driver safety

The Truck Driver Shortage–What is Really Going On?

June 26, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

Truck or bus driver hands holding steering wheel and smoking cigarette in public places.

The truck driver shortage continues to run rampant throughout the United States, even making ATRI’s Most Wanted List of trucking industry concerns year after year. But, is this nationwide shortage really as prevalent as the industry says?

Sisu Energy out of Texas recently made headlines when it offered to pay truckers up to “$728,000 a year” due to the shortage being so pervasive.

“Those news stories flying around out there are very misleading and inaccurate,” said Sisu’s director of recruiting, Karrie Gundy, who noted that the company doesn’t even pay yearly salaries to truckers. In fact, Sisu hires independent contractors solely, meaning they get paid by the loads they haul and can only begin earning once they have the certifications, licensing, skills, and commercial truck needed to haul “frac sand” for the company. Still, the company maintains that productive truckers can eventually make $14,000 a week (although they have to cover their own insurance, fuel, equipment, and maintenance costs).

American Trucking Associations, along with other lobbying groups, have pushed the argument that the shortage of truck drivers has remained a major national issue for four decades now, but one may wonder how could such an employee shortage last so long? Has it really affected the average consumer? It is simple economics that when worker numbers are low, you need to raise wages to solve the problem. So, what’s really going on?

“In our type of economy, worker shortages are usually solved by employers paying higher wages to entice people to work for them,” said Levinson and Stefani’s Jay Stefani. “It is beyond believable that a driver shortage could last four decades without the trucking industry improving working conditions or paying fair wages.”

Groups like ATA have been claiming that relaxed regulations in the trucking industry would help to bring in more drivers, such as legislation like the DRIVE-Safe Act. This bill would allow drivers between 18- and 21-years-old to operate commercial trucks across state lines.

The trucking industry loves cheap labor, and has found ways to secure it for decades.

“The driver shortage has been a persistent issue in our industry for many years,” said ATA’s chief economist, Bob Costello. “We have numerous examples of fleets of all sizes raising pay, increasing bonuses, and increasing benefits–like time at home–in response to the shortage.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened this shortage, Costello explained, noting that recent regulation changes, and even stricter truck driver drug testing, have added fuel to the fire.

The main area the shortage affects within the industry is within that of long-haul trucking as more of these truckers leave the industry or retire, according to ATA. The American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators adds that while 450,000 new commercial driver’s licenses are issued each year, there are only currently between 300,000 and 500,000 long-haul truck drivers currently operating throughout the country.

“We have millions of people who have been trained to be heavy-duty truck drivers who are currently not working as heavy-duty truck drivers because the entry-level jobs are terrible,” said University of Pennsylvania sociologist and trucking industry expert, Steve Viscelli.

Millions of Americans have been drawn to the trucking industry, but the way in which large trucking companies operate causes these new truckers to give up quickly. The largest concern? Wages.

Although the median annual income of a truck driver is just over $47,000, long-haulers often operate their trucks for an excessive number of hours–around 70 hours a week, if not more. Additionally, truckers are usually only paid for the number of miles they drive–on average, 52.3 cents per mile.

If these truckers must slow down en route due to construction, traffic, or inclement weather, they do not get paid more. They also don’t receive more pay for the time it takes to load or unload their hauls, nor for their “off-duty” time while they’re on the road.

“Driving a truck–especially interstate–is a difficult and demanding job,” noted Stefani. “These folks work long hours at physically demanding jobs. They’re being pressured to drive more miles in less time and for less money. And if they don’t? The trucking companies threaten to hire someone who will. And weakening safety standards–such as allowing teenagers to obtain CDLs–only lowers the bar, allowing these motor carriers to pay even less.”

The issue at hand isn’t finding ways to make entering the trucking industry more enticing to younger drivers. The solution? Make trucking companies pay their drivers enough–or more than enough–to do this difficult job that is essential to the American economy.

Post-Pandemic Roadways Seeing More Traffic Once Again–What Does That Mean for Safety?

June 17, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

LOS ANGELES, CA – MARCH 22: Rush hour traffic fills the 101 freeway on March 22, 2006 in Los Angeles, California. According to a recent report by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Los Angeles ranks only behind New York with the dirtiest and most hazardous air to breathe. Although Angelinos breathe cleaner air than they did in the 1970’s, they face a cancer risk that is about twice the national average. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

At the peak of the coronavirus pandemic, we reported on data showing that although stay-at-home orders had cleared up a majority of traffic congestion throughout the nation’s roadways, overall levels of road safety had remained incredibly low.

