Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/588093
6 commercial carrier journal | october 2015 O f all the industries I've covered in my 17-plus years as an editor at Randall- Reilly, trucking easily stands out as the most-measured. There are no shortages of indexes and surveys detailing fleet sentiment on a number of issues, from overall business con- ditions and impact of regulations to tonnage and equipment purchase intent. Commercial Carrier Journal's own Market- Pulse, a survey questionnaire sent monthly to a group of 200 fleet executive participants, mea- sures many of these trends. One question we routinely ask is for respondents to select their top five concerns. In early 2011, driver avail- ability usurped fuel costs as the leading concern and has remained there since, usually by a wide margin. In the most recent MarketPulse survey (see page 20), driver availability was the top concern for two-thirds of all respondents, well ahead of freight volumes in a distant second at 17.3 percent. With the driver shortage top-of-mind for so many companies in our industry, we've created the new CCJ Driver Availability Index to take a deeper dive into the driver environment and serve as a benchmark for trucking's unique workforce challenges. An advisory panel of fleet executives will take the monthly survey to gauge driver recruiting and retention efforts. We ask respondents to compare six vari- ables for the month compared to the previous month, including: • Number of trucks idle due to lack of drivers; • Changes in driver pay; • Recruitment advertis- ing spend; • Number of incoming driver applications; • Quality of incoming driver applications; and • Change in turnover rate. The inaugural CCJ Driver Availability Index, conducted in September, measures at 106.2. A score of 100 denotes neutral conditions, while scores below and above 100 indicate negative and favorable driver availability conditions, respectively. According to the results, an increase in the quality of driver applications and decreases in driver recruitment advertising and turnover rates for the month of September compared to August led to the favorable la- bor environment for fleets. Meanwhile, fleet responses showed a growth in the number of idle trucks due to a lack of drivers and no marked change in the number of driver ap- plications, keeping the index from reaching more favorable conditions. "We have been getting more experienced over-the-road drivers in the last month," says one respondent, while adding "It is still a chal- lenge to get them and keep them." Another respondent from the Midwest experienced the opposite in September. "Right now, all seats are full, and we have added a few trucks," he says. "Although numbers are up, the quality of the driver pool is low." Another respondent echoes that senti- ment. "More drivers applying for jobs are less qualified … . A majority of calls come from [drivers with] too little experience or no CDL," she says. In future months, we will publish the results of the monthly CCJ Driver Availability Index in the Journal section of CCJ magazine. If you or someone at your company would like to participate in the monthly CCJ Driver Avail- ability Index, send me an email at jcrissey@ randallreilly.com, or call 205-248-1244. We welcome the opportunity to add your experi- ence to the program. upfront CCJ's first Driver Availability Index shows modestly positive environment for driver recruiting BY JEFF CRISSEY Measuring the driver market JEFF CRISSEY is Editor of Commercial Carrier Journal. E-mail jcrissey@ccjmagazine.com. If you or someone at your compa- ny would like to participate in the month- ly CCJ Driver Availability Index, send an email to Jeff Crissey at jcrissey@ran- dallreilly.com, or call 205- 248-1244.