As the Freight demand grows officials say that qualified drivers are becoming increasingly harder to find. Reports from a multitude of fleets, driver training officials, and freight brokers indicate that the driver shortage trend is in fact occurring.
Obtaining qualified drivers is difficult for truck companies due to the size of the driver population. The recent growth in freight volume has also made this driver shortage more piercing. Determined to add more drivers, many fleets are making new asset purchases to encourage new driver acquisition. These practices were repeated in 2005 at the peak of the last driver shortage cycle.
There are also a few factors that industry professionals think that would make the driver shortage worse. The economy strengthening beyond the recent 2.5% growth rate in the the third quarter domestic product. The other factor is if the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration reduces the allowable driving hours requiring additional drivers to move a similar amount of freight.
As Fleets deal with quality driver shortcomings, an aging driver population, and discouraging extended unemployment payments, time will be the determining factor in whether many fleets will shrink or not.
i would like to help alleviate the driver shortage. someone hire me!
How many trucking companies have Veteran Programs that actually paid while at school? I went to Clark State Commercial Transportation Training Center in Springfield, Oh. with the goal of getting my CDL A but when I struggled with backing instead of giving the instruction to correct the problem that I was having they told that CDL B would be since they cant see what I’m doing so they cant correct my problem! All I want to do is drive and now I’m stuck CDL B with Air brakes, Hazmat and tanker endorsements. I’m a 20 yr Navy Veteran and with the proper direction I can and will accomplish anything!
I have been training folks how to drive for years in the Air Force and backing is usually not the hardest thing at all to train someone on. Your trainer must have been incapable of training proper techniques or too lazy and expected you to get it first try or something. What cracks me up is the companies supposedly traing how to drive an 80K lb vehicle in two or three weeks…that is really not possible and realistically have safe drivers. My two cents.
Take your time as you can’t run interstate until your 21, some companies wont even hire you until your 23. So if I were you I would go back to a different driving school and tell them what has happened and go from there. And you can also go to any company that hires student or go to a company that will train you to get your CDL, now that you already have it you only need a minor adjustment.. Just stay away from SWIFT they are Thieves.. good luck
I believe the biggest problem is that in today’s world trucking companies are being to hard on there hiring polices when it comes right down to it because they will not hire someone who has simple felony drug possession in the past
I agree with you 100%. I got my class a cdl in September but yet know one will hire me because I have a distribution of a controlled substance charge over ten years ago. I was just a kid then. I’m 31 years old know. If I’m considered unhireable because of insurance reasons, then why did All-State Career School let me drive their truck and attend their truck driving school. Hell, they even paid for it but yet I can’t get a job. It’s not right. I’m available if any company wants to give me a chance to do the job I was trained to do.
The biggest problem I have had; Got fired from Old Dominion 6/10/2011 very wrongfully. Been an Artist ever since (drawing unemployment). I was pulling a set of doubles up on 77 Northbound and wind caught my rear trailer, a lady in left lane thought I was coming in her lane but I was able to maintain the lane; she goes into the median then cuts over 3 lanes to pull off on right shoulder. I had already slowed down so I pulled in behind her. Got out to make sure she was okay, she was fine then she drove away. No report, no damage, no nothing! I had to call dispatch due to truck having a computer. Dispatch told my domicile that I had a major accident! then sent me home for 3 days, then fired me on the fourth day. Lying Bast@#$%s! since then Old Dominion has told any possible employers that I ran off the road. My point is, We as truckers don’t have any rights the companies have been getting by training new people. It’s about to come to a head.. The new CSA is just more BS as well..
your right it’s time for a national movement. These companys are ripping drivers off telling them they need to retrain if they haven’t drove 2 out of 3 years. once a driver always a driver. They just want to charge drivers and lock them into contracts then run them illegal. Time to band together and shut the highways down down I say. Let people go without frieght for a week.
Thank you for sharing your opinion on the trucking driver shortage with us. We agree, something must be done to help resolve the shortage issue!
charles i tend to agree ive got twenty three yrs experince i blew a tire on a truck i wrote up and tried to exchange and was told no truck to exchange to drive it anyway well tree days later i blew tire and jackknifed trl didnt get citationthey fired me after three weeks saftey leave and now every co they say it was preventable but it wasnt that happend in jan nobody will hire me for at least a year because of that but yrs almost up
I need a job. Company standards/ Insurance standards force new drivers to go to a hand full of companies that benefit greatly from these people to gain OTR experience.. Totally unfair. I left Werner because my TRAINER was deficating in a 5 gallon bucket on a daily basis and I had to live with the ritual for a week. Didn’t do it for the first two weeks. Wasn’t going to spend the next 3 to 4 months this way. Not to mention only getting per dium payon a daily basis. Trainer got all the miles pay, unloads pay, I didn’t get road time til after the last stop each day.
