An aging workforce, tougher regulations, and waning interest among younger workers are causing a nationwide shortage of truck drivers that is impacting local companies.
Despite a need for hundreds of thousands of drivers over the next decade, local companies said they are having a tough time attracting replacements for a rapidly aging workforce.
The need for more drivers is expected to become more significant in the near future, with freight revenues expected to rise as much as 70 percent over the next decade and a current shortage of about 35,000 drivers, according to a 2015 report by HireRight, a national employment services firm.
“It’s not any one part of the industry, it’s the whole trucking industry,” said Tom Hicswa, Commercial Driver’s License Director for Clark State Community College. “It’s a huge problem because if we don’t get people to drive and if the motorcarriers don’t figure out a way to attract people, you’re looking at grocery store shelves and a lot of places will be empty because nobody will be able to deliver it.”