The Source for Trucking News, Opinions and Trucking Jobs | Trucker shortage could affect consumers

I thought I had finally found news that the Capacity Crunch was affecting store shelves. But after some careful reading, it’s only another press release from the industry whining about how few drivers they have to abuse.

Trucker shortage could affect consumers.
That’s bad news for an industry where driver turnover is growing, and the demand for delivery of goods is rising. It’s also bad news for consumers who are facing longer delays and higher prices for food, clothes and thousands of other products that must be trucked each day.

Consultant Lana Batts said the industry already is 195,000 drivers short of what it needs.

“The market is tighter than it has ever been,” said Scott Arves, president of transportation for Green Bay, Wis.-based Schneider National Inc., one of the nation’s largest trucking firms. “It is a very tough, demanding job: long hours, significant time away from home, increased road congestion, an increase in regulation.”

So far, the only quotes are from a trucking consultant and Schneider (they seem to be in every news article about this shortage, why is that?)

It’s a lot to endure for an industry average of $40,000 a year.

Maybe that’s your first clue as to why there’s a shortage?

The increased costs of recruiting new drivers, plus higher
fuel prices, can add pennies to the cost of a gallon of milk and
dollars to a plasma television set.

It’s also taking longer for goods to get to market, Batts said,
delays that force consumers either to wait or buy something else.

Again, the only quote is from  our trucking industry consultant.  Prices have risen for more reasons than transportation.  When I’m at the mall or anywhere, I’ve never really noticed too many empty shelves for anything.

Government has only exacerbated the shortage, drivers and analysts say.

It’s always the government’s fault.

Hauling fuel and other hazardous substances used to require little
more than a clean driving record and some training. Now, due to
homeland security regulations, drivers who want to transport such
materials have to undergo a background check and fingerprinting.

And new regulations designed to ensure that tired truck drivers
aren’t on the road have forced a lot of them to sit at rest areas
unable to deliver or pick up their loads.

At the same time, federal regulators have rejected industry attempts
to expand the use of triple trailers and lower the minimum age to drive
an 18-wheeler from 21 to 18.

And Congress’ inability to pass a comprehensive highway bill means
the increasing congestion on the nation’s roads will only get worse.

This is where it sounds like a press release rather than a news report. All the things the corporations / industry want to ease this crunch were rejected by the government and making the new HOS to be the bad guy forcing drivers to sit instead of delivering.  Which isn’t the case. The new HOS has forced shippers and carriers to be more efficient and has given us more rest not made us unable to deliver anything. What a crock!

All of which means an industry that isn’t as efficient as it could
be, said Batts, a former senior vice president for the American
Trucking Associations.

“We have too few drivers, driving too few trucks, pulling too few trailers,” she said.

So, now it makes sense. Ms. Batts is not only a trucking consultant, she used to be a VP at ATA, no wonder the rhetoric sounds familier. I’m sure when she says "isn’t as efficient" she means isn’t able to rake in as much profit by running more double and triple trailers and hiring (cheap) kids to drive.

The shortage began to emerge in the early 1990s and has slowly
worsened except for around 2001 when the recession that hurt
construction and manufacturing sectors made trucking jobs relatively
attractive, Arves said.

Which "made trucking jobs attractive"?? How about CHEAP trucking jobs attractive.

It’s not unusual for drivers to leave after only a few grinding weeks on the job.

Trucking companies must spend more to recruit and retain prospective
replacements. Schneider’s Donald Osterberg said the cost of recruiting
an individual driver nearly doubled from 2003 to 2004.

Dart Transit executive Joyce Jordan said that of 1,000 potential
drivers contacted by her company, 100 are legitimate prospects on
average. Of those, 60 apply, 10 are approved, five show up for the
interview, three pass the training tests and one lasts beyond six
months.

New drivers leave because the companies run their rookies  into the ground. This job doesn’t have to be as grinding as some companies make it. If companies invested more time and training into their trainees instead of putting them with a "trainer" that is only interested in making more money or is on some kind of power trip, maybe they would be able to keep the new drivers they are getting. After some decent training, put the newbies on some gravy runs, instead of the crap that no one else wants to take. Ease them into the grind, dedicate a few people to hold their hand a little more at first, instead of throwing them into the deep end and not caring if they float back up or not.

The only people that last longer than six months are the ones that will put up with anything to do what they want to do and to be able to do what they love (me). Or the ones that are so desperate for a job that they will do anything for the semblance of a paycheck. I used to put up with a lot. Crappy trainers. One on a power trip, one that ran hard for the money I was making him. Running non-stop for four weeks only to have to drive home 500 miles empty for a day off. Which started when I left the last load, not when I got home.  I’m not even going to mention pulling a reefer into some of the worst places known to man or beast. Being treated like scum by shippers and your own dispatchers. Now I’m at a better place, but I had to go through the worst and survive to get here, no thanks to anyone in trucking except myself.

That’s why companies such as Schneider have begun to reach out to
less traditional groups to find new drivers. They’ve met with Hispanic
community leaders in Los Angeles, for example, to recruit potential
employees.

This sounds like the article I read recently that I can’t find now, that trucking’s "out of the box" thinking to solve the shortage wasn’t to improve conditions or pay, it was finding new people to exploit. Now it’s the displaced hispanic garment industry worker that trucking is looking for to solve the shortage.

The industry also has tried to improve working conditions for a job
that, because it is not covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act, pays
no overtime or minimum wage.

Just hasn’t tried very hard though.

Pay per mile has risen, training has improved and driving schedules
are more commonly worked around family life so that long-haul drivers
can spend time at home during the weekends.

Thanks to a routine he’s worked out with his bosses at J&E
Trucking, Charles Cunningham, 37, gets to his Okolona, Miss., home most
weekends to spend time with his fiancee, Martha Gladney. Even so, it
can be a bit of a strain.

If that’s what they have to do to keep drivers, that’s what they have to do. There’s a million options to getting drivers home. More companies are coming up with dedicated runs along with more relays and swapping of loads.  Which is better than some of the other "solutions" they’ve come up with so far.

Originally posted 2005-02-25 08:45:28.