“Unfortunately, the pandemic has exposed our road safety culture for what it is,” explained National Safety Council President and CEO, Lorraine Martin, at the time. “We did not reap the safety benefits we should have experienced.”

Martin noted that the clearer roadways motivated many drivers to drive much more carelessly than usual, and drivers are often tempted to reach dangerous speeds when roads are empty–they often may also fail to use a seat belt due to a false sense of security.

“It’s clear that our open roads have created somewhat of an open season for reckless driving,” Martin added.

Now, it seems that even those who did drive safely–or stayed home completely–during the pandemic have had trouble adjusting to roadways getting crowded once again as more drivers return to work, according to industry experts.

“What we’re observing is that as the rest of us get back on those roads, we’ve forgotten how to share the road,” said Geotab’s executive vice president of sales and marketing, Colin Sutherland. ”We see cars pulling in directly in front of heavy-duty trucks on the highway, forgetting that heavy-duty trucks need more room for braking than the car does.”

In an effort to boost overall roadway safety, Geotab–a vehicle tracking service–collaborated in a campaign with Together for Safer Roads during the United Nations’ recent Global Road Safety Week. During the campaign, the two organizations called on commercial fleets to help bring an end to speed-related road accidents.

As we approach the Summer months, Sutherland warns that these days are the most important to stay particularly safe and aware while driving, as the number of road trips rises and more people than usual hit the road.

“That’s being borne out [of] the increase in accidents that are happening on the road today,” he explained. “An increase over pre-COVID, which is very scary.”

In 2020, America’s roadways saw more vehicle crash deaths than they have in the past 13 years–42,060 people are believed to have died in fatal crashes–8% more than in 2019, even though fewer people were driving throughout the year. All motor vehicle total miles driven even fell by 13% in 2020 from 2019.

The Safety Management Council of American Trucking Associations is currently studying the traffic changes and their effects from the COVID-19 pandemic while we wait for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to release its official 2020 truck and bus accident report.

“We are starting a benchmarking group and will hopefully have this data more readily available,” said ATA’s Safety Management Council executive director, Jacob Pierce. “There are [fewer] cars on the road, so you’d figure that there would be [fewer] accidents. However, [fewer] cars on the road equals probably more passenger vehicles driving [with more risk], driving faster, [and] really not paying attention.”

In regards to the differences that are expected between roadway activity as people return to the roads after lockdown and how drivers behaved on the roads during the pandemic, there is no way to make any real predictions.

“It could go either way,” explained Angela Savino, a business law attorney at Perez Morris. “There certainly was more trucking activity. So, [given] that alone, you might think there was an uptick. But It was a whole different set of circumstances–just the congestion on the road was different”

Many industry experts were genuinely shocked at the data coming from roadway traffic accidents in 2020.

“The last year had a surprising amount of activity–from my perspective–[more] than would have been expected,” said Bluewire’s chief legal officer, Doug Marcello. “Anecdotally, I had more accidents that we were engaged to deal with immediately over the first month of the pandemic than I did most other months, and all of them were situations where four-wheelers had thrown caution to the wind and ended up striking the truck in some way.”

Surface Transportation, DRIVE-Safe, Truck Parking Bill Support Requested by ATA’s Chris Spear

June 14, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

“America’s supply chain yields tremendous potential,” said American Trucking Associations President Chris Spear during a hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee earlier this month. “It’s a catalyst for economic growth, beyond that of any other nation. For that to happen, however, I ask this committee to consider four key elements that both feed and benefit our nation’s supply chain: infrastructure, safety, workforce development, and environmental stewardship. Together, these elements shape and define the resiliency of our supply chain.”

Spear has also made known his belief that new legislation allowing commercial truck drivers under 21 years old to work across state lines is especially necessary at this time. Spear argues that this legislation would be incredibly beneficial to the nation’s supply chain and that it would help solve the long-term challenges surrounding the current driver shortage still intact throughout the trucking industry.

The trucking sector has been working to push forward a bill to secure long-term highway program funding and to ensure improved commercial corridor connectivity capabilities, as well.

“Stop blaming each other for the things you don’t do and start taking credit for the things you should do,” said Spear in an effort to highlight the current bipartisan efforts taking place in relation to boosted infrastructure upgrade funding and enhanced operation technology. “These investments are long overdue. They are the things Americans–your constituents–need, use, and rely on every single day. They’ll be grateful.”

