Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/599511
16 commercial carrier journal | november 2015 journal news Driver shortage may hit 175,000 by 2024, ATA report finds T he shortage of truck drivers will reach nearly 48,000 by yearend and could expand further, according to an American Trucking Associations report released last month. "The ability to find enough qualified drivers is one of our industry's biggest challenges," said Bill Graves, ATA president and chief execu- tive officer. The report, ATA's fourth major analy- sis on the subject since 2005, also shows that if current trends hold, the shortage may balloon to almost 175,000 by 2024 due to industry growth and a retiring workforce. ATA's research also found that 88 percent of carriers said most applicants are not qualified. "Fleets consistently report receiving applications for open positions but find that many of those candidates do not meet the criteria to be hired," said Bob Costello, ATA chief economist. Other key findings of the report: • In the next decade, trucking will need to hire 890,000 new drivers, or an average of 89,000 per year. • Roughly half, 45 percent, of driver demand comes from the need to replace retiring drivers. Industry growth is the second-leading reason for new hiring, accounting for 33 percent of the need. ATA's analysis does not factor in the impact of federal regulations – such as electronic logging devices – on the short- age. Possible solutions, according to the report, include increasing driver pay, getting drivers more time at home and improving the image of the driver and their treatment by all companies in the sup- ply chain. "The driver shortage is a challenge, but it is not an insurmountable one," Costello said. – Staff reports ATA's analysis on the driver shortage does not factor in the impact of federal regula- tions such as electronic logging. FMCSA at next phase of 34-hour restart study T he Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration last month announced it had concluded the data collection phase of a congressionally required study on 2013's 34-hour restart rules. The agency said it now has begun the data analysis phase and hopes to produce a report by yearend. The report must be sent to the U.S. Department of Transportation's Office of Inspector General for review prior to its submission to Congress. Last December, Congress suspended the 2013-implemented hours- of-service changes governing truck operators' use of a weekly 34-hour restart pending FMCSA's study. The suspended rules include the requirement that a driver's restart include two consecutive 1-5 a.m. periods and the once-per-week limit of the restart's use. Those rules will remain suspended until the agency reports to Congress. FMCSA collected data for five months on two groups of drivers: One abiding by pre-2013 rules and one following the 2013 require- ments. The agency said it studied 220 drivers and captured more than 3,000 driver duty cycles. The agency studied the drivers' fatigue levels with alertness tests and by capturing critical event data. The 2014-passed law that required the study and suspended the rules did not spell out clearly how the restart rules would be re- implemented, and the decision could be left up to Congress and/or FMCSA based on the study's results. – James Jaillet AOBRD regs revised to allow drivers to make corrections T he Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration last month revised the regulations pertaining to automatic onboard recording devices to allow drivers to correct inaccurate information. The guidance states that "within certain limits, a driver must be allowed to review his or her AOBRD records, annotate and cor- rect inaccurate records, enter any missing informa- tion, and certify the accuracy of the information." FMCSA says the AOBRD has to keep the original entries and reflect the date, time and name of the person making edits to the information. "Drivers' supervisors may request that a driver make edits to correct errors, but the driver must accept or reject such requests," FMCSA says. Driving time cannot be edited except with unidentified or team drivers and when driving time was assigned to the wrong driver or no driver at all. In 1997, initial regulatory guidance was published to prohibit drivers from amending AOBRD records of duty status during a trip. The agency said in the latest guidance that it acknowledges that drivers "need to be able to make legitimate corrections to their electronic AOBRD records." – Matt Cole