Trucking businesses are currently experiencing a huge problem that has been happening in recent years. The problem is that new drivers are hard to find. The main result of this issue is that the trucking industry is now experiencing and feeling the effects of driver shortages.
The root of the problem is that most of the operators in the trucking industry today are around 45 years of age or over. This shortage is happening since most of the current truck drivers were born in the 60’s. This problem becomes bigger by the fact that the number of truck drivers going into retirement is far greater than the number of new drivers applying and getting hired. The numbers are staggering and almost insurmountable. The shortage is expected to hit 35,000 in all, countrywide. Now that is bad news.
Aside from this, the whole industry has not been able to attract new drivers successfully to work for them. The main reason for this is that a lot of trucking companies all over America cannot offer new drivers good salaries or benefits and have no recourse but to offer low wages. The way these companies are dealing with this small salary problem is that they have been coming up with incentive packages that would make the money involved more attractive compared to before. Unfortunately, most incentives have still failed to attract any considerable number of new drivers that would avert the problem of a shortage.
As the economy is slowly picking up from where it was before, there is an urgent call for the trucking industry to find solutions to attract more drivers before the economy shifts to high gear again. While the shortage is bad, this may mean that opportunities are good for truck drivers and freight broker reps to negotiate better. And if shipping and transportation companies fail to attract new drivers, the railway systems of the country may be raking in the extra dough.