Where Have All the Truckers Gone?

Apr 29, 2022 | Supply Chain Problems, Transportation and Supply Chain News

Everything in your home, on the shelves of your stores, and in your warehouse spent at least some time on a truck.

For years we were warned that if truckers stopped, we would feel it in ways that we couldn’t imagine.

Well, we’re feeling it – we are all feeling it. And they haven’t even stopped completely, just slowed due to trucker shortages. But we are all feeling it in ways we never imagined. There is something that hits you in the gut when you walk into a store and see the bare shelves or walk through your warehouse and see that nothing is moving.

We get it. At OL USA we understand that the trucker shortage is hitting everyone right now. When you consider that about 72% of American freight is moved by trucks at some point in its journey, it’s easy to see how a shortage would certainly hurt. Whether you’re a point on the supply chain or a customer, you are no doubt feeling the pinch like a new pair of shoes that you can’t quite break in. Truth is, we don’t want to break them in! We want our old shoes back!

We want our truckers back!

Let’s take a look at how we got here and what it’s going to take to find our way out of it.

The State of Trucking in 2022

If you’ve been on social media lately, the land of infinite conspiracies, you’ve likely seen some ideas tossed around about the state of US truckers. Most of it is completely bonkers so it might take a minute to sort it out.

Coming on the heels of the Great Supply Chain Disruption, thanks to the pandemic, everyone has been stretched to the limit. Ports were closed, cargo ships were stuck in the ocean, port in site, unable to unload or load. Port became overwhelmed as they turned into forests of shipping containers. It was the world’s biggest bottleneck. Nothing was moving.

This trucker problem is not new though. It’s just at its tipping point it seems. The American Trucking Associations reported that in 2021 there was a deficit of 80,000 truck drivers in the United States – a record that we’d rather not have broken.

What’s the Problem? The Reasons Behind the Shortage

Conspiracies aside, the reason for this shortage is simple – bad jobs. There are plenty of drivers.  In 2019 there were more than 10 million commercial driver’s licenses held by Americans and just 3.7 million trucks that needed those drivers.

The dissatisfaction is not new, but it has been on a long, low simmer for several decades. The 1980s saw a slight shift from lucrative business to silently, slowly plummeting industry. The Teamsters had been keeping the industry driver friendly, ensuring good working conditions and good pay, but then-President Carter’s administration thought it would be a great idea to deregulate the trucking industry – to create a little competition.

This was like a huge green light for a flood of new trucking companies to enter the arena. Problem is, it did not make the industry better but turned it into a third-world mentality with abysmal driver pay and worse conditions. Drivers had more demands but no resources or support to meet them in a way that didn’t carry dire costs to their health and wellbeing. It doesn’t help that the highway is a dangerous place. According to the DOT, a truck driver has a significantly greater chance (10 times more to be exact) of being killed on the job than the average worker in the U.S.

And as the government is wont to do, the fed spent the next several decades implementing laws and regulations in an attempt to “fix” what they broke. Less time on the road, more time in the berth, and other restrictions. On the surface, this sounds great, but look deeper and you can see that even the time constraints can leave a driver parked in the middle of nowhere on the shoulder of an on-ramp for 10 hours.

They were pushed and pushed, then they began to push back.

The pandemic hit and brought the entire freight industry to a screeching halt – or at least a crawl. This added to the stress on an already overworked, underpaid industry and it broke.

Now trucking companies are scrambling, offering extremely generous sign-on bonuses, benefits, and plenty of perks. They keep throwing incentives at drivers, hoping that something will stick.

It isn’t sticking.

What Has to Change?

If we are going to get back on track and get freight moving, things need to change. The trucking industry needs to change. Drivers need better conditions where they are not perpetually hungry, tired, and dealing with a lousy schedule. They need a work environment that is not conducive to health conditions like diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease.

Ports are slowly opening but while it looks positive on the surface, it is just added stress on overtaxed truck drivers.

What needs to happen is more drivers need to actively work in the industry.

What has to change in order for that to occur is a total revamp of trucking.

The truck driver shortage is changing the face of logistics, but there are ways shippers can manage:

Keep your bottom line in sight and make adjustments as needed.

Transportation prices are increasing as everything gets more expensive and it drives up rates. Factor in these costs and make adjustments as soon as possible to prevent delays.

Plan, plan, plan

Have a plan in place for transportation problems or challenges. Whether it’s a driver shortage or more pandemic port closure madness, try to come up with a Plan B that you can put into place quickly.

Select a transportation partner that works with you.

Not all trucking companies are created equal. Find the one that is right for you, knows your industry, and you have the confidence to get the job done. Look for a collaborative relationship and keep things moving.

 

Don’t let the trucker shortage bring your operation to a halt. Partner with OL USA and let us help you keep your supply chain moving. Call today to learn more.

Sign up for OL USA's weekly Industry Snapshot

* indicates required

Traditional Statistics as Market Indicators: Do they still work? 

The February 2023 jobs report showed some serious job growth, estimating that over 300,000 new jobs were added to the economy. During an average year, that would be tremendous; during a period of economic hardship, like the current global marketplace is still...

Ocean Carrier Alliances: What Does A Shifting Landscape Mean For You?

There are a number of reasons for some of the significant carriers to team up with one another (instead of directly competing). These alliances allow the carriers to pool cargo between them, and share their resources without trying to outdo the competition on pricing....

The Inflation Effect for Import and Export Businesses: How A Weaker Dollar Will Benefit Some and Limit Others

Inflation is par for the economic course—but, coming out of the pandemic, the accelerated rate of inflation hit the shipping and logistics industry hard. Not ideal considering the two-plus years of slowdowns, shortages, and other massive hits we’d just navigated....

Is there an Artificial Increase in Shipping Demand?

It’s a delicate balance. Given the pandemic-powered disruptions facing the global supply chain—slowdowns, lockdowns, and manufacturing shortages, for starters—shipping and logistics companies were forced to reimagine the way they do business. And during that period,...

Optimizing Your Supply Chain Spend

The COVID-19 pandemic shined a big, bold light on increasingly universal weaknesses in the global supply chain—weaknesses that, during the COVID-19 pandemic, led to inventory shortages in everything from cars to cleaning products, baby formula, fresh produce, and...

Market Price, Contracts, and Budget Risks: What Did 2022 Teach Us to Expect in 2023?

Efficiency is extremely important to almost any business. It’s nearly impossible for businesses to scale without keeping an eye on costs in most aspects of their operations. So, naturally, that includes the cost of moving cargo—and that side of the industry has seen...

The Biggest Technological Advancements that will Impact Shipping and Logistics

Shipping and logistics are caught between the old and new industrial complex – but with several high-profile, high-tech capabilities, solutions, and implementations beginning to roll out en masse, 2023 is shaping up to be a major industry turning point.  This...

Railway Strike Congressional Action

Railway Workers Unions across the country have been threatening to strike starting December 9th, until Congress’s extremely rare intervention this week, invoking the 1926 Railway Labor Act. Here’s what happened—and what might have happened. Talks of a nationwide...

How Will Changing Environmental Policies Impact Shipping and Logistics?

The reality? The logistics industry is notorious for stirring up less-than-positive environmental press. And considering a single Capesize Bulk Carrier uses 40-plus metric tons per day—and releases about 33,000 tons of CO2 in a single year—that shouldn’t come as a...

The Geopolitical Impacts on the Global Supply Chain

The global economy has gone through an awful lot of changes over the past several years, which is nothing new. We’ve all been pointing fingers at the pandemic concerning economic disruption, and for good reason—it’s disrupted trade to a degree we haven’t really seen...