Indiana hit by trucker shortage

About 25 semitrailer trucks sit empty at Bestway Express.

The Vincennes hauling business has struggled for years to find qualified drivers to operate its fleet. Eli McCormick, Bestway Express’ chief operating officer and co-owner, said it always has been tough to find drivers, but things are hitting a breaking point.

“Every year it seems to be getting worse and worse,” he said. “We’re at the tip of the iceberg at this thing. Not only are drivers our most important asset, but they’re the ones that get the work done out there.”

Across the country, the trucking industry faces a 40,000-person shortage, according to the American Trucking Associations. That number is expected to escalate as truckers age out of the workforce, creating supply chain issues across the country.

The average trucker is 49 years old compared to the average U.S. worker, who is 42 years old.

The shortage is especially pronounced in Indiana, where trucks transport about 80 percent of total manufactured tonnage in the state, according to the Indiana Trucking Association. Additionally, 80 percent of Indiana communities depend exclusively on trucks to transport goods.

Indiana also is increasingly affected by the shortage because it is the top manufacturing employer in the United States. Almost 17 percent of the state’s workforce is employed by manufacturers. More than 30 percent of the state’s gross domestic product is manufacturing, again placing Indiana ahead of all other states, making trucking a vital backbone of the state’s economy.

“If fleets don’t have drivers, they don’t have trucks on the roads running,” said Amy Boerger, vice president of sales at Cummins Inc., who has been working on solutions to the trucker shortage. “It affects our capacity in the industry.”

Cummins produces high-horsepower engines for semitrailer trucks and other large-scale vehicles.

One in 14 jobs in Indiana is related to the trucking industry, and in 2013, trucking accounted for 180,640 jobs in the state.

Workers are aging out of the trucking industry and there simply isn’t a pool of younger people to replace them, said Kevin Burch, first vice chairman of American Trucking Associations and president of Dayton, Ohio-based trucking business Jet Express Inc.

Part of the blame, though, rests with the trucking industry, he said. It hasn’t done a good job of educating people about careers in trucking.

“We haven’t done a bad job of getting people into our industry; we’ve done a pathetically poor job of telling people about careers in the trucking industry,” he said. “Now we’re paying the price.”

Although there’s not a magic bullet to solve the trucking shortage, Cummins, trucking trade groups and business owners have implemented a myriad of solutions to combat the shortfall.

McCormick said he started a small trucking school at Bestway Express to help recruit new drivers. The initiative has been somewhat successful, he said.

“The difficult part is differentiating yourself from your competitors,” McCormick said.  “We are having some success at it. We’re hoping that this will present some opportunities we didn’t have before.”

Celadon Group Inc., Indiana's largest trucking organization, also opened a trucking school in 2013 to combat the shortage. The company also is paying higher salaries to attract workers, among other initiatives.

"One thing that sets us apart from other firms is that we run one of the youngest fleets around," spokesman Joe Weigel said. "Our drivers get the newest equipment with all the latest comfort features."

Burch said hammering the idea that people can earn a decent living driving a truck is something everyone in the industry needs to practice. People won’t be attracted to the industry if they don’t know anything about it, he added.

“It’s one of the great opportunities because a lot of us have cubical jobs and no window. There’s a reward of being your own captain behind the wheel,” Burch said.

Total trucking industry wages paid in Indiana exceeded $7.8 billion in 2013. The average annual trucking industry salary was $43,400 that year.

And, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, truck drivers earned an average annual salary of $36,705 throughout the country in 2013.

Some truckers earn more than $55,000 a year. Pay largely depends on experience and the product a driver transports.

Burch said people also can own their rig and operate a small trucking company, giving them more freedom over their schedules and supply runs.

“It’s a great entrepreneurial opportunity,” he said. “You can work for a company and be a company driver with benefits or you can be an entrepreneur and own your own truck. Independent owners may buy two or three trucks and drive one of them.

“Those opportunities, a lot of times, are not available in other occupations.”

Trucks are getting easier to drive and becoming more high-tech, said Boerger, who works at Cummins. Some semis have automatic transmissions and are equipped with automatic braking technology to help improve the driver experience, she said.

Cummins has been vigilant in promoting trucking because it not only affects the company’s supply chain, it also ties into its product sales, Boerger said.

“It’s important to the economy, our company and the industry,” she said. “There are a lot of good jobs out there and we know there are people out there who need quality jobs to support themselves and their families.”

Trucking also has become increasingly family-friendly. The industry has changed route schedules to allow drivers to be home every day in time for dinner. Loads can be relayed from driver to driver instead of having one driver gone for weeks at a time, Burch said.

“Years ago, some drivers might be off on the road two to three weeks at a time,” he said. “A lot of times now, trucking companies are finding they need relays or need to get drivers back home. It’s a change that’s been occurring over the past few years.”

Burch said the need for truck drivers is expected to grow to about 1 million people within the next decade, and it’s vital that more people begin to enter the profession.

“One-sixth of Americans are somehow involved in trucking,” he said. “As people need things quicker, there is even more of a need for tractor-trailer drivers.”

Call IndyStar reporter Kris Turner at (317) 444-6047. Follow him on Twitter: @krisnturner.