What To Do About The Driver Shortage?

All the big company schools are kicking out alot of brand new drivers each week. I went to Roehl 8 years ago. Then they had 1 school site and had a max each week if 10 students. I know they have grown since. I had 4 in my class. Class in front of me had 6.

I talked with a safety dept head at a large company a couple years ago and he told me their target each week was 75. They figured they needed that many to account for turnover as well as some would fail out for various reasons.

New drivers are coming into the industry but many fail within the first year. I talked with a buddy who trains here. He says for every 20 new drivers hired we may get 2 that work out.

The calibur of people these days is terrible. I agree it is a society issue more than a new driver issue.

Pearl, that 600 mile idea you mention is basically how LTL companies operate, we take it to another terminal or meet point then someone there either delivers it or relays it further till it reaches its destination. Steve is correct saying it will be extremely difficult and expensive for a OTR company to operate. They will have to buy more trailers and put down a lot of empty miles since there won't always be freight running in both directions.

Steve, I agree with you 100%. More OTR companies need to take the LTL approach, charge the customer detention time from when the appointment was supposed to be until you are unloaded or tell them your going to charge a missed appointment fee and we will see you again tomorrow. Our P&D drivers say it amazing how fast a door opens up when you tell them you are leaving with their stuff. Obviously, this approach will be more difficult for OTR companies but I'm sure they could figure something out.

Like Steve said freight will usually go to the cheapest bidder, if company A is charging all these fees and company B doesn't, company B will get a majority of the work. Unless all the companies work together which will never happen there is no incentive for change. Plus just wait until you tell the average consumer they have to pay extra because the truckers want more money, they will turn on us so fast.

Getting paid actual miles. Not zip code to zip code

I have weighed in a couple times on the crocodile tears shed by the bigs about a shortage. Pearl has suggested several "unothodox" possible fixes. I am retired from another career. I get my health care through pension payments. I want to work. I just would prefer to beat the he-ll out of 56 available hours, rather than work a standard 70 (14 hr days). I was fortunate to have that with my last outfit, with an understanding that if they needed me on day 5, or even day 6, and I had nothing going on I was more than happy to work for them. Five and 6 day weeks were not uncommon, and only twice did I turn down a request. I usually let them know on Wed if I was available Friday and Saturday. It worked out for all invokved. "Riding for the brand" used to be expected, and acknowledged and rewarded. Nobody is willing to entertain that concept now.

Arguments against that have been that it sets up " a special class of driver". So what? You simply advertise the job as alternative schedule, and you interview and you Do a background investigation to determine what that person's work ethic is. Do they work for their full 14 hours, or do they milk the clock and turn 6 hours of work into 12, because they can? I have wirked with drivers that routinely drove a deadhead return from Indianapolis, IN to Joliet, IL via Bloomington, IL. (80-90 extra miles) because they could. NOT, imo, a candidate for a shortened work week.

Qualified drivers are in limited supply. Outfits could do great work if they would stay between the lines on the road, and be willing to consider a color outside the lines attitude in structuring their schedules.

Great thread and solid question!

End of my rant...

Andrey, I think you did your math wrong. 100 new CDL holders every week for a year would total 5200. Are you sure that 100 per week number is correct? Sounds high to me.

My bad, I was thinking about months instead of weeks. But weekly estimate is more or less correct. Roehl has 4 locations, the one in Gary being the biggest, so it may create more license holders, but let's think they are equal. A new class starts every Monday. There are 8-10 people in class. Success rate is very high: testers are Roehl instructors, they will keep you for another week and allow to retest if something goes wrong. In my class of eight, seven people passed. So even if we have 5-6 new CDLs every week at one location, it is still about 1000-1200 a year. Which is very close to how many trucks Roehl has :-)

There is no driver shortage, no chip shortage no shortage of anything. This covid19 is to blame for all these money hungry businesses claiming shortages. End of story.

Look, some drivers did take a leave of absence but returned when the government didn't want to pay anymore. There's no trucks available because lots of new drivers have joined the industry.

You already know the answer as to why people are leaving their companies. They're slowly realizing who's getting the short end of the stick. Or maybe they've had no choice but to join those companies temporary for whatever their reason. It's really common sense at this point. Yall know exactly what game you've got going. Don't ask the drivers nothing.

It's really common sense at this point.

I agree with that Bernardo, but could you explain some of your other statements for me? You lost me somewhere in there. It sounds like you may have a burr in your saddle. Are you having trouble finding a trucking job? Is there any thing we can do to help?

