Trucking labor

Seasonality was behind the large increases in courier and delivery employment and a drop in trucking employment last month; beneath the surface, there’s tooth-and-nail competition for labor.

The fast-spreading variant of COVID-19 likely won’t affect trucking as much as warehousing and aviation, but its indirect impact will put more pressure on already high trucking costs.

A White House plan to encourage more trucking companies to recruit drivers via apprenticeships isn’t a short-term fix but may help long-haul carriers find drivers for the long term.

The for-hire trucking industry lost jobs in November, as it typically does, but fewer than anticipated as couriers and warehouses grabbed the most new employees amid strong pre-holiday demand.

A spot market gold rush is enlarging a hiring gap between large and small trucking companies, posing challenges for larger carriers seeking drivers and for shippers moving large volumes of freight.

Teamsters rank-and-file members have elected critics of outgoing General President James P. Hoffa to lead the union in a more militant direction.

Bigger than expected gains in warehousing and trucking in October are welcome amid ongoing reports of labor shortages.

The Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccination and testing mandate for large employers will affect truck capacity and pricing, but questions about the extent of its impact remain.

A truck driver survey underscores the threat of potential service disruptions from an upcoming US vaccine mandate for large employers, with 36 percent of drivers showing no interest in vaccination.

The for-hire trucking industry lost 1,600 jobs last month, but the Labor Department expected a bigger drop, as transit, warehousing and courier employment surged.

A stronger than expected round of hiring in August brought transportation and warehousing payrolls back to pre-pandemic levels, but new employees aren’t distributed evenly.

An ‘unprecedented’ number of new motor carriers is hitting US roads, but they represent a shift in capacity, not an expansion, according to experts.

The US for-hire trucking sector saw its best one-month gain in hiring in seven years during June and total employment in the sector has moved past pre-pandemic levels.

The US for-hire trucking industry has added 25,100 jobs over the past three months, but the US economy appears to be expanding faster than trucking recruiters can hire workers.

Transportation and warehousing firms losing employees may be competing more often with contractor-based gig economy businesses; trucking, however, is expanding its payroll.

Despite a sharp overall drop in the number of truck driver speeding violations last year, excessive speeding remains a problem, FMCSA violations data show.

Alabama-based truckload carrier AMX is raising driver pay, but wants to do so in a way that will allow the carrier to maintain increased wages when demand – and rates – recede.

US trucking companies reversed a three-month decline in jobs in March, but they haven’t escaped the employment crater created by the COVID-19 pandemic and recession.

Truck driver pay is improving, and that may be keeping more drivers behind the wheel, rather than jumping from job to job.

The rise of e-commerce is leading to growing competition for long-haul truck drivers from local and short-haul businesses, according to a study from Coyote Logistics and Emsi.

The transportation and warehousing sector lost fewer jobs than anticipated in February, but trucking companies saw deeper than expected job losses in a storm-wracked month.

Freight broker Tucker Company said COVID-19 pushed truck drivers to make the switch to larger carriers, but the rise in spot trucking rates is likely to swing them back to smaller fleets.

The loss of 84,300 trucking and warehousing jobs in January -- actual numbers before seasonal adjustment -- makes prospects for tighter capacity and higher rates for US shippers in the months ahead more certain.

Motor carriers must do more than raise driver pay to counteract the current shortfall, including driving greater efficiency in their networks and at shipper facilities to allow existing truckers to make more trips in a given day.

Trucking’s peak season extended well into December, blunting a seasonal decline in actual trucking employment numbers and boosting seasonally adjusted job gains, according to data released Friday.

The number of truck drivers at carriers with up to 100 trucks fell by more than 150,000 from July to October, tightening already scarce capacity, according to an analysis of Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) data.

Long-haul trucking faces fiercer competition for truck drivers in the future and a shrinking pool of qualified driver candidates, ATA’s chief economist told the 2020 Transplace Shipper Symposium.

A substantial increase in heavy truck orders in September begs the question: Who will drive those trucks? Trucking employment is improving, but still down 4.7 percent year over year.

US for-hire trucking companies are rehiring truck drivers at a rate slower than the acceleration of freight demand, contributing to rising pressure on truck rates and US shippers.

A proposed Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration pilot project would let truck drivers stop the hours of service clock for up to three hours and then resume driving, giving them more control over their schedules, but a longer day.

The US trucking sector added back a small portion of the jobs lost during March and April as businesses reopened, a sign that shipper demand for trucking services may be on the road to recovering from the COVID-19 recession.

The recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has erased years of trucking employment gains, bringing payroll headcounts below 2006 levels, US data shows.

Truck demand and spot rates are rising as consumers stockpile goods amid the spread of the coronavirus, but truckers worry about potential loss of work due to quarantines.

The fate of two high-profile challenges to California’s worker classification bill known as AB5 boil down to an argument the trucking industry has used in the past — federal preemption of state and local attempts to regulate interstate commerce.

The electronic logging device (ELD) eventually will help shippers find trucks more quickly, help trucking companies better manage drivers, and help drivers better manage hours. But more integration of ELD data with other systems and more development are needed to deliver bigger benefits.

With the number of truck drivers in the United States expected to continue rising steadily, motor carriers in the coming years will be focused on to getting the most out of existing drivers' miles and ensuring drivers earn enough money to keep them behind the wheel.

New legislation will take effect in California Jan. 1 that would make it much more difficult for truck drivers to retain independent contractor status, but owner operators are stuck in limbo pending a court decision on a legal challenge to the new rules.

The latest data from the American Trucking Associations shows large truckload carriers cutting drivers and smaller fleets ramping up hiring.

The number of violations issued to drivers for exceeding hours of service limits has dropped significantly since the ELD mandate took effect, but false log violations rose last year.

Regulators are accepting comments on a petition to exempt small carriers from the ELD mandate, as the final compliance deadline for truck drivers and carriers approaches.