..
make some more rules to make the short falls work. Go ahead.
The driver turn over rate is high once the driver finds they’ve been lied to from the start just to get them to accept employment. That’s typical of nearly all the big companies. Someone needs to open a fraud case against KB
I’ve heard some really awful events and comments about that company. I was going to drive for them but I back out of it everytime for a gut wrenching feeling.
I went local years ago. I get hourly with overtime after 40 hours. My checks are predictable and good compared to otr where one week it was good and the next was horrible. I’m actually taking home more at the end of the year hourly.
Pay drivers hourly with overtime and it will solve all the so-called driver shortage.
It’s not a one-size-fits-all problem, and therefore there are no easy pre-packaged solutions.
Local work, in my market, does not pay. There are dozens of openings, most for food service/P&D jobs that pay $13-$15 an hour with scant benefits. I live in an agricultural market, so a Class 1 license isn’t worth squat unless you’re willing to leave the farm. You’d be working 7 days a week to earn $40,000/year.
As a company team driver, long-haul for 7 days and home for 4-5, I earn $80,000-$84,000 per year. My spouse also drives with me, making our combined income over $160,000 to work 16 days per month.
Just wait till after the ELD mandate sets in….smh
Yeah that is really going to make a HUGH difference in pay. SMH. Stop being an idiot.
Roads with no warning signs and weather conditions contribute to rollover. Some spots are repetitive and the department of transportation in that state refuse to level the road and make it safer. But they make money for every accident and violations issued..shamefully
I think you’re on the wrong article…
Typical for drivers nowadays!
Crowded highways distracted drivers living in a closet pissing in bottles eld no social life dangerous conditions horrid parking shortages bad layover and detention pay roads not suited for 53’ trailers living in pissed stained parking lots are all reasons no one wants to be a truck driver. Pay will have to jump to pre-deregulation levels to even out the supply/demand curve.
So right. BUT I ask myself every day, “Why am I still here?” Somebody please tell me. There has got to be something positive in all this misery everyone keeps crying about!
Yeah…what he said!
We have DOT and EPA always creating policies to benefit society . Where is the Department of Labor to benefit drivers, sleeping behind the wheel?
The guy running it wants to fire all of his employees and replace them with robots.
Should tell you all you need to know about the quality of appointments and staffing at the Dept of Labor.
If most every company that pays by the mile would stop shorting every driver they employ then maybe turn over would drop, what good is the increase in pay by a few comments when they refuse to pay all miles driven. Most of these companies short typical drivers 10% of the miles per load….don’t believe me look at how much you make in each load and what you have to actually drive
“Unless steps are taken to make it easier for individuals to pursue careers in trucking, demand for drivers will continue to outstrip supply”. Maybe if you start treating drivers as the most important part of the equation instead of the least and pay them for all hours on duty there wouldn’t be a shortage.
Pumping out inexperienced drivers from driver mills is part of the problem.
It’s getting more dangerous out here every day.
The ATA has been crying about the so-called ” driver shortage ” Since I started trucking in 73! What they are really saying is they need more steering wheel holders willing to work for next to nothing. Their perspective is why charge shippers a fair rate when they can make up the difference by steeling from drivers.
Exactly! I’ve been driving since 92, but have been around since the 80’s and have seen exactly what you are talking about. Also. Lets not forget who the board members are of the ATA. Yep. The CEO’s of all the mega carriers. That in it’s self explains most of what is going on.
His comment about making it “easier to pursue careers in trucking” is asinine. People like the ATA are the problem. Their solution? Throw out CDLs as fast as we can! We don’t care if they are qualified! Just give ’em out! This is one reason there is a driver shortage. Get them in lie to them. Stick them in a truck. Then they find out how crappy this job is for so little pay at mega carriers and they quit. Dismantle the ATA they are not out for drivers interests! They are a PAC for mega carriers!
James you hit the nail on the head.
10-4. Exactly.
Owner Operatators,The core of trucking,do not care about ATA!
They will not get rid of us!
There is no driver shortage, just a shortage of drivers willing to work cheap. They should try maybe paying their drivers a decent wage and see what that does to their turnover.
Every time I see the title “Truck driver turn over rate being explained by ATA I always laugh shaking my head here comes the lies again.ATA is a mega trucking companies lobby group that makes ups the lies to go tell the crooked politicians in Washington what’s needed and not needed in the trucking industry to the benefit of mega trucking companies.
I have been saying this all along. We, the drivers need to stand United against ALL the trucking companies and shippers and receivers.
These, the three I just mentioned are the greed mongers… the trucking company cheats you out of miles and detention, shippers and receivers hold you up, way to long.
Fraud charges against companies promising one thing and doing the opposite once they get you behind the wheel, this has been going on for as long as trucking had been trucking, CYA ask for it in writing, see what happens.
It’s the wages. These companies can care less about you and your family!
