Life On The Road Has Changed for Truckers

Dax Williams always loved the freedom of trucking.

It’s not like working in an office, the Sarasota-based, 23-year-veteran of the profession said Wednesday after parking his truck outside the Flying J Truck Stop on Ross Clark Circle. People didn’t look over his shoulder and tell him every little thing to do.
 And while some of that is still true about trucking, life on the road has changed for Williams and other drivers. Pay has gone flat, while responsibilities and regulations have increased. Computers have been installed in trucks, often forcing them to take breaks when they don’t need to, and not letting them take breaks when they do.

Some of the changes have become so frustrating that many experienced and qualified drivers are getting out of the profession, leaving a massive driver shortage that could drive up prices for consumers.

Recent statistics from the American Trucking Associations show about 25,000 unfilled truck driver positions in the U.S, and an estimated shortage of 330,000 drivers over the next 10 years.
What’s more, the ATA figures showed the trucking industry would need to recruit nearly 100,000 drivers to keep up with the demand.

But it’s not an easy sell, even with the sign-on bonuses and guaranteed home time companies like Greenbush Logistics out of Abbeville are offering these days, said Kevin Savoy, vice president of the trucking firm, which hires drivers for its fleet of about 260 trucks.

Savoy, who is also the chairman for the Alabama Trucking Association board, said finding qualified drivers has grown harder these days because fewer people are interested in the business. The pay -- the U.S. Bureau of Labor estimated the mean annual salary for drivers was about $34,150 in 2012 -- is no longer enough to entice drivers to spend weeks at a time on the road, and more regulations have reduced the number of hours driving, but not necessarily the number of hours away.

In addition, more than half of the drivers who remain are over the age of 45 and the new generation isn’t necessarily buying into the profession, Savoy said, quoting statistics from the American Trucking Associations.

“Historically, people that moved into driving professions were people coming off the farm, if you will. They were people with rural backgrounds,” he said. “That pipeline has dwindled.”
Ford Boswell, spokesman for Alabama Trucking Association, agreed.

“The need has grown, but there aren’t as many people wanting to drive,” Boswell said. “You can make a good living doing it, but it’s not an easy job. There’s a lot of regulation, a lot of hoops to jump through.”

As a result, companies have upped recruiting, spending millions on incentives intended to lure qualified drivers to their company, when they could be doing other things that might work better and save money, said Jeff Clark, a Wisconsin-based trucker and blogger who’s been driving for 25 years.
Clark, 55, said there is no shortage of truckers. It’s more like a shortage of good treatment.

“There is no shortage,” he said. “People get chased out of the industry because they don’t get paid for their time. They don’t get paid enough, and they’re disrespected by shippers and receivers.”

“Do you know what the turnover rate in the trucker industry is?” he asked. “It’s about 100 percent. They don’t care about the drivers long term because they won’t have them in a year.”

Clark said companies should start focusing on things that matter, such as programs that would counteract the high rate of obesity and Type 2 diabetes that tend to haunt truckers who don’t eat right or exercise enough.

“They would retain their drivers longer, and in the end be more profitable,” he said.

The job can also be intimidating, Williams said. It took him a good two years to get comfortable driving a 30,000-plus-pound rig.

“I’m 23 years into it, and I’m still learning,” he said.

Life on the road, however, still has the ability to draw people from all walks of life. Williams has met a former doctor, several former lawyers and a school counselor who chucked it all for a big truck and a chance to see the world.

But it doesn’t always work like that, he said.

“’Bout all you get to see is what you can see through your rear-view mirror.”