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TOP CONCERNS<br />
IN TRUCKING<br />
Industry leaders speak out on critical issues<br />
By Lyndon Finney<br />
For this article, three industry stakeholders shared their thoughts about the<br />
top concerns report, including Andrew Boyle, co-president of Boyle Transportation;<br />
Brenda Neville, president and CEO of the Iowa Motor Truck Association; and David<br />
Heller, vice president of government affairs at the Truckload Carriers Association.<br />
For the past five years, the driver shortage has headed up<br />
the list of critical issues in the trucking industry report published<br />
by the American Transportation Research Institute<br />
(ATRI) based on a survey of motor carrier executive and<br />
professional truck drivers.<br />
So concerned were survey participants about the issue that the<br />
driver shortage garnered more than four times as many first-place<br />
votes as the next-closest issue in the 2021 survey. In fact, no other<br />
issue generated as many overall votes in the survey.<br />
The current shortage, set at 60,000 drivers by industry stakeholders,<br />
could easily reach 160,000 by 2028.<br />
In addition to ranking the concerns, survey participants were<br />
asked to rate three strategies for remedying each concern.<br />
For the past four years, the No. 1 strategy to alleviate the driver<br />
shortage has centered around advocating a pilot program to expand<br />
the commercial vehicle license (CDL) interstate eligibility for 18- to<br />
20-year-old drivers.<br />
Heretofore, the industry has been unsuccessful with the strategy.<br />
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) did<br />
propose such a pilot program during the Trump administration, but<br />
the proposal was dropped by the Biden administration.<br />
Fortunately, the DRIVE Safe Act now before Congress provides<br />
an apprenticeship program for 18- to 20-year-old drivers that could<br />
accomplish what the trucking industry desires.<br />
Most congressional watchers believe the DRIVE Safe Act will become<br />
law in the not-too-distant future.<br />
Not only was the driver shortage the No. 1 issue in the survey; it<br />
was also part of a trifecta that showed key driver issues were indeed<br />
on the minds of industry stakeholders. No. 2 in the survey was<br />
driver retention, and No. 3 was driver compensation.<br />
The driver shortage is a long-time issue, according to David<br />
Heller of the Truckload Carriers Association (TCA).<br />
“The driver shortage has existed for as long as the industry has<br />
been around, dating back to the very first “Drivers Wanted” signs<br />
that were posted in store front windows,” said Heller. “That being<br />
said, the most glaring example of how much the driver shortage<br />
relates to the real world is by using the barometer of what store<br />
shelves look like.”<br />
Andrew Boyle concurred, and noted other shortages.<br />
“The labor shortage is not unique to trucking,” he said. “There<br />
are macro factors at work — the percentage of adults working is<br />
still only 61.6% as of October 2021, versus 63.4% in early 2020.<br />
The causes of that decline can be debated, but the fact is that millions<br />
fewer Americans are working. At the same time, an increase in<br />
14 TRUCKLOAD AUTHORITY | WWW.TRUCKLOAD.ORG TCA JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022
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