Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/949884
46 commercial carrier journal | march 2018 A nyone following the driver shortage saga for the last three decades might think trucking has been crying wolf. After all, with each economic uptick since at least 1998 has come panic over the lack of driv- ers. And yet freight virtually always gets delivered, and store shelves are only empty when snow threatens south of the Mason-Dixon Line. But this time, experts say, it's more than just hype: Carriers are turning down loads, desperate shippers are pay- ing double in some markets, and "we've heard stories of freight sitting on the docks," says Todd Amen, president and chief executive offi cer of ATBS, a trucking fi nancial services provider. A confluence of factors makes to- day's situation different, says Gordon Klemp, president of the National Transportation Institute: A rebound- ing ecomony, a historically tight labor market and regulation-driven productivity losses all are conspiring to bring trucking's underlying labor problem into full view. The Ameri- can Trucking Associations estimates the industry is short 50,000 drivers, a deficit it says could grow to 174,000 over the next decade. The situation has for-hire and even EDITOR'S NOTE: THIS IS THE FIRST ARTICLE IN A THREEMONTH SERIES EXAMINING THE DRIVER SHORTAGE, MEASURING ITS IMPACT ON TRUCKING OPERATIONS AND EXPLORING METHODS TO MITIGATE THE CRISIS.