How to solve the truck driver retention dilemma

Solving the driver retention problem won’t be easy, but there are some commonsense solutions available, including better truck driver training, better pay and better work conditions.

That was the message OOIDA Executive Vice President Lewie Pugh delivered to a group of freight stakeholders in August.

Ranging from state departments of transportation to engineers to academics, a variety of stakeholders got together for a conference organized by the Mid-America Freight Coalition to discuss innovations in the freight sector. Truck driver training, compensation and other industry issues were discussed with a panel exploring workforce development.

Pugh emphasized to the crowd that the industry is dealing with a driver retention problem, not a driver shortage.

“Driver retention is a huge problem,” Pugh said. “You hear about ‘driver shortage’ all the time. There’s not a shortage; there’s never been a shortage of (truck drivers). The shortage is people staying in this industry. They come in, they get used, they get abused, they don’t get paid right, they don’t get treated right and they leave.”

Pugh highlighted some of the biggest issues leading to the truck driver retention problem and how they can be fixed.

Driver training

When it comes to trucking workforce development, one of the most consequential issues is driver training.

After decades of lobbying efforts by OOIDA and other trucking stakeholders, an entry-level truck driver training rule went into effect in February 2022. However, Pugh said new drivers continue to be woefully ill-prepared for the job.

One provision that OOIDA asked for but that was not included in the final driver training rule is a requirement for behind-the-wheel training. Instead, the rule only requires a trainer to sign off on a list of skills for each applicant.

Pugh told the audience about driving past a CDL school near Springfield, Mo., advertising that students can obtain a CDL in 24 hours. The website of another school explains there is no mandate on the number of truck driver training hours and claims to perform driver training “in one day,” meeting at 8 a.m. and testing at 2 p.m.

Rather than investing in drivers, Pugh said, companies and the federal government are investing in vehicles instead.

To address highway safety, technologies like speed limiters, automatic emergency braking and lane departure systems are being rolled out. Meanwhile, the people operating trucks with that tech lack sufficient training.

Despite all the new technologies in trucks, new truck drivers continue to drive down the wrong streets, tear up curbs and struggle to back up due to poor driver training.

“In the airline industry, they train the pilot how to fly the plane, then they give him safety technology to make him a much better, safer pilot,” Pugh said. “In trucking, we just give you the safety technology and hope it works. We don’t teach these people how to drive a truck.”

Fair compensation

Even if driver training improves, new truckers will continue to exit the industry once they realize they are not being paid fairly.

If the wheels are not turning, then a truck driver is not earning. Pugh drove that point home by calling attention to unpaid detention time. According to an OOIDA Foundation survey, the average respondent spent more than 14 hours per week loading or unloading. Although most drivers receive some sort of detention pay, it usually does not compensate for lost earnings.

“I’ve sat at steel mills longer in the Ohio Valley to load a load of steel than it took me to drive to St. Louis to deliver that load of steel, and you don’t get anything for that,” Pugh said.

There’s also the issue of overtime pay. Interstate truck drivers are exempt from the guaranteed overtime pay other workers enjoy. For truck drivers logging the max 70 hours of driving time in a seven-day period, paychecks are not reflecting time worked.

“The Bureau of Labor Statistics says the average truck driver makes $55,000 a year,” Pugh said. “Do the math on that. At 52 weeks a year, 70 hours a week, that’s $15.38 an hour to drive a semi.”

Although a new U.S. Department of Labor rule extends overtime pay protections to millions of workers, truck drivers remain exempt. However, a bill in Congress aims to fix that. The GOT Truckers Act will eliminate the Fair Labor Standards Act provision exempting truckers from overtime pay.

Truckers are also losing out on their fair share of a load from unscrupulous brokers. Currently, many owner-operators are not receiving documentation indicating what shippers are paying brokers for a load. A rulemaking addressing broker transparency that was prompted by an OOIDA petition is expected in October.

In the meantime, OOIDA has urged the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to address broker fraud. However, the agency has claimed its hands are tied due to a lack of data and statutory authority.

“It’s become a complete tragedy in trucking, because nobody knows who they’re talking to or who they’re talking with,” Pugh said. “We’re finding out these people are in foreign countries, and these guys are booking the loads and stealing the loads and all this other kind of stuff. So trucking, it’s still a little bit of the Wild West out there.”

Parking shortage

Truck drivers remain frustrated over the lack of safe truck parking.

Pugh explained this shortage not only leads to lost production time when drivers spend an hour looking for a spot but also has resulted in fatal crashes with trucks parked on shoulders and ramps. The Truck Parking Safety Improvement Act would allocate $755 million exclusively to projects expanding truck parking capacity.

“Truckers don’t need electric signs telling them how many spots there is or isn’t at a truck stop or at a rest area,” Pugh said. “They know when they can park and where there’s parking and where there’s not. They need ground, they need pavement, they need places to park trucks. Once we get that taken care of, then let’s worry about putting signs out there.”

Restroom access

Truck drivers have to deal with poor working conditions in other ways, as well, forcing many of them to quit the industry.

Pugh told the audience of freight stakeholders about the lack of access to basic necessities like restrooms.

“I never thought I would testify in the halls of Congress, in the greatest country in the world, asking for a bill to give a trucker a right to use your bathroom if they’re making a delivery,” he said.

The Trucker Bathroom Access Act requires shippers and receivers that have restrooms available to their employees and customers to extend that access to the truck drivers delivering or receiving their cargo.

Overreliance on technology

Another topic Pugh addressed with stakeholders was the danger of moving too quickly on unproven technology. Although they’re touted to improve safety, many newer technologies like speed limiters and automatic emergency brakes can have the opposite effect.

Meanwhile, there is very little government oversight of autonomous vehicle technology. Truckers with millions of miles of safe driving under their belt are more regulated than the autonomous vehicle industry, Pugh said.

“All we hear is ‘We’re 93% ready for prime time.’ Well, a lot of people can die in 7% when it comes to an 80,000-pound vehicle,” he added.

Pugh also said that many laws, regulations and handouts are predicated on the idea of a truck driver shortage despite more than 400,000 new CDLs being issued every year.

Truckers can reach out to their lawmakers about the above industry issues by going to FightingForTruckers.com. LL

Land Line Senior Editor Mark Schremmer contributed to this report.