Freight transportation demand has softened and the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported modest truck driver job losses. However, industry insiders continue their determined efforts to onboard truckers, warehouse workers, and other positions.
Trucking industry leaders and government officials have been reaching out to demographics not well represented in the sector. Women, Gen Xers, foreign CDL holders, and immigrants are among the groups freight operations hope to attract to offset the 80,000 driver shortage. The federal government is transitioning to allow young adults from 18 to 21 years old to earn a CDL and participate in interstate trucking. Recent assessments by insiders point not only to a driver shortage but also to an inadequate number of people across essential supply chains occupations.
“Supply chain talent has been in short supply for some time,” NTT DATA Services vice president Sylvie Thompson reportedly said. “The drop out of a large portion of the labor force over the pandemic just amplified it. Overall, we need to grow the talent pool — we need to attract new people into supply chain fields and develop them. Just waiting for them to come will not work.”
A 2022 Third-Party Logistics Study by NTT DATA and Penske Logistics indicates that 78 percent of shippers struggle with labor shortages. Upwards of 56 percent of third-party logistics operations have difficulty filling positions that included truckers, warehouse personnel, and heavy equipment operators. Thompson pointed out that third-party logistics organizations have been among the most aggressive, in terms of recruiting truckers.
“(Third-party logistics companies) are taking the shortage more seriously which makes sense because their business does not exist without strong supply chain talent. They are being far more creative with alternative benefits, they see the need to develop talent through apprenticeship programs and certifications,” Thompson reportedly said. “Companies seem to still be on the path of ‘I will just pay more, give bigger bonuses and steal trained talent from others,’ which is what they are doing.”
Addressing the recent, and somewhat overhyped, Bureau of Labor Statistics report, retailers are overloaded with inventory. Imports have slowed and that means fewer loads to pull in the retail sector. The reported 11,400 jobs purge in September comes after significant growth opportunities during spring and summer when consumer demand was high. Freight transportation insiders anticipate drivers will simply slide over to other niches with little downtime. A recent meeting by the Sourcing Industry Group confirms that sentiment.
“There’s a little bit of softening in demand for things like seasonal workers, but that’s only slight and that’s only based on a perception that with inflation and everything else, that buying will be down in the fourth quarter compared to the last two years when people were at home. But that’s still very slight,” Sourcing Industry Group president Dawn Tiura reportedly said. “We have a severe trucking shortage for long-haul. A lot of the reasons is because so much has gone into e-commerce and online purchasing that the last-mile delivery guy is now critical to the supply chain, getting the goods to you.”
Other industry insiders agree that freight transportation demand has changed. However, few believe a qualified truck driver could be out of work for even 10 days, given the robust national recruitment efforts.
Sources: ttnews.com, ttnews.com
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