Looming shortages of drivers worry trucking industry executives

I stopped at a roadhouse in Texas

A little place called Hamburger Dan's

I heard that old jukebox a-playing

A song called the Truck Driving Man

The old Buck Owens lyrics speaks to an era whent ruck drivers were romanticized in song and film.

But for some the romance has faded, and trucking executives are concerned about finding the next generation of drivers.

"I am not seeing a lot of new, young drivers trying to get into this business," says Clint Capurro, owner of Capurro Trucking in Reno. "I honestly don't know if we will have the drivers we will need when the economy recovers. We've taught our kids to go to school, go to college, and told them not to become a truck driver."

Capurro says he deals with a few of the local driving schools and thinks most of the schools do a good job for companies that are long-haul carriers.

"My company will bring young people along, but we are not a training facility," he says. "What we do is so specialized. We do a lot of highway work. You see us on Granite and Q&D construction jobs. We are basically a for-hire trucking firm for construction jobs. I am not going to entrust a vocational truck with a 129,000-pound load, 110 feet long that has to weave in and out of traffic on I-80 or 395 to a young, relatively untested driver."

Major supply chain logistics firms such as ITS Logistics say they, too, are concerned.

Jeff Lynch, a principal in ITS Logistics, believes the shrinking driver pool, coupled with new government regulations and oversight, may cause severe capacity issues, and rates will rise significantly for shippers and their customers, and again to end-use customers.

Jonathan Begley, a resource coordinator for NevadaWorks in Reno, says last quarter, there were 400 job postings statewide for truck drivers.

Most, he says, were for companies that transport goods across the country or regionally."

The fact is that a lot of people don't want to be away from home and that's why a lot of these jobs do not get filled. These drivers want to be home at night and, at the same time, want to make $300 a day. That is not the marketplace. Wages are not where they once were."

Driver wages and benefits are all over the board. NevCal Trucking's Ed Meyer says his firm is a rarity.

"Not everyone in this industry pays a good wage that also has good benefits. We offer full benefits that include a 401(k) retirement package and full medical. The total wage and benefit package for our drivers, depending upon experience, ranges from $50,000 to $70,000 annually," he says.

Begley says about one-quarter of the job offers come seeking drivers with one to four years experience.

"That leads me to believe they are willing to pay a little less," he says. "However, another quarter are seeking experienced drivers with anywhere from seven to 10 years experience. Many carriers believe they can get workers fairly cheap because of the number of unemployed in our state."

The one exception, he says, is in the mining districts from Winnemucca to Elko. "Anything relating to the mines, the demand for drivers is high. Even so, the trucking firms are not keen on trusting their trucks to untested drivers. There have been some driver training programs up there focusing on helping drivers get their commercial driving license, but people who have completed those programs are still having difficulty finding employment."

Paul Enos, the chief lobbyist for Nevada's trucking industry, says the state's carriers have seen transportation costs steadily decline over the past 30 years and become a smaller share in the cost of the product being delivered to end-use markets.

"Now, they are seeing increases in the cost of fuel and soon the new engines they will need to be compliant," he says. "The next area will be in finding good drivers and paying those more. This is a huge challenge to find a driver who hasn't had any accidents, driven safely, made the sacrifice to want to live the lifestyle of a truck driver, and not be home with his family every night.

"It is an industry that is graying, and you don't have a lot of young people getting into it," Enos says. "It's not something that you can take a kid that graduates high school and you say, 'Hey, we are going to put you in a truck.' And you will not find an insurance carrier who will be willing to insure an 18-year-old driver behind the wheel of a $140,000 tractor pulling 80,000 pounds."

So, what is the answer?

Enos believes the industry will increasingly turn to members of the military seeking a second career.

"Is it hard work? Absolutely," he says, "but you still have the freedom and independence being on the road provides. You can listen to whatever you want driving down the road, and you have the amenities of satellite radio, Wi-Fi, your iPads, and all the other technology to be able to communicate and not feel disconnected from friends and family. For returning members of the military, driving is certainly an option that some may find to their liking."