The following article is provided by Tom MacCallum, VP of loss control at IAT Insurance Group.
Anyone who has been waiting — and waiting — for goods to be delivered, whether it’s a consumer, a retailer, or a manufacturer knows the US supply chain is in crisis. Nearly every link in the chain has been weakened and trucking is no exception.
Legacy hiring and retention struggles were only exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The American Trucking Associations estimates that the driver shortage hit a historic high of over 80,000 drivers last year and is estimated to reach 160,000 by 2030. For an individual fleet operator, the average cost to replace a driver is about $8,200. The lack of drivers is a huge cost to the trucking industry and the larger economy, affecting company profits, the stock market, and the costs of all goods for all of us.
The question is: How can the industry repopulate itself and keep drivers on board? Because there is no single cause of the driver shortage, there is no single solution.
Here are IAT’s 5 strategies to creating a successful hiring and retention strategy.