SIOUX FALLS, SD – South Dakota’s and the nation’s truck drivers are getting old. An American Trucking Association study estimates that the industry could be short by as many as 160,000 drivers by 2028.
According to Christine Erickson, president of the South Dakota Trucking Association (SDTA), there was a federal pilot program to encourage young people to become truckers but it has ended.
“The hope is we can start getting people excited about the trucking industry. Get them their CDL license and get them operating commercial motor vehicles.”
A federal pilot program that aims to help the supply chain crisis by allowing 18 to 20-year-olds to drive big rigs outside their home states was introduced this year. It allows 18-year-olds to drive trucks across states. While 48 out of 50 US states currently allow 18-year-olds to obtain a Commercial Driving License until federal law is changed, they cannot drive a truck across state lines until they are 21.
The current law requires truckers to be at least 21-years-old in order to cross state lines.
The federal government is testing out the pilot program for the next three years. 3,000 truckers between the ages 18 to 20 that have a safe driving record, can cross state lines as long as an experienced driver is in the passenger seat.
Erickson says there is still a need for programs that help young adults get into the profession.
“In the trucking industry, drivers are aging-out. We’ve got to work really hard to replace those folks with some of these 18, 19 and 20-year-olds.”
But the reality is that trucking is an industry that struggles to attract young talent. According to the International Foodservice Distributors Association, the average age for truck drivers in the US is 46 years old, meaning companies face a retiring workforce.
Commenting in Vox.com, Michael Belzer, a trucking industry expert at Wayne State University, says the first thing to know about the truck driver shortage is that it’s not exactly a shortage. “It’s a recruitment and retention problem,” said Belzer.
He goes on to observe that truck driving also isn’t the job it used to be. In the United States, for example, deregulation of the industry, which accelerated in the 1980s, alongside the decline of unions, means trucker wages have been shrinking for years. But the work itself hasn’t really changed. It involves long hours, and a lot of that can be time spent uncompensated.
This is also not a new problem. Analysts and industry groups have warned of truck driver shortages for years, around the globe. But supply chain disruptions during the pandemic and surges in demand in places like the US have made this slow-rolling crisis much more acute.
The pandemic “opened up Pandora’s box on so many issues,” said Jean-Paul Rodrigue, an expert in transportation, logistics, and freight distribution at Hofstra University.
Cate Lawrence wrote in “TNW,” that ultimately, without a substantial improvement in the work-life of truck drivers, there’s little incentive for anyone to enter the industry. “Lowering the license age will only invite people to join a sector already plagued by challenging working conditions and pass the problems to the next generation.”
