While long-haul trucker Tracey Price has a “healthy fear” of the 80,000-pound truck she lives and sleeps in, she still believes that truck driving is the best way she can provide for her kid. Tracey goes on to say: “I like being my own boss. I tell myself when to get up, and I tell myself the route I’m taking. My favorite part about the job is everything I get to see.” Read more…
Many issues were addressed in a recent survey of truck drivers, amongst them being comfort, safety and autonomous trucks. Being glued to their driver’s seat for most of their waking hours on the road, “having that seat be as comfortable as possible is a big deal.” Truckers have also been found to “appreciate the safety of having a forward-facing camera but don’t appreciate one aimed at them.” In terms of self-driving vehicles, most drivers “don’t believe autonomous trucks will be the saviors of the industry some people see them as.” Read more…
In a survey of nearly 1,000 drivers, driver mobility provider Trucker Path asked: “How frequently would you like to return home from the road?” According to the results, “63% of the drivers who preferred to return home every night were allowed to do so” and “about 89% of drivers who wanted to return home several times a month had their request granted.” These results paint a rosy picture of job carriers, as they seem to be responding to their drivers’ preferences. Read more…
As part of new bipartisan legislation aiming to retain and recruit drivers, truck drivers would be eligible for up to $10,000 in tax credits, along with many other incentives such as truck parking funding and an hours-of-service exemption for livestock haulers. Lawmakers in Washington called the bill a “sweeping overhaul of the interstate trucking supply system.” Read more…
Trucking carriers are using apprenticeships as an opportunity to “bring diverse candidates, including veterans, into a driving career.” While many industries have used apprenticeships to train and recruit workers for years, carriers such as Fastport will be keeping and paying participants for more than the standard one to two months, while also including a “dedicated mentor.” Read more…
According to seasonally adjusted data from the U.S. Department of Labor, the trucking industry gained around 2,100 workers in the past year. The truck transportation sector’s final year-end report showed that “there were 1,601,500 workers in the industry, up from 1,599,400 in November and 1,598,00 in October.” The DOL report goes on to say that “in 2022, average job growth in transportation and warehousing – plus 17,000 jobs – was about half the average job growth in 2021 at plus 36,000 jobs.” Read more…
With the pandemic wearing tons of people out, especially mothers and women in the healthcare profession, many of them are turning to the truck driving industry as a break from the grueling day-to-day of their previous professional lives. For example, Chelsea Ferguson was feeling burned out as “she was doing strenuous work cleaning patients and turning them over. She was on her feet some days for 16 hours.” As a result, Chelsea turned to the trucking industry, as have many other women, making females in the trucker workforce at 18%, an all time high. Read more..
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has “rejected a petition from several agriculture groups asking for more Hours of Service flexibility for drivers hauling livestock and other animal goods.” The petition had asked for the FMCSA to allow truck drivers “hauling livestock, insects, and aquatic animals, after 10 consecutive hours off duty, to drive through the 16th consecutive hour after coming on duty, and to drive a total of 15 hours during that 16-hour period.” Read more…
Challenging stereotypes, Clarissa Ranking, a 36-year-old mom from Charlotte, North Carolina, is a professional truck driver transporting all kinds of goods across the East Coast. From hauling diapers to TVs to canned goods, Clarissa is making $144K a year while loving her job. Ranking exclaims: “people always have this image in their mind of a truck driver being a man with a big old stomach, big old beard and wearing overalls… I love to get that expression on people’s faces like, ‘Can you really drive that?’ And I’m like, ‘Yes, I got this honey.’” Read more…
With a shortage of drivers “impacting the ability to get goods, merchandise and other items shipped around the country,” the American Trucking Association believes the country needs at least another 80,000 more drivers on the road. On the bright side, requests to enroll in trucking schools have increased due to the desire of applicants to have a guaranteed job if a recession hits. Read more..
