President Biden on Monday will present a series of steps to address the truck driver shortage, including a plan to boost the industry’s ranks with women and veterans.
The moves are part of several initiatives launched by the Biden administration over the past year to strengthen the U.S. supply chain, which has been disrupted in part by the lack of truckers on the road.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is expected to join Mr. Biden at the White House for the trucking announcement.
The Biden administration has already implemented several initiatives to address the trucking shortage, but supply chain snarls still remain. Truckers move 72% of the goods in America, the White House said.
In December, the Transportation and Labor departments announced plans to expand trucking jobs by expanding apprenticeship programs, reducing delays in issuing commercial driver’s licenses and increasing access to trucking jobs for women and veterans.
Women account for about 8% of truck drivers, according to the American Trucking Associations.
The White House said those initiatives are helping. Since January 2021, states have issued 876,000 commercial licenses and trucking employment now exceeds pre-pandemic levels by 35,000 jobs, according to a White House fact sheet.
Still, the trucking industry is facing a shortage of 80,000 drivers, and retention still remains a large issue. The average turnover rate of long-haul drivers was 96% in the third quarter of last year, the American Trucking Associations said. The turnover rate for smaller carriers was 73%.
The median pay for truckers, who spend nights away from home and often sleep in their cabs, is $47,130, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That is still higher than the median salary for all occupations, however.
Long-haul truck drivers are typically paid on a per-mile basis rather than hours worked and are exempt from receiving overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act. That means drivers earn their pay only when they are delivering cargo, not while they are waiting for a truck to be loaded or unloaded.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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