Recession ends truck driver shortage

For years we have been hearing about a severe shortage of qualified over the road truck drivers, contributing to widespread safety concerns.

Now the severe economic recession has cut into shipping volume, led to an ongoing consolidation of the trucking industry, and a glut of qualified drivers, as reported by Rick Rommell of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

This is just the latest “bad news / good news” story in the interesting times in which we live.

Ken Shigley is a trial attorney in Atlanta, Georgia who has been listed as a “Super Lawyer” (Atlanta Magazine), among the “Legal Elite” (Georgia Trend Magazine), and in the Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers (Martindale), and is a Certified Civil Trial Advocate of the National Board of Trial Advocacy,. He served as chair of the Southeastern Motor Carrier Litigation Institute, is on the National Advisory Board for the Association of Interstate Trucking Lawyers of America, and is a frequent speaker at continuing legal education programs for the Interstate Trucking Litigation Group of the American Association for Justice. Mr. Shigley has extensive experience representing parties in trucking and bus accidents, products liability, catastrophic personal injury, wrongful death, brain injury, spinal cord injury and burn injury cases. Currently he is Secretary of the 40,000 member State Bar of Georgia.

Joe White says:

February 15, 2009 at 9:57 am

True, driver turnover rates are at historical lows; however trucking industry analysts still stand by a Global Insight forecast that by 2014 our industry will suffer a severe driver shortage. Unfortunately, many trucking companies today have relaxed their driver retention focus due to the current healthy supply of qualified drivers. When the economy returns, these companies may sincerely regret those actions when their drivers, many currently on layoff, once again have the freedom to ‘shop’ their labor. There are corrective actions Truckers should take that include frequent communication with their drivers to maintain company loyalty – a sentiment critical to driver retention success.