Truck drivers clearly carried the nation’s economic health on its back during the coronavirus pandemic by ensuring grocery stores and hospitals stayed stocked with the supplies they needed, and many policymakers at both the state and federal levels have recognized these efforts. Still, though, truck drivers will continue to be the country’s most prominent freight transporters, with the trucking industry likely to ship around 70% of America’s freight throughout the next year. Trucks are also likely to move around 2.4 billion tons of more freight over the next decade than they have in recent years, according to ATA.

Now, a shortage of automobile sector-used semiconductor chips and disruptions in refined petroleum distribution have caused the nation’s supply chain to face a variety of obstacles as it works to keep shipments running smoothly during this time of boosted e-commerce.

“Without trucks, our cities, towns, and communities would fail to thrive, and would lack essential necessities such as food and drinking water. There would be no clothes to purchase, nor parts to build automobiles or fuel to power them [without trucks],” Spear lamented when he urged lawmakers to pass bipartisan surface transportation infrastructure policies for 2021.

Because the current driver shortage is also likely to not only continue but to grow as more truckers reach retirement age (and as e-commerce continues to boom), the trucking industry must hire an additional 1.1. million new truck drivers over the next ten years (around 110,000 each year).

At the recent hearing, Spear discussed the Developing Responsible Individuals for a Vibrant Economy (DRIVE)-Safe Act, which would allow truckers younger than the age of 21 to cross state lines while operating their commercial vehicles–an effort that is believed to be able to ease the difficulty of the shortage.

This program would permit under-21-year-old commercial driver license holders to work within interstate commerce, and DRIVE-Safe Act co-sponsors also touted the benefits of this measure during the meeting.

“This shortage directly impacts the supply chain of goods,” said Senator Rick Scott of Florida. “It causes delays for the manufacturers, consumers, and corporations across the U.S.”

Another major issue that was a topic of the discussion–truck parking access. The recent Truck Parking Safety Improvement Act will allocate U.S. Department of Transportation funding to certain state agencies in an effort to boost parking availability for commercial truck drivers. $125 million would be allocated for the year 2022, with annual increases taking place until 2026.

“It’s a huge problem,” said Spear of current parking capabilities. ”It definitely needs to be part of any legislation that you consider. This component really is key, and our entire industry is very much behind it.”

Finally, the issue of freight bottlenecks and the economic obstacles they present was brought to light by Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, who noted a recent American Transportation Research Institute study showing that the smooth movement of commercial trucks is significantly hindered by traffic problems. Freight bottlenecks currently bring about $75 million in costs to freight distribution and 1.2 billion hours of lost trucking industry productivity each year, according to both ATA and ATRI.

“Trucks can sit for hours on the way to Wyoming and…that drives up prices, and sometimes delays business, for people in my state,” explained Lummis.

Cross-Border Truckers to Receive Vaccinations Through Canada-North Dakota Partnership

June 8, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

Canadian and North Dakotan leaders are collaborating in an effort to help Canadian truckers who often work across the border to easily receive COVID-19 vaccinations.

The Essential Worker Cross-Border Vaccination Initiative was recently announced by Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, who, along with Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, explained that a memorandum had been signed stating that the essential workers delivering goods across the North Dakota-Canada border would be given easy access to the vaccine due to North Dakota’s northern border’s reach across both Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

These efforts come as a step toward improving the wellbeing of truckers, particularly those who work to boost the economy in both North Dakota and across these Canadian provinces.

“With adequate vaccine supplies and all North Dakotans having access to [the] vaccine while Canada is dealing with a vaccine shortage, we want to do our part to ensure essential workers from Canada who are frequently traveling through our state are vaccinated,” explained Burgum. ”The timely and effective administration of vaccines is essential for public health and the eventual safe reopening of our shared border.”

The Drayton rest area, a North Dakota Department of Transportation rest stop off of Interstate 29 located across the Red River from Minnesota, will transition into an official vaccination site for truck drivers and will also offer vaccinations to North Dakota locals who are at least 16 years of age. Drayton is conveniently located 31 miles south of the North Dakota-Canada border, which should make it easy for cross-border truckers to receive vaccines here.

Close to Saskatchewan’s North Dakota border, another site will be initiated for both truck drivers and energy workers local to Saskatchewan who work across the border frequently. The DOT has yet to announce which exact site will serve as this particular vaccination location.

Over the next two months, truck industry experts and government officials will determine which truck drivers are immediately eligible for a vaccination appointment and will schedule those appointments during each trucker’s regular drives across the border. Nurses and staff members will be dispatched by the North Dakota Department of Health to administer both vaccine doses to participating truck drivers; truckers must also be sure to get both vaccine doses in North Dakota.

