* Virginia - Truck driver turnover rises to 87% at large truckload carriers in Q2
-- Turnover at large truckload fleets rose three percentage points in the second quarter of the year to an annualized rate of 87 percent, according to Bob Costello, the American Trucking Associations’ (ATA) chief economist... “While below recent averages, driver turnover is still high and a sign of a very competitive market for qualified drivers,” Costello said “We repeatedly hear from carriers that they are unable to find enough qualified drivers, leading to fears of a growing driver shortage, and these numbers reflect that” ... Turnover at smaller truckload fleets fell seven points to 76 percent, its lowest mark since the third quarter of 2013. Turnover rates at large fleets are at their lowest point since the second quarter of 2011 and below the 2014 average of 95 percent... Last week, ATA released a report pegging the driver shortage at 48,000 by the end of this year...
Arlington, VA, USA - - Trucking News - October 14, 2015
** New York - In America, payment going up is an attempt to compensate, but maybe not for long
-- There is a shortage of truck drivers in the United States. Unsurprisingly, that's leading to a bidding war for qualified truckers among the big companies... It's not shocking that the country faces a trucker shortage: Days on the job are long, it's hard to have a family, and drivers are required to be in a seat and watch the road for hours at a time. In addition to that, pay bumps couldn't even keep up with inflation between 2000 and 2014. At the beginning of 2014, a truck driver's salary was effectively lower than it was in 2000... In 2014 the industry companies began working to remedy the shortage in the economically proven way to increase demand: by offering more money... The WSJ writes that "average pay for long-haul truckers jumped 17% since the end of 2013 to a record $57,000 this year, according to the National Transportation Institute, a research group. U.S. wages rose by less than 4% over the same period" ... The industry, of course, would prefer not to raise wages if it could find any other way to increase the number of available drivers. The trucking industry is trying to get Congress to lower the age at which drivers are allowed to drive freight across state lines. Currently, a person can get a commercial drivers license at 18 but has to wait until 21 to drive commercially between states... And this is just a stop-gap measure to tide the industry until, of course, the self-driving trucks take over...
(Photo from AP) -- NY, USA - The Huffington Post, by Shane Ferro - 23 Oct 2015Labels: truckers shortage
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