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Stories II - USA - Transportation industry finds it difficult to retain drivers
Macon,Georgia,USA - The Telegraph, by Linda S. Morris -Mar. 05, 2006: -- A national trend in the trucking industry - a growing shortage of truck drivers - has some midstate trucking companies fretting... If the trend continues, the industry will need an additional 111,000 drivers nationwide by 2014, according to a 2005 study by the American Trucking Associations, a national trade group for the trucking industry... Among the reasons for the shortage: stress, not enough young people getting into the business and experienced drivers expected to retire within a decade... "It's real hard to find good (drivers) to start with, and we have to be particular to try and pick people ... who are going to be legitimately good truck drivers," said Mike Jones, operations manager for Macon-based C&A Transportation Inc. "Then it's hard to hold on to them. Every trucking company in the business - particularly the big boys - are making some pretty good offers. Two fairly senior guys left this year just simply because of a better insurance package that a bigger outfit was able to offer them."... Virginia-based Wilson Trucking - which has about 2,500 total drivers, with about six in Macon - requires new applicants to have at least one year of experience, he said... Kirkpatrick said he received his first driving experience as a dock worker practicing driving on the lot. Then he took the commercial driver's license test... Jones said C&A Transportation's insurance company requires it to hire only drivers with two years of over-the-road experience. The insurance company wants to "know they are not taking the risk of having an inexperienced driver out there driving an 80,000-pound rig in tight traffic," he said... The trucking industry also is being hit with increased costs of doing business as gasoline and diesel fuel costs have risen dramatically, said Jones with C&A Transportation... Eighteen-wheel trucks hold about 225 gallons of fuel, and at the current Georgia average of $2.28 a gallon, it costs more than $500 to fill up. Most big rigs get about 5 miles per gallon... The increased costs affect more than the trucking industry... "Everything we touch affects the general consumer," Jones said... "When fuel went up, we had to tack on a fuel surcharge. Every miles I run today, we tack on 22 cents per mile simply for fuel."...
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