A Shortage of Drivers
Probably the most noticeable thing as one drives down any freeway across America is a semi-truck. I pass by these big-rigs daily as they seem to be present on any road I take. By their sheer size they can terrify me, making me want to get away from them. I get mad when the trucks are driving too slowly, keeping me from my job. I get mad when they go too fast, when they’re driving “recklessly.” And through it all, I always seem to personify the large vehicles which are the trucks. It is rare that I ever see the driver contained in the cab, sitting high above the road beneath them. Just as these operators of semi-trucks are hardly visible to the average American driver, so is the current shortage of drivers within the trucking industry.
The shortage of truck drivers in America is a very large issue and it will only be getting worse as we progress into the future. While driving down the interstate, it may be hard to fathom that there is a shortage currently of truck drivers. However, even though these eighteen-wheelers cross our paths daily, the current largest trucking industry issue is a shortage of drivers according to an American Transportation Research Institute report. The American Transportation Research Institute report states that “The current driver shortage, which the American Trucking Associations (ATA) estimates to be over 50,000 drivers . . . over the past year.” This report also mentions that over twenty-eight percent of drivers are over fifty-five years old. It goes on to mention that an estimated 898,000 drivers to be needed in the next decade, half of which are to replace those retiring. The current driver shortage in the trucking industry is not only a current issue, but one that will continue into the future if more drivers are not hired.
The trucking industry is one highly needed within our country. If you ever go to a grocery store to conveniently pick up the items you need, there is a high probability that everything got there by way of a semi-truck. By weight, about 71% of the nation’s freight is transported by trucks. Given the frequency of seeing these vehicles on the road, this statistic is fairly easy to believe. And yet, it is also fairly easy to go through life blinded to the fact of the current need for more truck drivers.
In this essay I bring to light the current shortage of truck drivers in America. My analysis includes how the current gender disparity and age gap in truck drivers are main issues behind the shortage in the industry. I will also speak to the future outlook of truck driving in America, and why the shortage will be an issue continuing into the future.
Gender Disparity
In the summer when I was eighteen I began a job at the Aldi distribution center in Faribault, Minnesota. And this warehouse building, the size of nearly nine football fields put together, had truck ports fully lining two of its sides. Every day, I electronically punched my time card and began loading pallets with products to be sent to stores around the area. As I brought pallets into holding lanes, burly old men passed by me to load these pallets onto their trucks. These were the “manly” guys of our society, the modern cowboys who loaded their steel horses and rode the road, as my grandpa would say.
I’d be lying if I told you that I never saw any women who were truck drivers. However, as I worked at the warehouse I began embracing more and more the stereotype that all truck drivers are men. This stereotype was challenged for me every now and then by seeing a woman driver walking the warehouse floor. But the vast majority of drivers remained older men. This observation of mine reflects well the true statistics regarding truck drivers in America. Only about 7.89% of all truck drivers in America are women.
This disparity between the number of male truck drivers and female truck drivers is not because men drive better. Women can drive an eighteen-wheeler just as good as any man can. There are specific underlying reasons that make it more difficult for women to be truckers. Ellen Voie, the President/CEO of Women In Trucking, explains some of these issues on her foundation’s web page. Among these issues are specific policies in how training is handled and truck dimensions.These issues make it harder for women to become truck drivers.
There are specific issues in the trucking industry with how training is handled. Ellen Voie states that women truck drivers are far more likely to experience harassment issues than men when they are trained. In training, women are often paired with men for weeks at a time. Ellen Voie explains in an interview that this can be intimidating to them and explains that a male trainer means that women have to bunk with men while on the road. However, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission determined that it was discrimination for a company to only pair women with female trainers. This is because only pairing women led to longer waiting periods for new female trainees because there are far more male trainers. Another issue facing women in the trucking industry is truck cab dimensions. In her interview, Ellen Voie mentions that semi-trucks are generally made to fit men. On average, women are a little over five inches shorter than men. Thus, women have a harder time becoming truck drivers.
When it comes to the driver shortage today, not having enough women drive trucks is one of the major issues. Half of the population accounts for less than ten percent of truck drivers in America. However, for numbers of women drivers to increase, new policies and hiring campaigns by truck companies to accommodate more women will be needed.
Shortage of Young Drivers
As I previously mentioned, during my job at the Aldi distribution center the majority of truck drivers I saw were older men. There were hardly any truckers that I ever ran into who were in their teens or twenties. This observation of mine is backed by statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics which shows the average age of a truck driver to be about 44, while only about 11% are ages sixteen to twenty-four. As it seems by these statistics, not many young people are looking into careers as truck drivers. It also seems as though there has been a change in the way we view truckers between my grandpa’s days of the steel-horsed cowboys to today.
In America today, we seem to place a higher value on college-level education than ever before. According to a Gallup poll, “[r]oughly one in five Americans (22%) agree or strongly agree that they are confident that having only a high school diploma can lead to a good job.” This same Gallup poll indicated that “70% of Americans say it will be more important in the future to have a degree or professional certificate beyond high school to get a good job.” Given these statistics, it is easy to identify our current bias toward getting a college degree. In high schools it is common for teachers to push students to seek a degree. The need for working class jobs, such as trucking, which do not require a college degree are not as highly emphasized.
Pursuing a career in trucking has also lost interest due to specific aspects of the job which are highlighted within society. We often view driving an eighteen-wheeler as a job which requires a lot of sacrifice. It is true that trucking requires a lot of time spent away from home. However, the average salary of a truck driver is about $42,480 per year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Instead of looking to the possibility of a good wage for someone without a college degree, we only look at the hardships of the job.
Another problem with young people pursuing careers in the trucking industry is the current age requirements. Currently, in order to cross state lines as a truck driver you need to be twenty-one years old. However, this is changing as law-makers are hoping to pass bills which will lower this age to eighteen. Soon, some drivers who are eighteen to twenty years old will be able to participate in this interstate commerce with the Under 21 Military CDL Pilot Program. These drivers must have been trained and have received experience through military experience. They also need to be sponsored by a motor carrier participating in the program. Though this is a step in the right direction in persuading more young people to enter the trucking industry, it is a small one.
The Future of the Trucking Industry
With current technological advances, it can be easy to say that self-driving trucks will soon fix the problem of driver shortages. However, a study led by Michigan State University suggests otherwise. This report by Michigan State University, supported by Texas A&M Transportation Institute, states that significant numbers of automated vehicles will not come onto the scene until the back half of the 2020’s. The report also states that for the trucking industry most advances will consist of supportive technology. This means instead of technology replacing drivers, it will only help them. Therefore, the need for drivers will not be greatly affected in the near future by technology. Rather, the skillset needed in order to be a truck driver will see changes.
In a country where we enjoy the benefits of being able to simply walk to a store and get almost anything we need, it’s easy to neglect the process required for this to happen. As the largest mover of American goods by weight across the country, the trucking industry is a major contributor to this process. The trucking industry is filled with disparities between age and gender which supplement a shortage of drivers. In order to see changes in these gaps, and decreases in the trucker shortage, new policies will need to be put in place. With technology’s unlikelihood of filling the needed gap of truckers soon to retire, the shortage within the trucking industry may be soon getting a lot more headlines across the nation.
