The Trucking Industry is Trying to Attract Unconventional Drivers
You’ve heard the news: the trucking industry is growing low on drivers. With life-long truckers nearing retiring age, the drivers in the field are starting to dwindle.
Not only that, young people aren’t stepping up to replace the jobs of the retirees. Even with huge bumps in salary offered to them, the long hours of driving just don’t seem attractive to young talent in the emerging workforce. And the overall need for truckers, with more and more goods getting produced, the demand is simply growing.
The need for truckers is critical. Without people stepping up to the job, not only will owner-operators, business owners, and drivers suffer, but the entire economy. That’s why the job is opening up to new kinds of drivers.
Attracting New Drivers to the Industry
The face of the trucking industry is changing, and inclusivity is growing. As of 2019, there is a need for about 60,000 drivers industry-wide. That number could climb up to 100,000 workers needed if the needs don’t get met.
Besides raising the pay, the industry is hoping to attract more women drivers. About 8 percent of the current drivers are female. With a number so low, it’s hoped that more women can be attracted to the job and close that critical shortage.
There is a reason that women have stayed out of this workforce for so long, through. One of them being: safety concerns. Long-haul truck driving often means living in your truck. That’s finding places to park a semi, like truck-stops and truck bathrooms. For a woman, this could be a potentially threatening situation.
Industry workers have been making improvements to lighting and the fencing around truck stops, and asking drivers to report any other conditions that they might feel are unsafe. It’s estimated that the amount of women working in the industry is about to take off in the future, and over the last dozen years, the number has already doubled.
In addition to making trucking safer, strides are being made to make training more of a simple task. Wilson Logistics uses driving simulators to train their employees, making the concept of trucking into a video game.
Technology is getting safer as well. Automatic transmissions, automatic braking systems, driver tracking, and lane changing cameras are among the updates that are meant not only to draw women but anyone who would not conventionally consider trucking as a career.
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