You can’t be serious…the trainer was pooping in the truck…in a bucket…omg thats gross. This isn’t common practice with other drivers out there is it?
It is ridiculous, they won’t hire me cause I have been out of work for so long, but they hire someone with absolutely no experience! Then I call a truck driving school, they never called me back. What idiots. Let them do it with inexperienced drivers, and insurance will triple and put them out of business, AND dot will find more rules to put on drivers because of it. then ti will repeat. It is not fun out there anymore, with traffic, bad roads, idiot drivers(four wheelers) DOT on your butt, cops wanting to get quota of trucker rate tickets!! speed traps.etc high prices at truck stops. dealing with shippers / receivers,HOS. forget it man.
i wish someone will tell these trucking companies that it don’t take a year or 2
to 3 years to be a good truck driver. 4 months should qualify to drive trucks
professionally. my trainer was driving for over 15 years and he’s got to be one
of the worst truck drivers in history. in 2 months time i am driving for a major
company and doing well.
Well, the problem so far are: There are a lots of company hiring but they don’t want to hire a driver that have no experience. I don’t know of any professional that were born with experience.
I went to school, passed the state tests, and for over a year I still trying to lend a job.
If you want a good employee, invest in training and you probably will have a commited staff.
WE the “employees” do like a company that care about US.
Keep your RIG on the road, give me a chance to proof that I can handle the job.
there is not a shortage of drivers i have 10 years driving experience let my cdl lapse big mistake by the way. So i went back to school and got my cdl back with every endorsement but every company wanted 1-2 years recent experience am thinking about buying my own truck and getting my own authority and id bet i still cant get a job anyone have any advice am currently in Afghanistan but will be home this summer hopefully for good!
one word: Bakken
these comments are scary i got my cdl in february and every truck company is talking 1 to 3 years exp. this is isane! how do you become exp. when no company will give you experience.if i own a company and someone came to me with a new cdl license and clean record i would take them and train them my way before i put them on the road but no company want to take a risk.an experienced driver and a inexperienced driver has the same potential problem when driving on the road,they both can crash at anytime!
well look i have my class A license with all my endoresements i need a job but since i dont have 1 year otr most companies say no well how am i supposed to get the one year i will be dammed if i go to swift or werner i want a real job not bullshit so hey any company looking for an honest decent hardworking fella give me a shot i have no problem starting as a trainee at the bottom and working my way up
mattmc you should try a ltl company most of them will give you a shot,but hang in there because I had the same issue when I got my CDL back in 2002 no one wanted to give me a job and then a door opened for me thru Best Buy it was a line haul position driving from St.Louis Mo to Kansas City Mo and I did that for a while and then I moved to Las Vegas and landed a cool ltl job that I staid on for about two years and its been on every since, but you have to stay on your grind. I think that the new driver excuse that companies give you is just BS what it comes down to is a company taking the time to train you, but they don’t want to really ,because they are more interested in having someone fill the seat creating a quality driver that will no the company in and out. Just saying.
There is another important factor that wasn’t addressed in the article, contributing to the shortage of truck drivers.
Many drivers, particularly the more experienced, seasoned ones, are leaving the industry, due to the fact that the industry hasn’t managed to keep up with the cost of living increases, with driver pay. Truckers still do far too much ‘charity work’ for carriers…. not particularly the fault of the carrier, but the industry itself. Waiting in traffic, long loading and unloading times are a few examples.
Also, long haul truckers are away from their families for extended periods of time. Other work that pays the same as driving can be easily had, that doesn’t take the individual away from their family.
Living on the road can be expensive too, and no one puts that money back in the trucker’s pocket. Due to the average to below average pay for the job, new blood isn’t so easily attracted to a truck driving career.
I have a cdl a and a clean driving record since 15 years old to 54 years old hire me.
When I originally commented I clicked the “Notify me when new comments are added” checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get four emails with the same comment.
Is there any way you can remove people from that service?
Bless you!
I have a CDL B W/ Air Brakes a cdl school is out of the question when they want 1,500 down to start school liveing on pennies is a little hard and to get a cdl a is not possible because none of the student loan programs are for this and all the trucking companies that offer free training are to far away i live in Pa. if anyone has a suggestion let me know because I,m broke and need help.
Larry try Best Buy or any straight truck company. How is the job market out their or go for a trash truck job they make bank out here like 24.00 hr an all you need is a class B with air breaks just so that you can maintain you know.
