(The Center Square) — While Georgia state lawmakers are in search of answers to what they are saying is a business truck driver shortage, an trade business team says the worry is with turnover, now not shortages.
The head of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association tells The Center Square that “the biggest problem that occurs in trucking is driver turnover,” announcing 400,000 new business driver’s licenses are issued yearly.
“Trucking companies are forever looking to recruit new drivers, even when they don’t have the business that would sustain the need for new drivers,” Todd Spencer, the gang’s president, stated. “They’re always anticipating that if we had more drivers, we have the capability of expanding and taking on new business. Part of the reason that they have the luxury of doing this is that there really are no fixed costs of having drivers.”
Spencer stated drivers are paid “almost exclusively” for miles pushed. Therefore, he stated, firms with further drivers, with out sufficient trade, gained’t give as many miles to “extra drivers.”
“The company could still be very profitable like that because, again, the biggest cost is going to be paying drivers,” Spencer stated. “If you pay them by the mile and you didn’t work them, you didn’t have the cost.”
The Georgia Senate has established the Senate Study Committee on Truck Driver Shortages, mentioning an American Trucking Associations discovering that the trade should recruit just about 1.2 million new drivers over the following decade on account of trade expansion and to interchange drivers who go away or retire.
“We acutely felt this struggle when the pandemic hit in 2020 and 2021,” Hafiz Chandiwala, leader administrative officer for Coca-Cola Bottling Company United, informed the committee all through a listening to remaining month.
“We all felt the shortfall, wages increasing with the government intervention on compensation for individuals,” Chandiwala added. “We just really felt a shortfall, really couldn’t source enough drivers at all during that period of time, and there was a significant shortfall then. It’s gotten better, but it’s still not an issue that is solved, and we have more work to do.”
While Spencer disputed the statement that there’s a driver shortage, that’s to not say the federal government doesn’t have a job to play. Spencer stated officers must discover insurance policies that lend a hand the trade, equivalent to growing parking for drivers between shifts.
“If your shortage is going to be based on drivers leaving [or] retiring [and] is going to be 120,000 a year, and you’re already creating between four and 500,000 new drivers every year, you don’t have a shortage, you’ve got a surplus,” Spencer stated. “The problem that carriers are experiencing or having is retention. They can’t keep those drivers.
“And through in reality being a birthday celebration to expanding the choice of new other folks making use of for the ones jobs, you’re in reality exacerbating the issue as a result of, once more, you’re feeding the churn.”
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