“The Saskatchewan Trucking Association knows how critical vaccines are to fighting COVID-19, and is pleased to see the partnership between North Dakota and Saskatchewan,” said Saskatchewan Trucking Association executive director, Susan Ewart. “Providing necessary vaccines to professional drivers and oil field workers crossing the border will ensure the safety and protection of these workers as they continue to drive the economy.”

Currently, waiting times for each dose of the vaccine is between three and four months in Manitoba, lamented Terry Shaw, Executive Director of the Manitoba Trucking Association. Additionally, Manitoba vaccine eligibility is only available for certain groups of qualifying people.

This new initiative will allow truck drivers to much more easily receive the vaccines they need, as they can do so during their usual hauling schedules.

“These truck drivers will be completely vaccinated much, much quicker through this North Dakota program than they will in Canada,” said Shaw. “We’re not even at the point in Manitoba where, if you want a vaccine, you can go get it. North Dakota had more vaccines than arms and Manitoba had more arms than vaccines.”

Many truck drivers based in Manitoba also have to travel through North Dakota frequently, Shaw added. Some shipments begin in Alberta or Saskatchewan and still travel through North Dakota on their way to other states.

“Whether it is trade activity with North Dakota or through North Dakota, it’s a very major corridor for our trucking industry here in Manitoba and, quite frankly, in Canada,” he explained. “Manitoba truck drivers find themselves running through North Dakota with great regularity.”

Boosting the health and safety of these truck drivers is especially important for both countries, as the United States considers Saskatchewan and Manitoba to both be vital economic partners–with 217,992 truck crossings occurring at the port of entry in Pembina, North Dakota (which connects directly to Manitoba) and 80,101 truck crossings at the Portal, North Dakota port of entry (which connects directly to Saskatchewan) in 2020, according to data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

“We are grateful to Premier Scott Moe for his partnership on this initiative, which will ensure the safe delivery of goods and services across the border and strengthen the longstanding friendly relationship between North Dakota and our northern neighbors,” said Governor Burgum in a recent tweet.

Latest Safety Concern List Adopted by NTSB, GAO Calls for Deeper Look

June 6, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

A wide range of safety improvements and updates need to be implemented across all modes of transportation, according to the latest Most Wanted List of safety concerns, recently released by the National Transportation Safety Board.

The list for the year 2021-2022 still mentions some of the recommendations made in 2019, such as the need for an industry-wide mandate in regards to how to install collision-avoidance technology into commercial motor vehicles. The latest list also included the need for an efficient strategy related to methods of speeding-related collision elimination, distracted driving prevention, and the eradication of drug- and alcohol-impaired driving.

“The Most Wanted List defines the focus of the NTSB’s advocacy work,” said Chairman of NTSB, Robert Sumwalt. “It directs our limited advocacy resources toward improvements with the greatest potential to make the greatest impact on saving lives, reducing injuries, and preventing accidents and crashes.”

NTSB, an agency that works independently and aims to identify the factors feeding into roadway accidents and the best ways to implement safety solutions, unanimously adopted this most recent “Most Wanted List,” a decision which came after more than four hours of discussion, question-and-answer sessions, and staff presentations.

Every single member of NTSB’s board–currently only five people in total–must be confirmed by the Senate following their nomination by the president.

The final approval of this Most Wanted List by the board, and the recommendations that accompanied these major concerns, were “driven by data,” according to Sumwalt, who also added that all of these problems are currently “ripe for action.” Everything included in the Most Wanted List incorporated aspects of NTSB’s own research and investigations, he noted–especially data collected in regards to roadway incidents which involved impaired driving or speeding.

NTSB’s Office of Highway Safety director, Robert Molloy, noted that these are the crash causes that typically lead to the nation’s fatal accidents.

“Studies have shown that as many as 80% of crashes could have benefited from sensor-based collision-avoidance technologies, such as automatic emergency braking and forward-collision warning,” Molloy explained. “All vehicles should have these systems available as a standard feature.”

NTSB’s most recent meeting, which involved presentations on investigations into previous accidents, came as a response to the issues regarding transparency that were brought to light by the Government Accountability Office. In 2020, GAO urged NTSB to thoroughly document all evaluations for every single concern mentioned on its Most Wanted List, and added that all criteria utilized for determining any issue as being “ripe for action” should be efficiently explained and communicated to the public.

If these efforts are not executed properly, the concerns on the list could fail to receive any sufficient solution-oriented efforts, according to GAO.

“If advocacy groups, industry associations, and others don’t know why NTSB is advocating for these particular safety issues and recommendations, that could affect their attention to and support for tackling the issues on the list,” GAO explained.

Additionally, to truly bring to light the problems on these lists that have been nationwide concerns for far too long, full explanation and communication with the public and industry members is key.

