Over 78 Percent Of Drivers Are 35 Or Older
Should the trucking industry be concerned about the aging workforce in a report released about the American Trucking Association? You bet they should. In the last two decades, the average media age for truck drivers has changed drastically. This data released by the ATRI shows a variety of different age groups for drivers and you can clearly see the reversed trends.
Everyone in the trucking industry knows about the shortage of truck drivers and this data confirms those reports. Not only are they thousands of open truck driver jobs around the country, trucking companies are in desperate need to hold onto aged truck drivers. Sign on bonuses for all drivers, more home time and better benefits are all costing trucking companies more money now then ever before.
Nearly 30 percent of all truck drivers are in the 45-54 age group, right at 29.3 percent. This is an increase of 9.3 percent from 1994. Drivers in the 55-64 year old age group is 20.1 percent. Twenty years earlier, drivers in the age group totaled only 9.1 percent. How about drivers 65 years old or older? 6.1 percent of all drivers, a 4.2 percent increase from 1994.
No other age group of truck drivers has fail more then the 24-34 age group. In 1994, this age group made up 30 percent of all truck drivers, a healthy number at the time. Today, that same age group only makes up 15.6 of the trucking industry. That is a difference of 14.8 percent. And truck drivers aged 20-24 only account for 4.9 percent, 4.3 percent less then twenty years ago.
What’s the real cause of the driver shortage? Where do we begin? There’s a variety of different reasons why young professionals are not entering the trucking industry. For one, more young men and women are going to college. After college, many are finding jobs associated to their degree. Young people also have the opportunity to make more money, much more then in 1994.
Another reason why young people are not attracted to the trucking industry is home time. Many don’t want to be away from home or their family for long periods at a time. When you add it all up, the answers are right in front of you.
But what does it all equal to the trucking industry? Aging truck drivers are a major concern for the industry, more then one might think.Trucking companies are hauling less freight as we continue to see the demand for freight grow. Some freight is taking longer to deliver, which could mean empty shelves in the near future. The shortage of young truck drivers is a heavy concern for the industry and we could see upward of 200,000 open truck driving jobs in the next decade.
While measures are being made to combat the shortage of truck drivers, more is needed to get it under control. We’re no where near winning this battle, we haven’t even seen the beginning of it. If you think 30,000 open trucking jobs is bad, wait until we see hundreds of thousands of trucking jobs left unfilled. Then it’s going to be a major problem that could crumble this proud industry.