By Clint Thompson
The ongoing truck driver shortage is not a problem that will be solved overnight. What can help, though, is that companies stop stealing each other’s drivers, says Tra Williams, owner and president of Fleetforce Truck Driving School in Winter Haven, Florida.
“Stealing each other’s drivers is not solving this problem. The longer you focus on saying, ‘I’ve got to have somebody with five years of experience before I can hire them,’ well that guy doesn’t exist. The only place he does exist is at another company. If you go and lure him away and give him a signing bonus, then all you’re doing is creating a vacancy somewhere else,” Williams said. “That’s not solving the problem, it’s solving your problem. But then guess what, somebody else is going to raise that signing bonus and they’re going to come steal them from you again.”
The lack of truck drivers is a major problem for specialty crop producers trying to ship their crops, either across the region or country. Williams said the problem is only going to worsen before it gets better.
“We’ve got to focus on entry-level drivers of whatever age; 1,200 drivers retire every single week in America. That’s 60,000 a year. We aren’t licensing anywhere near that number,” Williams said.
There is a shortage of between 80,000 and 100,000 truck drivers, which will only increase over the next decade. The problem is causing disruptions and major increases in freight expenses for specialty producers trying to ship their crops. The shortage is nothing new for the industry but now is being manifested amid the supply chain crisis.
“That’s been the norm for two decades. No one wanted to address the elephant in the room that they weren’t controlling the narrative to attract people into the industry,” Williams said.
“Electricians, carpenters, masons, plumbers and truck drivers make more at the age of 22 than somebody with a master’s degree. That’s hard facts. They didn’t control that narrative when I was that age 20 years ago. They’re realizing they had a whole generation of people who skipped those industries.”