Midwest, United States. – The US unemployment rate is below 4 percent right now. In many states that number is considerably lower. The low unemployment rate is great for the economy, but it’s wreaking havoc on the trucking industry looking for 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.
“All the Baby Boomers are either retiring or lifting pallets. Since this industry requires a lot of travel, it prevents a lot of people from wanting to become truckers,” Walker said.
In the Midwest, the city recently found a waste management company for falling behind on trash pickup. The company said it needed more drivers to fill its routes and began offering hiring bonuses. As the global economy has strengthened, the demand for trucks to transport goods has outpaced the supply of drivers, resulting in carriers setting higher rates and companies raising product prices, in some cases up to 20%.
Other companies nationwide are dealing with late deliveries. The driver shortage has been building for some time, younger generations have shown less interest in the industry, and wages were not comparable for hours away from home. Driver burnout is also a problem facing large fleets; turnover increased at an annual percentage rate of 95 percent last year, according to the latest numbers.
According to the American Trucking Associations, the country is facing a record shortage that needs 50,000 drivers to meet current demand.
Many companies now offer great sign-on bonuses as an incentive. However, instead of solving the shortage, most drivers simply hop from one company to another.
Darren Hawkins, CEO of one of the country’s largest freight carriers, YRC Trucking, said the severity of the shortage means we must make it easy for women, youth and minorities to reach CDLs. “There’s an industry problem, and that’s that we have to do a better job of attracting new people to the driving occupation, previous audiences that we haven’t reached,” Hawkins said. “Right now, the American Trucking Associations say we are short of tens of thousands of drivers, and those numbers will continue to grow. So, we have to open up other pieces.”
Faced with a record driver shortage, trucking companies “are adjusting because they have to,” said Kevin Reid, founder of the National Minority Trucking Association. “The industry has not been focused on recruiting and retaining the next generation,” Reid said. “Trucking is an industry that needs a rebrand. There was a cool factor for 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 trucker living in Raleigh, NC, 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, a trucker, encouraged her to try it.
A year into driving, you are constantly reminded that you are an outlier in the industry.
“When people found out I was in trucking, they were shocked by my gender and age,” she said. “The first thing you think of is an old white man. People tell me, ‘You don’t look like a trucker.’ I’m like, ‘What’s a trucker like?'”
Ms Jackson believes more young people could easily be persuaded to join the industry, adding that she personally recruited 10 of her friends in their 20s. But she thinks recruiters have so far done a poor job of showcasing young truckers in the industry.
“When people think of truckers, they don’t see our faces,” Jackson said of the young drivers.
Women and minorities make up only fractions of the general trucking population: 94 percent of drivers are men and two-thirds of all drivers are white, according to a 2017 report published by the 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 are not allowed to cross state lines under CDL law. The US Department of Transportation has started a military driver program that allows military personnel between the ages of 18 and 21 to drive interstate.
The Trump administration and the industry are also trying to alleviate the problem by relaxing federal rules and enticing nontraditional drivers such as women, teens, and minorities to operate large trucks. 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) using this CDL Test Questions resource.
Even for jobs in your city that do not require travel. You can start at $50,000.00 with benefits and up to $100,00.00.
The local opportunities are endless and include: dump trucks, garbage trucks, concrete mixer trucks, side dumps, and even a job as a school bus driver.
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