I think it’s the lifestyle. I wonder how much would really change if pay went way up. Go local and you’re looking at 12 to 14 hour days 6 days a week. Go otr and you’re away from home weeks at a time. I love what I do but not an attractive job for most I’d say. Especially the younger generation. My company has two yards. One for the otr one for the local guys. I’m out of the local yard and am the youngest guy by probably 20 years. Have a few younger guys otr. We can’t find drivers period.

Hey all – thanks for the input. Really appreciate everyone’s contributions, especially those who sent links.

I tend to agree with what some here have said, that it’s not so much a shortage per se, but a turnover issue: drivers jumping company to company, and drivers getting out of the industry after only a short while in it.

A few ideas I’d like y’alls opinion on:

1) Hometime and flexible scheduling. The big problem here, from the company’s POV, is that they need to keep those rigs running, and 8 hour shifts are inefficient. Slipseating causes other issues as well. But I’m thinking that if companies made it easier for drivers to step away for awhile, they might get them back. For example: I’ve been driving 60 hour weeks for 2 years, and decided I needed a longer break than my 2 weeks of PTO. I asked If I could take a couple weeks unpaid leave and was told no … so I’ll be changing companies later this year, and taking a month off in between jobs. And my company will be paying a $5,000 bonus to the new hire. If they would have given a couple weeks unpaid leave, they would have kept me. Which brings me to:

2) Retention bonuses, or more seniority perks. At least in my area, pretty much everywhere is offering sign-on bonuses. Nobody is offering stay-here bonuses. And we wonder why drivers jump ship…

3) Ending the use of remote or third-party recruiters. Too many recruiters say whatever is needed to get you on the job, with minimal or no communication with the actual dispatchers and managers you’ll work with. So you end up with a job that wasn’t what you were actually wanting/expecting, and again, looking to jump ship early.

Any thoughts on these? All opinions welcome! Keep ‘em coming!

Many people say more money would keep them where they are, but professional athletes and big business executives make millions of dollars each year and they have high turnover. They average only short periods of time with any company or team before moving on to a better opportunity. No matter what a company pays, there will almost always be a better opportunity elsewhere. By nature, most of us are always on the lookout. Raising the pay wouldn't lower turnover by much, but it would make companies who try it less competitive.

I do not believe we have a shortage of drivers, but I can tell you why the turnover has always been high in trucking, and why that will never change:

1) Trucking is a demanding job.

The long hours, terrible traffic, tough weather, tight schedules, risk, and time away from home make this career a real struggle for everyone. Some embrace the struggle. They love the challenges. Others had hoped that driving a rig would be an easy job where you don't have to deal with anything, just drive. Tons of people drop out their first year, many more only last a few years.

2) There is a huge variety of jobs out there

People want to try different things. You might want to haul a different type of freight or be home more often. You might want to see the west coast and that regional job won't get you there. Maybe you're getting big around the belly and you're hoping flatbed will give you some exercise. There is an endless variety of jobs and you often won't know what you'll like until you try it.

3) As you gain experience, new opportunities open up.

Many jobs require experience, especially local jobs or hauling specialized freight. People get their career underway using the major carriers and then try new opportunities as they qualify.

4) Changes in your life require a change in your job

Hey, life happens, right? Drivers get married or divorced. Some may have kids and eventually their kids grow up and move out. Maybe you develop health problems, or your health problems are cured. Any number of major life changes can require a change to a more suitable job.

5) Owning or leasing a truck becomes attractive

Every driver contemplates owning or leasing their truck, hoping they can call the shots someday and make better money. Many try, but most don't last long and wind up returning to a company position.

6) People get burned out

No matter what type of job you have in trucking, it can lose its appeal after a while. Sometimes you just get burned out and it's time for a change

7) Many move on because they can!

Every driver knows that with a little experience and a solid safety record, they can have a dozen jobs at the snap of their fingers. That makes many drivers far less tolerant of their current company or the type of job they have than they might otherwise be. Why put up with any sort of frustrations when you can just quit this job and have a new one tomorrow? Many drivers do just that. If it wasn't so easy to change jobs, far fewer drivers would jump ship so easily.

There is not a shortage of truck drivers, but as with any field, there is a shortage of high-quality drivers. The turnover in trucking is high for a long list of reasons and none of those reasons are temporary. Turnover was high when I got into trucking in 1993 and will remain that way indefinitely.