Hourly pay, more immigrants among ideas for solving driver shortage

[kscarbel2]

Neil Abt, Fleet Owner  /  October 25, 2017

Long-time trucking executives discuss ways industry is changing.

ORLANDO. During this summer’s hurricanes, Grammer Industries paid about $200,000 to truck drivers in Texas, Florida, and Louisiana, even though they were not able to make their scheduled deliveries.

Founder and vice chairman Shorty Whittington called the situation “damn tough” on the Indiana-based agricultural and specialized fleet, but suggested these are the lengths fleets need to go to in order to retain and recruit qualified truck drivers.

“It got people to want to work for us because we treated them right,” said Whittington.

He appeared at a panel discussion with three other long-time executives at the 2017 American Trucking Associations (ATA) Management Conference & Exhibition.

John Smith, chairman of CRST International and the head of the ATA’s new Workforce Development Subcommittee, said creating apprentice programs and working with the federal government to allow people under the age of 21 to train to become interstate truck drivers remain critical steps toward addressing the driver shortage.

Smith also said the United States must bring in more immigrants interested in becoming truck drivers because it offers higher pay than they could receive in their home countries. He added it is an unpopular idea with President Trump. Along with Dan England, chairman of C.R. England, and C.L. Werner, founder and executive chairman of Werner Enterprises, there was a consensus truck drivers need a weekly wage of at least $1,000.

Whittington said one way to reach that goal is for more fleets to consider paying some drivers an hourly rate.

He said he has been “tar and feathered” and told it is “business suicide” when he has raised the issue of hourly pay over the years.

His response is that the turnover rates for companies that incorporate hourly pay into their business models see significantly lower.

He stressed “this industry has done a terrible job communicating with shippers” about the need to assist in better compensating the drivers who are safely moving their products.

As an example, he said shippers should understand the difference a driver can make, much as a waiter from a five-star restaurant is bound to offer a higher level of service than a fast-food server.

Throughout the discussion, the way automation and technology is reshaping trucking was a repeated theme.

Smith said the current situation reminded him of the days after deregulation of the trucking industry in 1980, when “every part of our operations changed.”

England said technology will alter how fleets get the job done, “but there will always be a need for moving products across the nation’s highways.”

Werner added that e-commerce will continue to alter consumer buying patterns, and that final-mile delivery services to homes would like surge in demand.
“I see no end to that business,” he said.

He also projected major growth in the logistics sector, offering “a lot of opportunities for small carriers.”

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[kscarbel2]

Driver shortage overtakes ELD mandate, hours as carriers’ top concern

James Jaillet, Commercial Carrier Journal (CCJ)  /  October 24, 2017

The availability of qualified truck drivers now ranks as the top concern for trucking companies, according to a report issued Monday by the American Transportation Research Institute, displacing the electronic logging device, which ranked No. 1 in 2016’s report, as carriers’ top issue. ATRI produces a Top 10 list of the trucking industry’s chief concerns each year. The report also includes strategies the industry can use to tackle these 10 pressing issues.

This is the first time since 2006 that the driver shortage has ranked atop ATRI’s annual Critical Issues in the Trucking Industry, which is based on a survey of motor carriers and other industry personnel. More than 1,500 industry stakeholders, including carriers and drivers, responded to this year’s survey. Of the respondents, 21 percent said the driver shortage was their top concern. Another 10 percent ranked it as their second top concern, and 8 percent scored it as their third highest concern. “An optimistic trucking industry outlook, based on improving economic growth in the United States, has many in the industry concerned that the demand for truck drivers will further outpace the supply of qualified drivers,” ATRI notes in its report.

Strategies to tackle the driver shortage, says ATRI, include partnering with states and the federal government to “develop a graduated CDL program to attract safe, younger drivers” and to “formalize a national truck driver recruitment program.”

The ELD mandate ranked second, falling from the top spot. Eighteen percent of survey respondents said it was their chief industry issue, with 9 percent ranking it second and 6 percent ranking it third. “Given that the ELD Mandate ranked as the second-biggest issue facing the industry in 2017, it is clear that many in the industry remain concerned about the costs associated with deploying ELDs, what deployment will mean for industry productivity, and how the data collected will be used beyond [hours] compliance, while others are concerned that the implementation window will be further extended,” says ATRI’s report.