I’m done trucking December 18th this year. If you want to get things done take a 2 day break on December 18th, either broke down or call in sick. ELD’s are not making it safer. I currently haul food and way to much time is being spent at the warehouse. If you don’t want to pay detention, haul it yourself.
LOL! The date before Christmas is stupid! They should have the deadline after. Will business suffer? Could this cause a stock market panic?
Looking forward to see what happens.
Especially kllm. Everything about their lease purchase program is lies.they lure you in with sign on bonus but you will eventually spend all that on overpriced stripped down trucks. You are only a number to them. They steal from you every chance they can. Please stay away from there.
One other thing fellow drivers,”TALK is cheap”. Take off December 18th thru the 20th. Like posted earlier, call in sick or truck is broke down. Are you afraid of losing your jobs? They need you more than we need them. Watch their profits go away when we go away.
Maybe if everyone is on ELDs and actually follows the law, the loss of revenue will spur lobbyists to petition for a review of HOS.
Judging by the amount of whining in these comments, it’s fairly obvious many drivers still cheat their paper logs. FMCSA maintains that the rules are fine, we just don’t follow them. Since human cost is obviously irrelevant to them, perhaps the $$$ (the only language they speak) will persuade them.
Big otr companies get tax money to turnover drivers,whether they lease or are company drivers,$10,000. Per person,they dont care at all about drivers,they set load deadlines impossible for drivers to achieve in traffic areas,then fire them after they harrass them,/ safety,,is only closet dressing to big companies!if drivers report these DISPATCHERS, they are put on NO,,load status,,until they quit,!
It could be worse… https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ppv3a9/international-lorry-drivers-swiss-truck-stop-876
I drive PT local make decent money and don’t have to sleep in a crappy overcrowded, parking lot behind, an expensive truck stop some co ata jerk deems safe. I actually make more than I did per hr and sleep at home most of the time. Flat above 28% or hrly, drive for a mega Corp or a no name trying to get there over the road and you will never break minimum wage. They will talk out the side of their mouth to tell you how to cheat to up your percentage while throwing you in front of the truck if something happens.
Cdl bus ticket to employment.
It’s NOT going to interrupt the supply chain, you idiots…
Google “converter dollies” and “multiple trailers being pulled by rookie drivers”.
Millionaire CEOs are going to have to raise the pay or get in these 80,000lb trucks and drive em. When a driver sacrafices his or her family time as much as we do, it should pay much more than it does.
That’s not what CEOs are appointed nor expected to do.
The CEO and the entire board of directors is not there to protect employees’ interests, they are there to maximize shareholder value.
Paying employees more means earning shareholders less. Do that, and you’ll be an unemployed (and unemployable) CEO.
The only way to circumvent this is to work for privately owned corporations, and even then, you are usually making the owner and their children (your future bosses) rich. Welcome to oligarchy, or plutocracy if you prefer.
But the problem no one is watching is when pay goes up the miles go down. We need good pay with equal amount of good miles and demand it in writing. And get the laws changed to reflect true labor status. To skilled labor. Have truck drivers included in fair labor standards like everybody else. And start making company’s responable for there turn over rate instead of blaming the drivers. Lay the blame on the company’s for there lack of vision for there drivers. If companys refuse to change then they deserve to go out of buisness. As a driver I am held to a position of trust and now it is time to put big company’s to the same standards.
I would love to see four wheelers being forced to use ELDs. I know personally summer tourists who are behind the wheel of their cars for 20 – 24 hrs non-stop. Lean on their steering wheel to grab some shut eye for four hours or so, then wake up and do the same 1200 miles of driving again. They brag about it constantly.
I have a so called friend who drives motorhomes for people who drive those million dollar boxes on wheels one way on a trip and hire him to drive their luxury homes on wheels back home. My friend made it from Anchorage Alaska to Kansas City in four days. He admits being behind the wheel for up to 30 hours at a time. With this being said, truckers are so over regulated that we have had to sit at a truck stop, wide awake, for five and six hours merely because the government stipulates mini hours for us.
I am more than happy that my CDL was pulled because diminishing night vision. Trucking has changed far too much for making a decent living at it.
I see a lot of opinions about how companies are screwing the drivers; so why is no one Listening? Drivers’ complain, but nothing ever changes – it’s time we find our own representatives to lobby the government to make changes.
The unions have turned their backs on the drivers’ and are taking payoffs to look the other way – disgusting – someone has to take charge of this industry before it implodes.
Maybe it is time for it implode.
Truck drivers will NEVER organize!!! If you think they will i have a test for you!! Pick up the CB radio & ask what time is it??? You will get 6 different answers=then you will have a argument as to who is right!!! I started in 1956=no driving school!!!Quit after 4 mo of E=LOGS!!!! Less miles=less $$$$$$$$$$$!!!
