Interesting Opinion Piece in Bloomberg from Virginia Postrel on the regulations, retirements and a lack of parking spaces that are challenging long haul truckers. She quotes an estimate from Bob Costello, chief economist for the American Trucking Associations, that the U.S. trucking industry is short about 50,000 drivers.
Driver shortage ranked first among industry concerns in the American Transportation Research Institute’s annual survey, released last October. However, the strong economy means more stuff to haul, even as increasing numbers of truckers retire, she notes.
And the median salary for drivers who haul a variety of goods nationally is up to around $53,000, according to an ATA survey published in March. That’s a $7,000 increase since the previous survey five years ago, or about $4,000 when corrected for inflation. For drivers who work for private fleets serving individual companies, such as PepsiCo Inc. or Walmart Inc., median pay is $86,000, up from $73,000.
But a shortfall in drivers remains. Recent regulatory changes exacerbate the problem. So does an increasing shortage of places to park.
The situation trucking faces today is a desperate need for expansion of safe overnight truck parking and the amenities that should go with it,” writes Robert Poole, director of transportation policy at the Los Angeles-based Reason Foundation and author of the forthcoming book “Rethinking America’s Highways.” Instead of blocking commercialization, he argues, the big truck-stop chains should work with state transportation departments, perhaps raising private investment as well, “to convert nearly useless ‘rest areas’ into oases for truckers.”
More and better parking would mean more productive hours, lower fuel costs, less air pollution and greater take-home pay. To attract people to a grueling and essential job, allowing more oases would be a good start.
You can read the full article here: Where Have America’s Truck Drivers Gone? People want more stuff. Regulations, retirements and a lack of parking spaces aren’t helping long-haul truckers get it to them.
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