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Sep 26, 2015

DRIVER SHORTAGE * Canada: "There is no driver shortage"

* Ontario - Trucking’s crisis in leadership

-- The accepted wisdom within the driver pool regarding the driver shortage is that there is no driver shortage... The trucking lifestyle, the culture of trucking, is a delicate thing. It takes a special type of person to do this job day in and day out over the course of a lifetime. It requires a degree of passion. You don’t do long-haul trucking just for the money. That never works out. It’s very difficult to list the qualities that make up a trucker, but along with passion goes independence... That independence is key to the trucking lifestyle. That independence is being eroded by the methods our leaders are employing as they adopt new technologies. The preferred method seems to be one of control and restriction which is a method loathed by drivers. Adopting new methods and technologies is a must, but they have to complement and strengthen the characteristics of a professional driver – not create undue stress and limit the driver’s performance... Trucker health is an issue that is getting much more attention today than it has in the past... But a driver’s health goes far beyond simple physical well-being... A driver’s mental health and emotional health is key to a happy, safe and highly motivated driver... Adequate rest is the hot button issue for an aging demographic that makes up the majority of the driver pool... How drivers are compensated falls into the health category. Income is not keeping pace with the cost of living; in fact we are moving backwards. Drivers are “at work” for most of their lives... Driver training is not an entry-level issue; it is a cradle-to-grave issue. The driving culture and a driver’s health are dependent on the quality and consistency of driver education. Ongoing training for drivers does not exist within our industry. This is our leaders’ biggest fail... How can you possibly develop and maintain a culture of workplace safety across the industry without a system of universally accepted workplace training in place? Perform a few queries on the Internet and you will find truck driving is consistently among the top 10 most dangerous jobs. Thought that was firefighters and police? They don’t even make the top 10 list... 
(Photo: thanks Trucking Across Canada)  --  Toronto, ONT, CAN - Fleet Owner, by Al Goodhall: A professional long-haul driver since 1998 - September 23, 2015

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