It’s the home time!! The company that I drive for is really decent, for the most part, but when it’s time to go home it’s a different story. I have been less than 100 miles from home and given a load that took me 100 miles right by my home parking area and then dead headed back more than 100 miles. Could have been home early afternoon and instead don’t get parked until after midnight. After 3 weeks on the road, when it’s time to go hone it’s time damn it. Don’t screw with my home time. For Christmas this year, unless you are taking vacation, drivers are required to be back to work on the 26th.
The ATA continues to believe that the solution to turnover and the “driver shortage” is to recruit more drivers into the business, treat them like worse than animals, and pay them slave wages.
Here’s a tip: “turnover” is what happen when you do this. “Retention” is what happens when you treat people humanely and compensate them fairly. “Retention” is the opposite of “turnover” – “recruitment” is a complement to “retention”. “Retention” + “Recruitment” is the solution to the “driver shortage. Anything less is pouring water into a sieve.
Low pay, not paid for detention, or low pay for detention, not home enough, traffic, and the list goes on. How are companies gonna get younger folks interested in this line of work? I sure don’t have answers. But one thing for sure..PAY for a “good” driver sure sweetens it up. I still enjoy trucking even after 43 years. I have one grandson that might be interested in trucking..nephews and nieces not even. They say you do all that for what?! Lol. One has to like it to do it, and not enough like it.
ATA????
The fish rots from the head!
FMC???
We copied the Canadiens that’s how we ended up with no money in the industry….Just a reminder, Dan England of CR England sat as an ATA
head and he runs a puppy mill.
as a seasoned professional 18 wheeler truck driver with 27 years at the wheel, let me say this.. You want to keep a professional driver, pay us what we are worth. Give a new driver better training before you turn them loose on the road. Don’t just teach a student to drive. Also teach them professionalism..
They definitely don’t need to make it easier to pursue a career Trucking anything they need to make it Harden there’s enough drivers out there who don’t know what they’re doing I need to pay the ones that do what they’re worth really pay for the 6 hours away to shipper receiver
In 1979 at my dad’s trucking company the best money for drivers was $19.80 per hour with free health and welfare, today you can’t find too much better typically and you have to pay for health and welfare at a sliding scale that gets more expensive as we age, so to the greedy owners and bean counters I think it is getting close to over, for cheap labor in the trucking business in Chicago.
It’s the pay and the benefits,it’s also the way these company’s treat there drivers.It’s simple you want drives to stay at company(s) pay them a decent wage and decent benfits,and keep them happy!!
Our taxes will just pay for another foreigner to come here and we buy them a truck. Our wages will NEVER go up.
Because it’s a dead end job, who would want to put up with this crap ?
I just found out that cr England charges 4000 for driver training to get your CDL if you quit before their required time you owe them 12000. They don’t want to fix this they are making money hand over fist
I haven’t seen anyone mention the insurance companies demanding that every driver have at least one year experience. How does one get that experience if they can’t get hired….due to lack of experience?
It’s about the money… stupid.
I drive local now but used to drive for one of these high-turnover mega fleets. I quit them bc they would not pay detention as promised and kept shifting the goalposts for quarterly bonuses.
There were plenty of other issues, but I would have dealt with it had they paid me as promised.
Have a problem with trucking ?
Dont truck , problem solved.
Any ?’s
?
The trucking industry has been around for years and has been on a down hill trend since I started driving 20 years ago our government the ata and a lot of big and little companies brokers bad fleet managers safety managers and trucking schools recruiters have been detrimental to the industry they have learned how to beat the drivers out of there entire life and they do this very well turnover means nothing to them accidents mean nothing to them good drivers mean nothing to them laws and safety mean nothing to them safe reliable trucks mean nothing you mean nothing to them the trucking industry has totally lost it. The industry needs to be completely rehauled the fmsca and our law makers need to get only with the drivers to get better with 0 complications from the ata and carriers they can’t be trusted with the life of the drivers and have failed the industry miserably and need to set the laws to where they can’t possibly make your life a living he’ll and they need to be forced to follow those criteria s or have their keys shut off and the kids of authority to operate they can’t hurt drivers if they can’t hire drivers.
When there’s millions of drivers, drivers who love to drive, that dont want to drive, its pretty flicking obvious the problem isn’t the driver.
Its the same crap as” we care so much”
Safety first always
care? Billions of dollars are made only because of the drivers
Being ignorant about it doesn’t make it different
How about more parking?
How about increasing the value of the roads?
How about paying money that will make an impact?
All the hours we put it in
We are the American truck drivers!
We are the hardest working people on earth!
And yet we come out being mocked at every turn.
Manipulated at every chance these companies can find
And instead of respect theirs disrespect
We care! When no one cares
This job is not a job, it is a life!
And you lower the quality of that life
To replace wages with robots and lies
Of course we look for a different life
One that hurts so much less