I have went to 7 job interviews and was lied to by them all. There ad in the paper stated ” Home every night,$750 to $1000 per week for 46 hours”. When I get to their office I am told 70 hours a week and home 3 days a week.
All of these companies are crying for good drivers and then set up arbitrary rules about experience that shut us out. I have 7 years of OTR experience. I had zero accidents, zero traffic violations. After my first year I became our company’s driver/trainer taking new hires out on the road for a couple of weeks. Then my wife and I went overseas for 10 years to do mission work. Now I am back and guess what. My 10 years of driving and impeccable record count for squat. OK, require a couple of weeks of touch up training with one of your best drivers. No pay required. What is with this 6 months experience in the past 3 years or you start over again with some ripoff national carrier stuff?
I am so glad I got my license the old-school way, in 1979 went into the office, took a 100 question test, then had a friend give me a truck to drive ( Old Int’l something) and passed. It was a Commercial Chaufers license back then in Okla. I am a Washingtonian native, and the one thing in life I never lost was my license. I think the problem is there is no apprenticeship programs or confidence measures prior to letting the reins loose. I have had to help frightened young boys in winter storms too many times to count, because they can out of school in the SW and give them a load to the NW, noway to survive! They just cram & jam for cash, I think the govt should worry more about school then all the hours and load regulations! Who does California think they are anyway? I thought we have a United States, not an Indepent Staets!
Anyway, I am 53 and coming out of semi-retirement, haven’t had to work for 4-5 years (accept on my farm), but times are fierce so I want to save my bank account, so in a new Coronado I go…..
In the middle of a tough storm, I’ll always come to your rescue, just stay close to my flkashing lights, and we’ll make it or die trying!
I want to add one more thing. All you guys struggling with companies req 2+ years experience, etc. There is only one way to beat this system, go out an buy a 4-5 year old truck, best you can find, max. 100-120,000 mi avg per years 4= 400-480+/- to ensure it wasn’t rode hard and put away wet! These trucks should avg from 50-75K, buy a similar reefer trl or lease one to start. Then get your Authority thru OOIDA and hit it hard too earn cash through brokers and boards. This is the rough way and hard earned cash, but your the boss and you control the loads. Second you can go Lease option with “Schnieder” to get going, then go on your own.
It is tough, difficult, long hours, but in the end your have some cash and can go home on demand, and even hire a fill-in drivr while you vacation (this is the perks of owning)
just wanted to throw this extra out there, if you quit, your a quitter, but if you struggle for a few years, your a champion! Champs always get the gold.
Wish you all well in this tough world, but if you are not home 4-6 days every two weeks, or 5-7 every three, your driving wrong, plus a minimum of 4-weeks a year vacation ( I split it in two) I never had Satellite trackers, Govenors, or any control devices as an independent, and I don’t plan on it now. you can have similar devices that provide internet services and fax/tele on line, there are so many options if your not afraid of the big corp. I go with the punches, and drive smart and precise to avoid the problems. The old saying, where there is a will, there is a way. Spend the time understanding, and remember all lease programs are guaranteed rip-off’s, but to go out there you may need it for a couple of years with a low budget rip-off company, but your concerned over time on-the-road, and experience, so get, and go on later!
Blessing and keep safe and smart…
Thanks so much for your comments, Randy. We need more truckers like you out there on the road!
I would ilike to be train and with a job when I’m done. I have a cdl-a already.I’m willing to do teams or/and- 48 states. Would like to go with Werner,Schneider National,Swift,con way, or any company that is willing to train me.
That sounds great, Ivan! Check out our job listings on CareersinGear.com for jobs in your area! Best of luck to you!
Unparalleled accrucay, unequivocal clarity, and undeniable importance!
Well, maybe it is because every company in our country, except fast food, wants experienced only. Maybe if they would start hiring people who have their cdl with no experience then they just might see that they have been passing up some good young drivers who need a career.
Thank you for sharing your opinion with us, Matthew!
It’s simple economics supply and demand and the demand grows as the supply dwindles. Until standards chill out and pay essentially doubles I hope this industry crashes completely. Quit driving, let the problem get so bad that society is begging for drivers, let pay go up like double then it may be worth doing. Until then get out of driving and let the industry crumble.
Geoffrey, We appreciate your opinion on the subject. There are some things that are hot topics in the trucking industry that need fixing. There should be a better way to resolve it instead of boycotting the industry to its demise.
Tomorrow I will start to drive my own car on vacation. I would have liked to take a truck if my company could have arranged it. There can’t be much of a driver shortage. I’m going 2000 miles each way.
Thanks for sharing Ed! Safe travels on your trip!