* New York - There's a slow-rolling crisis in trucking labor—and it's costing everyone
-- High turnover rates, increased operating costs, and recruitment obstacles have all contributed to the current shortage of between 35,000 and 40,000 truck drivers nationwide... The most obvious option for attracting more drivers is money. “Pay’s going up substantially, because it has to,” says Andy Ahern, CEO of trucking consultancy Ahern and Associates. Ahern cites companies including Celadon, CRST, Boyd Brothers, CR England, and U.S. Express as recently increasing driver pay. From an average paycheck of $40,360 as measured by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2012, he ventures that freight drivers are now averaging a bit over $50,000 a year... In trucking, short labor drives wages higher very directly, as drivers can easily jump ship from one carrier to another. And turnover rates for long-haul truckers are truly staggering—96% in the fourth quarter of 2014, according to the ATA. The rate for local truckers is a much lower 10%, but that still dwarfs the national turnover rate across all industries, which the Bureau of Labor Statistics put at 3.5% in March... The one clear solution to the labor shortage is years away, though advancing steadily: automated trucks. They’re already operating on closed sites like Rio Tinto’s Pilbara mine in Australia, and Daimler AG has just received approval to test automated highway driving in Nevada. But however badly the trucking industry may need it right now, automation is at least a decade away. The trucking industry will need to find another solution in the interim...
N.Y., USA - Fortune, by David Z. Morri - MAY 18, 2015
* DC - US labor data demonstrate increase in truck drivers, driver pay
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Trucking companies redoubled efforts to hire truck drivers last year, and their hard work delivered results, with the number of new drivers added rising nearly 40 percent... They’ll have to try harder if they want to close the gap between the number of drivers behind the wheel and the number needed by shippers as the U.S. economy grows... The total number of tractor-trailer or heavy truck drivers employed in the U.S. rose 2.5 percent in 2014, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ occupational employment statistics show. That compares with a 1.9 percent gain in 2013, when the U.S. economy expanded more slowly... That increase pushed the number of heavy truck drivers above 1.6 million for the first time since 2008. The total number, 1,625,290, is only 4 percent short of the 2007 peak... Efforts to boost driver pay pushed the overall average annual wage for heavy truck drivers up 2.4 percent to $41,930 a year, about a $1,000 difference, according to the BLS... That’s a bigger raise than than the average U.S. worker received in 2014. The average U.S. wage rose by about $730 or 1.7 percent to $47,230 a year, according to the BLS... That means the gap between the average truck driver wage and the average U.S. wage closed slightly, dropping from 11.8 percent in 2013 to 11.2 percent last year...
Washington, DC, USA - J.O.C., by William B. Cassidy - May 18, 2015Labels: autonomous trucks, drivers shortage, trucks' drivers payment
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