Trucking industry needs to attract 1 million new drivers

Oct 26, 2021 at 08:55 AM CST
The decades-old truck driver shortage, now estimated at 80,000, is bad and getting worse because of the nationwide service worker shortage, early retirements, the global pandemic and other acute economic factors. That is up from 61,000 just three years ago, in 2018. If things are bad now, inaction on the part of shippers, carriers and others will make it worse. A new study concludes the trucking industry will have to recruit nearly 1 million new drivers by 2030 to replace retiring drivers and those who leave the industry voluntarily or otherwise.

Oct 26, 2021 at 08:55 AM CST

The decades-old truck driver shortage, now estimated at 80,000, is bad and getting worse because of the nationwide service worker shortage, early retirements, the global pandemic and other acute economic factors. That is up from 61,000 just three years ago, in 2018. If things are bad now, inaction on the part of shippers, carriers and others will make it worse. A new study concludes the trucking industry will have to recruit nearly 1 million new drivers by 2030 to replace retiring drivers and those who leave the industry voluntarily or otherwise.