Another report on the growing truck driver shortage. This time from Kate Rogers at CNBC.
- Some 500,000 nonlocal, for-hire truckers are delivering freight in the U.S., and the industry needs 51,000 more, experts say.
- The average driver is 50 years old, and only 6 percent are women.
- Trucking companies including Saia, Titanium Transportation, ArcBest and Ryder System have all noted wage increases for drivers on recent earnings calls as the shortage worsens.
Trucks hauled more than 70 percent of freight tonnage in the U.S. last year, generating $676 billion in revenues, according to the American Trucking Associations. But the industry is grappling with a growing problem — a shortage of qualified drivers, as its current workforce ages and the labor market continues to tighten.
“We have more freight than we know what to do with, but in order to haul that freight, you’ve got to have more drivers — trucks don’t drive themselves,” said Bob Costello, the association’s chief economist. “We have a couple of demographics problems in the industry — we have a high average age of the current truck drivers. We need to do a better job to get females in as truck drivers. The supply side is tight as well.”
The crunch is being felt in industries from construction to retail as the labor shortage’s ripple effect grows.
The CNBC report notes that one problem in attracting young workers to the industry is a federal law that mandates drivers must be at least 21 in order to ship interstate freight, meaning younger job candidates may pursue other career paths and never consider a career in trucking.
“Those people aren’t going to sit around and just wait to become a truck driver,” Costello said. “They go fast food. They go to retail, maybe construction, and then they finally come to trucking, when they’re like, ‘You know what? I need a better paying job with good benefits.'”
The average pay is $40,000 to $50,000 a year for a new driver out of school and can reach up to $80,000 a year for experienced workers.
You can read the full report here: Where the jobs are: Trucking companies are hiking wages as they struggle to attract younger drivers.
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