Arkansas Trucking Association

The Last Word

Change Marketing, Driver Roles to Recruit Young Drivers

By Steve Brawner, Contributing Writer

The ideal truck driver is a 20-year veteran who is physically fit, has worked only for one carrier, has never had an accident and has already been named Driver of the Year.

Unfortunately, there aren’t many drivers like that available. In fact, the reality is just the opposite. According to the American Trucking Associations, the industry already faces a driver shortage of 35,000, and that number could grow to 240,000 by 2020. Given that reality, carriers can look for drivers among the usual sources – other carriers, second careerists, etc. Or they can widen the pool by looking at one other often-ignored source.

Young people.

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Up Front- Paving a New Way

Shannon Newton
President, ATA

In Sept 2011 the Highway Commission named Scott Bennett as director of the Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department (AHTD). We have profiled Scott Bennett in this issue of ATR because the relationship between industry and the department has never been better or more vital. It is well worth highlighting.

To say a lot is riding on how we respond as a state and as a nation to our infrastructure and highway-funding needs is an understatement. Our transportation infrastructure is key to our economic development. Our future prosperity is riding on our will to find solutions.

It is widely acknowledged that our transportation infrastructure in the United States is in serious disrepair. As roads and bridges across our state and country age and deteriorate, governments at all levels are struggling to pay for maintenance and upkeep, not to mention investments in necessary upgrades and new projects to support much greater capacity demands.

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The Last Word

An Honorable Profession

By Kenneth Calhoun, Guest Writer

For years, we’ve been dealing with the very real crisis of the truck driver shortage. The American Trucking Associations reports that freight volumes grow year-over-year, but the industry is still many drivers short of supporting that growth. In addition, driver turnover is up 11 percent this year. And yet, freight companies are not just missing men and women behind the wheels of trucks. There is another crisis we are facing in terms of manpower: a technician shortage, the men and women under the hoods and hovering over motherboards of increasingly complex freight machines. The whole chain is affected as demand grows, but manpower stays the same.

In terms of supporting the fleet that moves our nation, we have only the lowest capacity to keep the system running. Wait times at service locations are at record lengths. Staffing fleet maintenance facilities has become a constant challenge. Asset utilization is suffering, and it is harder each day for the fleet operator to deliver the service their customer demands.

So what gives? Aside from the exponential growth of complexity in the vehicles, near record delivery of new vehicles and growing demand for delivery of raw materials and finished goods, why are the wheels coming off?

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Up Front-They Like Us. They Really Like Us.

Shannon Newton
President, ATA

As an industry, we talk a lot about image. We worry about public opinion.

It’s only natural. After all, who doesn’t want to be loved?

While image is not everything, it certainly has an impact, from driver and industry recruitment to regulatory, legislative and public policy actions.

I think most of us think that the trucking industry’s image needs some improvement.

I wonder, in the absence of any real data, why we make this assumption.

Are we giving too much power to a vocal minority that may be driving the discussion? Is it the high profile, typically negative and misunderstood media coverage? Have we become so defensive about what we imagine to be our industry’s image to be that we have come to accept it as fact?

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