Runway 09-27 and will hopefully be done with the project in four years. The company’s head of finance, John Rodstrom, exclaimed: “it was COVID that brought the company to Hernando County. What it did was it unlocked ecommerce like it never did in our lifetime… we don’t think that genie is going back in the bottle.” Read more…
The American public appears overwhelmingly skeptical of at least two possible solutions to the trucker shortage currently blighting our nation: “nearly 71 percent of registered voters polled by NewsNation opposed lowering the required age to get a commercial driver’s license from 18 to 16. Currently, drivers have to be 18 to transport goods within a state, or 21 to transport goods across state lines.” In addition, “65 percent of Americans said they would feel at least somewhat unsafe with self-driving trucks on the road.” Read more…
Though flatbed trucks are the most widely used open-deck trailers in the industry, recent deaths have renewed safety concerns for flatbed driving. While devices known as headache racks, often made of aluminum or steel, used to be required to protect drivers from shifting loads, this is no longer the case. These open-deck trailers are often hauling a variety of commodities such as “steel, rebars, steel coils, lumbar, construction materials, military equipment, machinery and other heavy goods.” Read more…
Global logistics giants Geodis and Ceva are planning to cut over 450 jobs in Ohio according to paperwork filed this past week. The French logistics company Geodis is planning on closing all of its business operations at its facilities in Columbus, while Ceva will be closing their east portion of their Groveport facility, with “supply chain operation specialists, dock supervisors and material handlers” being among the affected nonunion employees who will be out of work. Read more…
Economic fallout is exacerbating as “Texas Governor Greg Abbot moved incrementally to roll back new inspection rules for commercial trucks entering from Mexico, with some companies saying they aren’t able to fulfill orders because trucks are stuck in multi-mile backups at a number of entry points.” Many companies are bemoaning the fact that the added inspections have already cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars, not to mention the smaller paychecks for all the loaders who have had trucks failing to show up. Read more…
With burnout from the mental and physical labors of truck driving, especially during a global pandemic, the American Trucking Association has predicted a possible shortage of up to 160,000 drivers over the next decade. On the bright side, during President Joe Biden’s recent press conference regarding the industry, Missouri was among the states highlighted that are addressing the shortage, with the state raising its trucker employment rate “by more than 8% over the past year, one of just five states to do so.” Read more…
Officials predict 80 new logistics jobs will be coming to South Alabama as New York-based DC Safety and Averitt Express will both be expanding their operations to Mobil County, Alabama. Upon the announcements, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey exclaimed: “days like today prove why Alabama’s economic comeback is leading states around the country and why the Mobil area is a major catalyst for the entire state.” Read more…
Guest host and mega movie star Jake Gyllenhaal poked fun at truck drivers and truck stops on a recent episode of Saturday Night Live which aired on April 9th. Gyllenhaal, along with Saturday Night Live cast Cecily Strong, lampooned everything from drivers having to often pee in a bottle while on the job to the many stories of the fabled “ghost trucker” that many truckers have claimed to encounter. Read more…
While truck driver training programs help applicants find positions amongst the nation’s biggest freight haulers, quitting during these courses can often have severe repercussions. Despite the fact many of these programs fail to deliver the compensation and working conditions they promise, “drivers who quit early can be pursued by debt collectors and blacklisted by other companies in the industry, making it difficult for them to find a new job.” Read more...
Despite the claim of a driver shortage due to the pandemic, professor Jason Miller claims that they just don’t want to drive for mega carriers anymore. With many claiming that the mega carriers treat them poorly and pay them peanuts, some are becoming owner operators themselves or going to work for smaller carriers. Miller goes on to share BLD data “which shows that the average size of US trucking establishments plummeted from 10.6 employees at the end of 2019 to 9.4 employees in the third quarter of 2021.. Read more…
