2010. Kevin Denny is CEO at Troop Transition. They provide training, certification and job placement services to men and women leaving military service. One of the occupations they provide these services for is Truck Driving with a program is called Troops 2 Truckers. While this program can only provide a small fraction of the new drivers our industry requires, it does exemplify the type of innovative initiatives we need to address the upcoming Driver Shortage. Click on image to access video.
January 2011. Pottle's Transportation out of Bangor Maine combined two important influences of Driver Retention - Compensation and Communication- into a program that helps them retain drivers. Called the 'Hidden Paycheck', CEO Barry Pottle regularly provides his drivers a detailed benefits statement that itemizes all compensation costs the company pays on their behalf. Click on image to read article.
EXPERT OPINION
Tom Nightingale
VP Communications & CMO, Con-way Inc.
The good news is that most analysts agree that the economy is on the rebound. Most retailers are reporting stronger sales for November and December and manufacturing is still in the range indicative of a growing economy. Paradoxically, what is good news for the U.S. economy will exacerbate the challenges for the trucking industry.
A perfect storm of conditions will likely result in the largest driver shortage in the history of our industry, far surpassing the shortages of 2004 and 1985. Fewer drivers mean carriers will face capacity challenges that will make it difficult to meet the service needs of customers. Based on the lessons learned from past shortages, shippers can and must act now to address capacity issues.
The recent economic conditions led to a shrinking trucking fleet nationwide, with 152,000 fewer drivers on the road today than there were in 2007 (according to the American Trucking Association). Two impending government regulations have the potential to significantly worsen the issue. The first is implementation of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s “Comprehensive Safety Analysis” or CSA 2010, which will result in new driver performance standards. Industry analysts and most carriers agree that the new, more stringent safety standards are important, however, they do have the potential to remove up to 10 percent of the current driver workforce from the road.
The second regulation involves new hours-of-service (HOS) logging regulations expected to be announced by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) any day. Expected changes in HOS rules will, in effect, require more drivers to move the same amount of freight and could reduce daily capacity by as much as nine percent.
In addition to these changing government regulations, with one in six truck drivers over the age of 55, fleet owners expect retiring baby boomers to shrink the driver pool even further.
During the last major driver shortage in 2004, the driver deficit was 130,000 and many saw freight being abandoned on the docks. According to Noel Perry, Freight Transportation Research Associates (FTR), and other analysts, the 2012 driver deficit is predicted to be in the range of 250,000 – 350,000 drivers, so the industry must prepare now or face potential catastrophic results.
We learned a lot in 2004 and those lessons must be applied now — awareness and early preparation are critical to crafting an industrywide response. The emphasis must be on doing more with less by reducing inefficiencies and planning wisely. That means we must work together to implement practices and policies that will increase capacity today.
For shippers, this means negotiating contracts early with your truckload providers to secure equitable pricing and secure capacity. Advances in technology and supply chain have also made it possible to implement more effective and efficient shipping and receiving practices to reduce costly waiting and dwell time for truckload carriers. The focus should be on eliminating driver delays, expanding pickup and delivery windows, creating drop-and-hook operations, and strategically building your carrier base to enhance productivity and efficiency.
For trucking companies, this means a renewed focus on attracting, training and retraining drivers as well as looking for ways to expand the pool of drivers through awareness and retention programs.
The bottom line is that while there is no single solution to the impending capacity shortage, it’s not too soon to begin planning for this shortage and apply the lessons of 2004 to ensure that customers and consumers continue to receive the service they expect.
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Tom Nightingale is vice president, communications and chief marketing officer (CMO) for Con-way Inc. (NYSE:CNW), a $4.3 billion freight transportation and logistics services company headquartered in San Mateo, Calif. Con-way delivers industry-leading services through its primary operating companies of Con-way Freight, Menlo Worldwide Logistics and Con-way Truckload. These operating units provide high-performance, day-definite less-than-truckload (LTL), full truckload and intermodal freight transportation; logistics, warehousing and supply chain management services; and trailer manufacturing. Con-way Inc. and its subsidiaries operate from more than 440 operating locations across North America and in 18 countries across five continents.
EXPERT OPINION
Desiree Wood
Truck Driver and Women's Activist for Training and Communication in the Trucking Industry
12/7/2010
The trucking industry is realizing that women can be a large part of the solution to our upcoming Truck Driver Shortage crisis. To capture this opportunity however, motor carriers are going to have to make significant changes in their recruiting, training and retention programs.
