Trucking company claims it needs foreign drivers due to pandemic-induced turnover rates

A California trucking company was denied its bid to hire H-2B truck drivers after claiming high turnover rates caused by the pandemic necessitated its pursuit of foreign drivers.

The Department of Labor’s Board of Alien Labor Certification Appeals recently affirmed the Office of Foreign Labor Certification’s decision to deny Fowler, Calif.-based Trius Trucking’s application for dozens of H-2B truck drivers. The trucking company argued it needed temporary foreign drivers due to high turnover rates.

On May 9, Trius Trucking applied for certification of 124 H-2B truck drivers from July 1, 2024, through July 1, 2025. That application was returned after the Office of Foreign Labor Certification found three deficiencies:

1. Application was filed outside the filing window
2. Application failed to establish a need for the number of truckers
3. Application failed to establish the need for truckers is temporary in nature

Trius Trucking attempted to address the first issue by amending the start date for the requested H-2B drivers to Sept. 1, 2024. The second issue was fixed by reducing the number of needed drivers from 124 to 40.

To establish the temporary nature of the need for foreign drivers, Trius Trucking claimed that “the pandemic has significantly impacted the trucking industry, leading to an extremely high turnover rate among drivers.” The company pointed out that the turnover rate for large carriers “has consistently exceeded 90% since the pandemic.”

“At Trius Trucking Inc., this turnover has resulted in numerous trucks sitting idle, which directly translates to lost revenue,” Trius Trucking stated in its H-2B application. “Additionally, when drivers quit, we incur significant costs related to recruiting, hiring and training new drivers. These frequent disruptions necessitate our request for temporary OTR drivers to maintain our operational capacity and meet our delivery commitments.”

Turnover rates nearing 100% at large carriers predate the pandemic.

In 2018, an American Trucking Associations report revealed the turnover rate for large truckload carriers was 94% at the time. A 2015 ATA report noted that turnover rates had been more than 90% “over the past few years.”

In fact, the pandemic ultimately led to a truck driver glut. In the immediate aftermath of the pandemic, freight demand and spot market rates skyrocketed, prompting a surge in new carriers entering the market. According to data from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, there were nearly 350,000 authorized property-carrying carriers in December 2021, an increase of nearly 78,000 for the year. Comparatively, 2019 saw an increase of only 7,754 carriers.

As economic and freight conditions began to stabilize, the trucking industry found itself with an overcapacity problem. By 2022, freight demand returned to relative normalcy. However, the exceedingly high number of carriers that were necessary to haul a temporary surge in freight remained, causing rates to plummet and creating a freight recession that still lingers today.

But none of that was considered in Trius Trucking’s application for H-2B truck drivers, because the company could not even get the filing window correct.

20 C.F.R. Section 655.15(b) states that H-2B applications must be filed between 75 and 90 calendar days before the date of need.

The initial application filed on May 9 had a start date of July 1. At 53 days apart, the start date was too soon by more than three weeks. Even after being notified of the issue, Trius Trucking still missed the mark with the amended date of Sept. 1, which was 115 days from the application filing – making the starting date too late by more than three weeks.

Consequently, the application for H-2B truck drivers was denied. Since Trius Trucking undeniably failed to satisfy the first deficiency, the administrative law judge presiding over the case found it unnecessary to rule on the other two issues, including Trius’ high turnover rate claims. LL