"Spurious" Driver Shortage?
Nicholas Seiersen
The Right Deals with the Right Trading Partners with Vested agreements for complex services
From yesterday's FreightWaves Quotable:
“Claims of long-term driver shortages are spurious and not likely to be helpful in explaining the sector’s driver turnover patterns and the possible influences of compensation.”?
Apparently it is the carrier policies that are at fault. Dispatching drivers away from home for too long.
Driving in thick traffic 10 hours a day away from home for many days in a row, camping in remote parking lots, and waiting hours to be loaded/unloaded is not for everyone.
A whole new generation is not just dying to sign up.
I am grateful to the hard working drivers who deliver goods across the globe. Theirs is not an easy task. Not every one wants to do it.
Some drivers leave the profession or just retire. It is an ageing profession. In an ageing world. Many take long haul driving jobs to boot strap their livelihoods. Many leave for construction jobs when that sector is picking up.
Some carriers offer great compensation and working conditions. They have less driver turnover issues.. They typically have more control over their rates (LTL and private carriers).
That leaves the tougher lanes (long haul TL) and the more aggressive shippers to the weaker carriers who cannot or will not offer a decent lifestyle.
If the shippers do not care who is driving their cargo, and what their living conditions are, they are complicit in making the profession unattractive.
If the sector continues to be an unattractive choice for workers, there will be challenges hiring new workers to replace those that leave.
That is a driver shortage in my book, notwithstanding what the fine folks at NAS think.