Trucking Industry Update | 2024

Good Day, Excellent video I appreciate the insight and information; here's my two cents worth. I started in this industry in 96' and like many of you I've seen massive growth, changes and more regulations throughout my career. I would like to touch on a few items that were discussed in this video and maybe help others grasp it from a different perspective. I do believe costs are without question a big issue and the couple of pandemic years are outliers and provide us with very little useful data in the big picture. I believe that inflation as egregious as it is will have lasting effects on small to midsize carriers going forward, I do agree that the current environment is not sustainable for anyone, especially the smaller carriers.

What I don't believe is talked about enough is the importance of driver recruiting and retention, sure we all understand we need drivers safe conscientious drivers, how will the industry navigate to the ever changing demographic of drivers? We are going to see in the next five years and beyond a real changing of the guard regarding the driver pool, we are starting to see it already in certain platforms around the industry. Many drivers who have been out here in excess of twenty five years know and understand that $1300-$1500 for a weekly compensation is just not adequate, many made that well, twenty five years ago.

Many of us sit around the conference room table and talk about "best practices", yet many of these ideas never make it down to where it counts, the drivers. When I look at the sacrifice vs risk vs reward due to overregulation, more demands placed on the driver and without question even more consequences for both the carrier and drivers; how will we recruit going forward? I think we all have to look in the mirror as leaders and ask ourselves, did we really do our best, have we provided adequate pay for the formula above, I believe the answer is, sometimes.

We can as an industry keep on kicking the can down the road however eventually and I believe it is coming industry wide, we will all struggle to find drivers. We all understand the median age of drivers, the younger generation I would say has virtually no desire to live in a box, make the same compensation as their counterparts but are home daily.

As as sales professional we can continue to focus on the ABC's of business (Always Be Closing) continue to prospect which is vital to any organization, however what is more paramount than any customer, is our drivers; without drivers we are doomed. Is our number one customer really our customer, as an industry we have failed the men and women who make everything possible. So I wouldn't worry about the ABC's of business, I would focus on ABR (Always Be Recruiting & Retaining) this has and will become the most important metric in trucking.

Stay safe

Hiring so many foreign drivers with minimal training doesn’t help trucker pay