“Greater transparency in how issues are evaluated and selected could enhance users’ understanding of the list and help ensure the list continues to rally the support and resources needed to tackle difficult and long-standing transportation safety challenges.”

The discussions like these that take place during these board meetings, Sumwalt noted, always aim to lead to extensive and productive deliberation and problem-solving. He hopes that anyone who observed this most recent meeting–or any meeting of the board–can see that these discussions are indeed meant to be as productive as possible.

“If anybody thinks these board meetings are scripted, then you hopefully have seen the board actually [active] in our deliberations.” he said. “Nothing is pre-decisional. What you saw was our deliberations.”

Also on 2020-2021’s list of most-wanted improvements are: “vulnerable road user” protection efforts–especially for motorcyclists, cyclists, and pedestrians; pipeline leak detection and mitigation improvements; rail worker safety upgrades; and passenger and fishing vessel safety improvements. Also needing major boosts, as mentioned by the list, are safety management technology installation on passenger-carrying flights, crash-resistant recorders, and programs regarding flight-data monitoring.

IDOT Works to Avoid Bridge Strikes Throughout the State

June 5, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

When truckers move under a bearing too low for the height of their big-rigs, bridge strikes happen.

Because it has been a prevalent issue in the state of Illinois, the Illinois Department of Transportation is pushing forward two potential pilot initiatives–both of which would aim to lower the number of large truck bridge strikes.

“Hit the road, not a bridge!” said IDOT recently in a tweet. “The average bridge strike costs $400,000 to fix? They also can cause backups, detours, and all sorts of safety issues. Truckers, please measure freight sizes, get your permits, and stay on the correct route.”

Because many drivers will watch navigation information on their cellphones or on printed route directions, IDOT is proposing a program dubbed “audible turn-by-turn navigation.” This initiative would allow IDOT to offer route information electronically through a cloud-based application for drivers to audibly hear all their navigation details without having to look at a document or a mobile device.

The GIS data providers that are working on this technology have said it is nearly ready for release. Presently, they are working on some platform format problems and will soon allow IDOT to test the system. If it is found to be acceptable, a select number of fleets will be able to test the technology and compare it to other methods of navigation. The system will be fully adopted by the industry if IDOT finds no problems with its implementation.

The second pilot program is the HawkScan oversize vehicle measurement system, an initiative that will use sensors and cameras to digitally measure freight loads off of Interstate 70 at the westbound Maryville weigh station. The data collected from these scans can measure and classify trucks during normal traffic congestion conditions and can also verify a truck’s permit information.

This particular weigh station in southwest Illinois has processed more than 48,100 trucks in Illinois so far in 2021, and expects to process around 200,000 by the end of the year. The oversize vehicle measurement system has already been set up temporarily at this location.

“If all is accurate on the permit with the information gathered, the driver will be allowed to continue on without stopping,” said Geno Koehler, IDOT Permit Unit Chief. “Both projects are very exciting, and many people in the [oversize and overweight] industry are looking forward to their success.”

Because many agricultural shipments are hauled through Illinois, some truck drivers may not be aware that they are driving on a route including a bridge with a lower clearance than they might expect, explained Matt Hart, Executive Director for the Illinois Trucking Association. This is a major issue because agricultural equipment hauling is vital to the state of Illinois (and because the state’s top exports include animal feed and cereal grains, according to IDOT’s Illinois State Freight Plan).

Because these drivers are often not aware of low-clearance bridges, IDOT’s District 5 has had nine bridge strikes in the last year and a half, with each hit costing between $25,000 and $3 million to repair. On average, oversize load bridge strikes–either by farm equipment or large trucks–cost around $400,000 on average in repairs. When these accidents occur, they often lead to closures, road safety problems, detours, and traffic congestion.

Additionally, especially in the Chicago metro area, Hart noted that towing companies are especially costly for a truck that gets itself stuck under a bridge–with these bills coming out to around $100,000 per incident.

“It’s pretty disheartening when you have a truck that hits one of these bridges and [the driver is] already upset enough, but then you have tow companies that are taking advantage of that situation and are strapping these trucking companies with tens of thousands of dollars in towing fees just to get the vehicle out of that low-clearance bridge,” said Hart. “They know that out-of-state trucks are likely to hit those bridges because they’re not familiar with the area. After safety, this also becomes an economic issue.”

IDOT has released recommendations regarding how to prevent these accidents, with detailed steps including the need to stay on authorized routes, obtain proper permits, and measure freight loads well in advance. Drivers of permitted loads should also remember to only take the routes IDOT recommends.