For the past several years, the trucking industry has been attempting to deal with a severe shortage of drivers.

They tried importing drivers from Australia, Ireland and Puerto Rico, but the problem continued to grow. Recruiters were sent to truck stops across the country in search of recruits, but in spite of a record number of hires, the driver shortage still increased.

Undeterred, the industry increased its efforts, stubbornly holding onto the belief that the required number of drivers were out there and could be had at a dollar per dozen. So what if the turnover rate is more than 100 percent, truck driving is not rocket science. Offer them newer, bigger, shinier trucks and they will come.

The shortage continued to grow.

According to the American Trucking Association, in the first six months of this year, truck tonnage – the weight of all the goods hauled in the United States – increased 7 percent compared with the same time period in 2003 while the number of truck drivers on the roads has stayed fairly static. There were 3.1 million truck drivers in the United States in 2003, compared with 3 million in 2002 and 2.8 million in 1994.

A spokesperson for Covenant Transport recently stated that his company would like to add 500 trucks to its fleet of 4,000, but has hit a wall.

“We’re turning down loads every day because we don’t have enough manpower and equipment,” he said. “We can get the equipment, but we can’t get the manpower.”

J.B. Hunt, one of this country’s largest trucking companies, in announcing record second-quarter revenue and earnings, also threw in this caveat: “Even though we expect to be able to sustain the improvement in margins we have achieved, growth in the truckload industry is at a virtual standstill until additional truck drivers are attracted into the industry.”

To make matters worse, a study of the trucking industry’s turnover rate has found a direct relationship between drivers who frequently change employers and accident rates: As a driver’s list of past employers grows, so do his/her chances of being involved in an accident. Now, not only is there an increasing need for drivers, but a way must be found to retain them once hired.

Sharon Adams, writing in Canada’s Business Edge last July, quoted Steve Islaub, vice president of operations for Vedder Transport in Abbotsford, B.C.: “It’s changing demographics. I’ve got several guys who are going to be retiring within the next five years. The old ones are going out, but the young ones aren’t coming in. There’s been a shift in values. There’s not so many people who want to be away from home for so long anymore.”

Bill Matheson, vice president of truckload services at Green Bay, Wisc.-based Schneider, acknowledges the negative impact of the lifestyle issue. “The big challenge we have is the lifestyle commitment that’s required of a trucker,” he said.

Perhaps Islaub, Matheson and others in the industry are looking at the problem with tired eyes when what is required is a new vision.

In a white paper on driver recruitment and training, Duff Swain, president of Trincon Group, a consulting firm that specializes in long-haul trucking, contends that trucking will never fix its driver turnover problem until it focuses on producing a new breed of employee.

“Trucking executives must be visionary and meet their demands for drivers by improving recruitment and retention strategies now. The trucking industry has not focused on developing the career-minded driver.”

“The problem,” says Swain, “surfaced as a result of industry deregulation in 1980. Driver pay rates have been set by the market rather than based on experience and competence and drivers have little loyalty to a particular employer, since they can obtain comparable pay and benefits with any number of fleets.”

This has resulted in the creation of the “concrete cowboy,” the driver who roams from employer to employer selling her/his labor in return for acceptance of his/her “independent, non-confrontational and defensive personality.”

This profile, created and fostered by the trucking industry itself, is certainly not one of a stable employee concerned about a secure career and future.

Swain continues, “Previous and current recruiting techniques used by most trucking companies compound the problem. Poorly targeted advertising, unprofessional interviewing, poorly defined or enforced qualifications and inadequate entry-level training produce drivers who are ill-suited to meet challenges facing trucking companies today.”

Swain goes on to offer proposals. He suggests that the industry begin by embracing modern human resource management, including quality recruitment in accord with clearly defined job expectations. To this he adds the necessity of defining a career path with levels of advancement from student/trainee through advanced levels of experience and skills with such advancement being facilitated by a combination of job experience and industry-accredited driver programs and training.

“We run the tightest ship in the shipping business,” is a slogan of The United Parcel Service (UPS), a unionized less-than-truckload company with very loyal drivers and very low turnover. As competition in the non-unionized, truckload segment of the industry tightens, the entire industry must forget the cowboy motif and tighten its ship. It must provide true career opportunities to those it wishes to employ if it wishes to attract and retain loyal productive employees. A basic restructuring, such as outlined by Swain, is a good place to start.

Guy Bourrie has been hauling on the highways for 20 years. He lives in Washington, Maine, and can be reached at [email protected].