Hours of service regulations took the third spot in ATRI’s Top 10 list, which ranked No. 1 in 2015’s survey. The U.S. DOT’s decision to ultimately rescind 2013-instituted regs regarding drivers’ use of a 34-hour restart eased some of the concern surrounding hours of service, ATRI says, but it remains a top industry issue “due in large part to the industry’s desire for increased flexibility in the rules,” the report notes. A chief strategy for mitigating concerns about hours of service rigidity is to continue to press for split sleeper berth flexibility, says the report.

Rounding out the top 10 are:

*Trucking parking, No. 4: The growing scarcity of available truck parking creates a dangerous and costly situation for truck drivers who are often forced to drive beyond allowable HOS rules or park in undesignated and, in many cases, unsafe locations,” ATRI’s report says. “The truck parking issue may gain greater attention once the ELD mandate is in effect. ATRI says the industry needs to continue to encourage state and private investment in parking facilities and to educate the public on the “safety consequences resulting from closing parking facilities.”

*Driver retention, No. 5: Though related to the driver shortage, retention “remains a separate issue,” says ATRI’s report. Driver turnover has surged this year, and carriers are attempting to retain drivers with new retention programs and bonuses, the report says.

*CSA, No. 6: While still a Top 10 issue, actions by Congress in recent years to scale back the program’s publicly available scores have mitigated some of the industry’s concerns. FMCSA has also undertaken a study to try to implement crash accountability into CSA.

*Regulations, No. 7: “The costs associated with regulations continues as a top 10 concern for the industry,” says ATRI, despite falling from its spot in the top 5 in recent years.

*Driver distraction, No. 8: ATRI says states should enact stiffer penalties and “more aggressive enforcement” of distracted driving, across all vehicle types.

*Infrastructure and congestion, No. 9: “Poorly maintained roads and traffic congestion create wear and tear on vehicles, waste fuel and increase emissions, create additional stress for drivers, and negatively impact industry productivity.” ATRI says the industry needs to continue to advocate for a long-term highway funding fix at the federal level and a national freight plan that identifies freight bottlenecks and works to mitigate them.

*Driver health and wellness, No. 10: “In addition to obvious lifestyle benefits, an improvement in driver health may also have positive implications for industry safety as research has identified a
positive correlation between driver health and driver safety,” according to the report. ATRI says improved driver health would also help with driver retention.

[fxfymn]

I think they are heading down the wrong road when their primary concern for retention is compensation. My belief is money will never make you happy at work, but it can make you unhappy.

Basically, if you do not like your job or employer, paying you more will never keep you happy over the long run. A pay increase may temper your view for a short while, but it will never make you happy as all the reasons you don't like your situation at work keep flooding back. Money or the lack of it in comparison to fellow employees who are doing the same job will make you unhappy though. In other words we all expect to be treated equitably and if we are not than it will make us unhappy. This is especially true if compensation is not equitable.

I think the answer is to look at those factors that make an employee want to stay. I'm not an over the road driver, so I don't know what is specific to the industry, but I do know everyone wants respect for what they do for the company, to be listened to, and to be treated fairly. If the companies don't do those things than increased driver compensation will not solve their problem.

[Mack Technician]

I worked for a fleet as a mechanic and driver for four years. My experience from paralleling the lifestyle was to never touch the idea of driving a truck with a sleeper. The divorce rate for haul drivers at our fleet was 100%. Most drivers had a common personality trait....  Vets and/or people who dislike being told what to do or how to do it. Force those people to wear a tracking device, govern their truck, regulated their hours in real time, cap their income potential....turn that around you'll get good drivers. Those guy sacrifice a lot to be in a cab, shouldn't cost them their dignity.

[KDog Trucking]

I spend my working days calling on trucking fleets and (qualified) driver shortage and the shortage of (good) diesel mechanics seem to be the most common complaints I hear from fleet owners. If I could sell those I'd be a millionaire already.

Both the posts on the problems/solutions are really interesting. Automated trucks will end the driver shortage (driverless trucks).

No one really wants to be on the road 2 weeks on end away from their family, but for people who need money it offers a respite. Trucker jobs for fleets with day cabs don't seem to have the same problem filling seats like Mack Technician says. It's when you go OTR that the problems begin. 

Give truckers 10 weeks PTO, more $ per mile, and make it so they are home as much as they are OTR and the shortages will disappear. Who wants to work 2 weeks and be home for 3-4 days?