To begin with, recruiting programs need to be brutally honest and objective about the lifestyle of a truck driver. Too many recruitment ads today targeting women tend to glamorize the truck driving profession by providing potential candidates with a false impression of what life on the road is actually like. Sleeping in the truck, not being able to shower every day, possibly having to team with a male driver and driving early/late hours to make delivery times all are important aspects of the job that women need to know. Attracting women candidates by glossing over the day-to-day realities of trucking will only result in disgruntled employees and high turnover.
Training is also a very critical aspect of trucking that needs improvement. Companies need to realize that women drivers, being women, have unique and critically important concerns about personal safety on the road. I personally know of too many incidents where women truck drivers were sexually abused and even raped while on the road; and the really sad part about several of those instances was that the abuse came from fellow male driver employees.
Sexual harassment training and policy are uncomfortable subjects for most companies but having women employees on the road, especially if they are in mixed-gender teams, demands that employers provide the direction and enforcement needed to protect its female employees. A company’s Sexual Harassment Policy must be strictly enforced to protect not only the employees but the employer. This is easier said then done as investigating reported abuse often involves two employees with completely different versions of what happened. Companies should consider adding Hot Lines to report sexual harassment and make sure that they have a strong, no-nonsense HR department that will act quickly to address any and all issues.
Additionally, awareness training should be developed to provide all new female employees advice on off-road safety such as safe conduct during times of overnight parking, or late night stops for fuel or food. Companies should train their dispatchers and driver managers in off-road safety procedures also and provide driver employees Hot Line numbers for reporting suspicious and dangerous activity.
Many of the retaining activities used to keep good male drivers also apply to women including good pay & benefits, comfortable equipment with APUs or bunk heaters and respect, respect, respect. Respect is particularly important because trucking is traditionally a male dominated industry. Driver managers need to be trained to provide the same level of respect and recognition to their female drivers as they do their male counterparts while company policy needs to provide equal pay for equal performance and equitable treatment for both genders.
There are other areas of retention that are particularly important to women. Where companies supply facilities such as bathrooms and showers, each gender should have unique, private and secured access. This is especially important for terminal locations that are unsupervised in evening and weekends. Also, consider a pet policy. Women have a special relationship with their pets which can also provide security. A dog will naturally become protective of their owner and their home, the truck. Knowing that your dog will warn you by barking that someone is getting too close to the truck is a great comfort. Many female truck drivers I know are much happier when they can take their pets with them.
There’s a lot of value for women in driving a truck if their employer provides the proper training and support. It’s a job where women can take pride in their accomplishments without feeling they have to compete for recognition from anything else except being on time and driving safe. It’s a job that provides a large degree of independence many women never dreamed was possible. And finally, it’s a job that can provide a lot of satisfaction by knowing that you are providing a must-have service to all of your customers.
Truck driving is a good choice for women if the company they drive for truly understands how to train and protect their employees.
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Desiree Wood is a 3 year truck driving veteran currently working for Covenant Transportation. She is also a well known women’s activist in the trucking industry that focuses on improving communication between drivers and trucking companies that train new drivers. She actively tweets about her driving experiences as @TruckerDesiree and has over 6700 followers. She also maintains a website at www.TruckerDesiree.com & is the Founder of "Real Women Truckers" on Facebook.
Summer 1996. Old but comprehensive and worth-reading study on Driver Turnover and Driver Retention. The conclusion states the following:
In conclusion, the 1,464 men and women who responded to this survey request have spoken, saying that truck driving could be a far more attractive, satisfying profession if carriers and the industry would be willing to listen to them and rethink just about every aspect of the truck driving job. Restructuring the job can attract more quality people to the profession and thus reduce the driver shortage and increase the level of driver satisfaction and professionalism. Reduction in turnover, and the resultant positive impact on company profitability, is also a natural consequence of increasing the attractiveness of the profession. Change requires that everyone, drivers and shippers included, entertain new ideas, think positively and creatively, remove biases, reason, and be willing to try new approaches. Improved driver retention is a difficult yet solvable problem. The industry cannot afford to wait any longer. Action should be taken now.
Click image to read article.
March 2006. The Advanced Center for Transportation Technologies at Clark College published this study that provides some general, common sense solutions to the truck driver shortage starting on page 9. Click on image to read study.
11/29/2010. Short opinion piece by Joe White of CostDown Consulting published in Transport Topics. Discusses some of the influences and possible solutions of the driver shortage. Click image to link to article.
6/2010. Great interview with Tom Nightingale, CMO at Con-Way. Tom discusses the potential severity of the driver shortage plus talks about some of the lessons learned - for both truckers and shippers - from our last driver shortage. Click on image to access player (note: advertisments not associated with Driver Shortage Authority are attached to video).
