Trucking and transportation are two of the most vital and necessary industries in the country. Businesses and consumers rely on truckers every day to ship products and food. Even with this level of importance, many issues are still affecting the trucking industry.
What are the biggest challenges?
Over the last couple of years, the trucking industry has been growing and seeing healthy profits. Recently though, there has been a turn for the worse. Many companies have had to shut down or scale back their operations. These are the four most challenging problems affecting the trucking industry:
- Driver scarcity: This challenge has been a critical issue for truckers over the last couple of years. Companies are having a hard time finding certified drivers recently.
- High turnover rate: The turnover rate has steadily decreased since 2017, but this problem is still affecting trucking companies across the country.
- Subpar road quality: Poor road quality affects drivers and companies in many ways. Adverse road conditions damage trucks more often and force truckers to drive slower. Furthermore, there is added pressure on the employee to maintain safety when driving on a low-quality highway.
- Trucker pay rates: In 2019, truckers voiced their opinion and concern about their pay rates. Generally, companies increase salary based on the inflation rate. Many drivers have stated their pay has not followed this same pattern.
Companies will likely address these problems in the coming years. Our economy relies on the trucking industry to transport goods across the country and larger-scale issues could arise if these problems are not resolved.
