DC Velocity - March 2020

FTR’s Vise adds that in his view, the impact of the new clearinghouse (which launched on Jan. 6) on available qualified truck drivers could be significant over time. “In the past, if you failed the test, you’d just go to another carrier. Now, [that test result] goes into the clearinghouse. We didn’t have the data before on how many drivers were failing the pre-employment test. The other factor [that will potentially affect driver supply] is those who know they’ll test positive and just leave the business.”

DRIVER SHORTAGE—IT’S HOW YOU DEFINE IT

In any event, a shortage of qualified truck drivers remains
high on the list of concerns for shippers and carriers alike.
That’s particularly true in the truckload market, where 60%
annual turnover is considered a victory.

Old Dominion’s strategy has been to grow its own when it comes to drivers. Since it launched its in-house driv-er-training program in 1988, the company has graduated 5,900 CDL (commercial driver’s license)-qualified drivers from its schools, notes Freeman, adding that 55% of those graduates are still with the company today.

Donald Broughton, principal and managing partner of
Clayton, Missouri-based Broughton Capital, a transporta-
tion market research and analysis firm, thinks the driver
shortage suffers from a gross misconception. He says
whether or not there is a shortage “depends on how you
define [it],” citing three determining factors: how much
you’re willing to pay in wages and benefits; how stringent
your requirements are for safety performance, reliability,
and other employee quality criteria; and how much you’re
willing to invest to take care of your employees and provide
good quality of life (i.e., get them home regularly).
On one end of the spectrum are the higher-compensated
driving jobs with dedicated and private truckload fleets, as
well as parcel carriers like UPS, where, Broughton quips,
driver turnover is mostly a function of “death or retire-
ment.” In the middle is the LTL market, where the latest
ATA figures peg driver turnover at about 9%. On the other
end of the spectrum are the long-haul full truckload irreg-
ular-route driving jobs, where “someone is paid $45,000 a
year and you get them home [maybe] every two weeks,”
he says, adding that in this corner of the trucking world,
“you’ll never get enough people.”

Broughton also lauds the launch of the new Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse as an overwhelming positive for the industry and public. “That you used to be able to fail a drug test at one company and then go to another was absurd,” he says. The new clearinghouse “was long overdue” and “a commonsense mandate that makes the world safer for all of us.” ;