Midwest, United States. – America’s unemployment rate is below 4 percent right now. In many states, that number is considerably less. The low unemployment rate is great for the economy, but it is wreaking havoc on the trucking industry seeking truck drivers and jobs that require a commercial driver’s license (CDL).
Trucking industry expert James Walker says low unemployment opens up more job opportunities for job seekers. Unfortunately, it also detracts from the number of CDL drivers on the road.
“Baby Boomers are retiring or taking the stage. Since this industry requires a lot of travel, it prevents many people from wanting to become truckers,” Walker said.
In the Midwest, a waste management company was recently fined by the city for delaying garbage collection. The company said it needed more drivers to fulfill its routes and began offering bonuses for signing. As the global economy has strengthened, the demand for trucks to transport goods has outstripped the supply of drivers, prompting carriers to set higher rates and companies to raise product prices, in some cases as much as 20 percent.
Other companies nationwide are dealing with delivery delays. The driver shortage has been building up for some time, there has been less interest in the industry from younger generations, and wages were not comparable for hours away from home. Driver burnout is also a problem facing large fleets, with turnover increasing at an annual percentage rate of 95 percent last year, according to the latest figures.
According to the American Trucking Associations, the country faces a record shortage that needs 50,000 drivers to meet current demand.
Many companies now offer large bonuses as an incentive. However, instead of solving the shortage, most drivers are simply hopping from one company to another.
Darren Hawkins, CEO of one of the nation’s largest freight carriers, YRC Trucking, said the severity of the shortage means we must make it easier for women, youth and minorities to obtain CDL. “There is an industry problem, and that is that we have to do a better job of attracting new people to the driving profession, previous audiences that we have not reached,” Hawkins said. “Right now, the American Trucking Associations says we are short of tens of thousands of drivers, and those numbers will keep increasing. So we have to open other parts.”
Facing a record shortage of drivers, trucking companies “are making the adjustments because they have to,” said Kevin Reid, founder of the National Minority Trucking Association. “The industry has not focused on recruiting and retaining the next generation,” Reid said. “Trucking is an industry that needs to be revamped. There was an interesting factor in trucking in the 1970s and 1980s. We don’t have that now, so the question is, how are we going to get to the next generation? of truckers? “
Kristina Jackson, a 22-year-old African-American truck driver living in Raleigh, North Carolina, is exactly the type of person the trucking industry wants to attract. After graduating from college, she wanted a job that would allow her to travel and be financially independent. She never considered trucking until her boyfriend’s father, himself a trucker, encouraged her to try it.
After a year of driving, he is constantly reminded that he is an exception in the industry.
“When people found out that I worked in trucks, they were shocked by my gender and my age,” he said. “The first thing you think of is an old white man. People tell me, ‘You don’t look like a trucker.’ I say, ‘What is a trucker like?’ “
Ms. Jackson believes that more young people could easily be persuaded to join the industry, adding that she has personally recruited 10 of her friends in their 20s. But he thinks the recruiters so far have done a poor job of showcasing the industry’s young truckers.
“When people think of truckers, they don’t see our faces,” Jackson said of young drivers.
Women and minorities make up just a fraction of the total trucking population: 94 percent of drivers are male and two-thirds of all drivers are white, according to a 2017 report published by American Trucking Associations.
There are solutions to the CDL shortage.
One of the solutions to help with the shortage would be to allow drivers between the ages of 18 and 21 to cross state lines. Currently, drivers ages 18-21 cannot drive across state lines under CDL law. The US Department of Transportation has started a military driver program that allows servicemen between the ages of 18 and 21 to drive from one state to another.
The Trump administration and industry are also trying to alleviate the problem by loosening federal rules and attracting non-traditional drivers like women, teens and minorities to operate large rigs. By passing your CDL test and driving commercial vehicles and trucks that require a CDL, you will end up with a great paying job with benefits. The first step is to pass your CDL Test, which allows you to obtain your CDL Permit (CLP) by using this resource CDL Test Questions.
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