ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - Bob Lingyak's job is a lot easier these
days.
As head of recruiting at trucking company Gypsum Express, for years Lingyak
had to take what he could get when it came to long-haul drivers amid a shortage
of workers qualified to handle the big rigs and willing to spend weeks on the
road.
But as the cost of diesel fuel soars and the economy slows, hundreds of
small to mid-sized trucking outfits are folding -- leaving legions of trained
drivers looking for work.
"It's turned around quite a bit," Lingyak said. "It used to be the drivers
who could pick and choose. Now we can pick and choose."
Trucking companies have long lamented what they say has been a chronic
shortage of long-haul -- or over-the-road -- drivers. A 2005 analysis by Global
Insight estimated that by 2014 the industry will fall about 111,000 drivers
short of the 1.7 million expected to be needed to keep the nation's long-haul
freight moving.
Analysts blame an aging driver work force and difficulty attracting people
to take on a job that requires them to be away from home for long stretches. The
core demographic group that provides more than half of big-rig drivers --
middle-aged white men -- also is shrinking, compounding the problem over the
long term.
But in the short term, the labor crunch appears to have eased.
Soaring diesel prices -- which nationally are averaging $4.69 a gallon
compared with $2.79 last year -- and increased price competition among trucking
companies are running thousands of the nation's 18-wheelers off the road.
These days it costs upward of $1,100 to fill up a big rig with a pair of
tanks that hold 250 gallons. That's up from about $700 last year.
Truckers have protested rising fuel prices at the U.S. Capitol and
elsewhere, urging Congress to end large oil company subsidies and release fuel
from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, among other things.
Although truckers can recoup much of the higher fuel costs through
surcharges that are adjusted as diesel prices rise and fall, sharply rising
prices can cause serious cash flow problems for some, said Donald Broughton,
transportation industry analyst at the investment firm Avondale Partners.
Carriers typically aren't paid for their deliveries until well after they're
made, leaving the trucking companies -- or individual owner-operators --
carrying hefty out-of-pocket expenses for six weeks or more, Broughton said.
During the first three months of this year, 935 trucking companies filed for
bankruptcy, according to Avondale Partners research. That's the highest failure
rate seen since the economic slump of the early 2000s, Broughton said.
Broughton estimates that more than 42,000 long-haul trucks -- roughly 2
percent of the nation's fleet of about 2 million -- were idled during the
quarter.
The large number of long-haul trucks that have been taken off the road is
only one part of what's making it easier for long-haul trucking companies to
find drivers. A softening economy with fewer jobs in construction and other
industries that truckers might work in also is helping, Broughton said.
"There's a segment of the blue-collar population that sees driving a truck
over the road as a last resort," he said.
For companies like Gypsum -- which operates 560 trucks from its base in
central New York and has terminals in seven states -- the suddenly deeper labor
pool has enabled managers to be more selective when it comes to hiring new
drivers and to more closely scrutinize those who are already on board.
"I'm not just looking for steering-wheel holders any more," Lingyak said.
Instead, the company is looking for seasoned drivers who understand the
mechanics of big trucks and can drive them in a fuel-efficient way.
"If we have one driver that makes six miles a gallon and another that makes
three, we're going to give it to the driver that makes six," he said.
Steve Wadhams -- co-owner of Wadhams Enterprises in Baldwinsville, N.Y. --
said his outfit had been running eight or nine drivers short in its 100-truck
long-haul fleet, but it cut 15 trucks from that division in April and ended up
letting some drivers go.
"We've had less pressure as far as driver recruiting goes," Wadhams said.
"The economy falling off has really made a lot more drivers available."
Though the current economic climate has helped narrow the gap, it hasn't
solved the driver shortage problem, said Rob Reich, vice president of driver
recruiting at Schneider National, a Green Bay, Wis.-based trucking company that
employs some 15,000 drivers.
Although it has been easier to hire drivers lately, the company's turnover
rate remains at around 60 percent, Reich said.
To keep their trucks rolling, Schneider and other large trucking companies
offer training programs for new drivers. Lately, though, Schneider has been
filling its seats with more drivers who already have a year or more experience
behind the wheel, Reich said.
"In the past 12 months, we've seen the number of experienced drivers hired
surge," he said. "It's gone from 40 or 50 a week to about triple that."
Kelly Anderson, a consultant who advises trucking companies on how to
attract drivers, said many have shifted their focus away from recruitment.
"There isn't what I'd call a driver glut, but right now a lot of the
carriers aren't having to look at recruiting real hard because many are reducing
the size of their fleets," he said.
Despite the recent rise in the number of available drivers, the trucking
industry is still facing a long-term challenge when it comes to keeping
qualified drivers behind the wheels of big rigs, said Bob Costello, chief
economist for the American Trucking Associations, an industry trade group whose
members include FedEx Corp., UPS Inc. and Con-way Inc.
There are always going to be ebbs and flows, but the underlying trends that
have caused the labor crunch in recent years are unchanged, he said.
"The demographics are still working against us, and when freight volumes
pick up (the problem) is going to come back with a vengeance," he said.
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