60,000 drivers entered into the federal clearinghouse for failing a drug test in the last year or so. (IIRC)
Means that when they try to apply at a new company, new company knows of the failure. Driver has to do certain things to get cleared to drive again.
95% of those drivers are not making that effort. They're simply out of the driving pool.
There is less a shortage of drivers and more too much waste. Drivers spend too much of their allotted time on non revenue generating things.
Detention at load/unload, dead head, trying to find a load etc. 1/3 of a driver's miles are empty in this industry. Reduce that and the amount of drivers we're "short" gets considerably smaller.
Things like Baton, vHub, p44's new data work, Leaf logistics etc are all working on driving out that waste. Flock Freight just hit unicorn status with their series D.
There is a MOUNTAIN of investor dollars pouring into transportation and logistics right now.
All true. But bottom line, there is simply no driver shortage. The problem is retention. The large carriers, affectionally referred to as "megas", have a driver turn over of 100%, ore more, per year. Because they treat the drivers like seat-meat, the working conditions are abominable and pay is, for the hours worked, often sub-minimum wage.
I'll tell a story about my last truck driver hire. Went through the Prime training program, drove for them for a a couple of years. Gets a phone call from home, dad is in a bad way, not expected to make it more than a day or so. Driver calls dispatch, dispatch says "tough s#it, you're ours, we'll think about it after this load. Prime had FIVE trucks sitting at the same truck stop that could have re-powered that load. Needless to say, one of them ended up re-powering that load, after all. Driver now has over 500K miles with us, and ain't going anywhere, his wife tells me..
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When labor was abundant, the current over the road model was developed. Same as the fast food industry. Employers of last resort, and potential hires simply have much better choices for career opportunities, and the ones that do fall for a recruiter's spiel give the industry the finger as soon as the bloom is off the rose...... .
