How America’s trucking industry became a hellscape
Key Takeaways:
- Senior trucking executives are only recently discovering an exponential influx of minimally trained foreign drivers and motor carriers, many operating with “non-domiciled CDLs” and little oversight.
- This trend was inadvertently fueled by industry lobbying (ATA) to lower entry barriers, which, combined with regulatory loopholes and technological changes, empowered freight brokers and the least-compliant segment of the market.
- The consequences include legitimate carriers struggling economically, a rise in industrial-scale cargo theft orchestrated by foreign actors, and a significant increase in fatal truck crashes due to untrained, overworked, and inexperienced drivers.
Over the past few months, I’ve spoken with hundreds of senior executives at America’s largest trucking companies. Nearly all say they only recently discovered the massive influx of foreign drivers and motor carriers. Most assumed the trend was gradual; none realized it was exponential.
Few had ever heard the term “non-domiciled CDL” until this summer or understood how many drivers with little or no real training have flooded the industry. They failed to understand that despite their own investments in upgraded training and compliance efforts in recent years, that the smallest operators had been handed a massive gift: the ability to “train” their own truck drivers, with little to no oversight from Federal regulators.
Diana Stinson, President of Texas Global Services. Hello and again, thank you for reading my blog. So this a slightly disturbing Freightwaves article about the condition of the trucking industry. Trucking has always been a place a shipment could diverted, lost, late. On top of that, we have the roller coaster ride where trucking revenue was turned off, on and back off again. The industry has changed for the worse, needless to say. Many trucking companies closed in 2020 and then the boom hit and there were foreign investors bringing even more competition. Non-domiciled CDL’s and the Entry Level Driver Training Rule Change. Inexperienced drivers getting CDL’s from CDL mills and these people are not ready. So now there’s inexperienced companies with inexperienced drivers that were trained by an inexperienced trainer at their workplace. All of this has led to a driver shortage. Truckers going out of business again, less profis, less revenue, foreign competition in American trucking industry is not helping.
The “Great Freight Recession”, has hit in the form of less profit, less volume and lower rates. The spot rates are lower than the amount of legally maintaining your truck indicating a shippers market. Now shippers are not scheduling a truck and going after these cheaper spot rates. Also, you have to deal with freight theft which has become a real problem. Let’s say you ship with an online forwarder that is computer driven. The trucker delivering your freight or the “last mile” logistics have been stealing loads. People are using GPS jammers and impersonating others to get your loads. All of this is stemming from trucking companies not getting paid properly? This is an important part of my industry. I use quality vendors that I have relationships with. I do this to ensure safe and timely arrival of your freight. It is my honor and privilege to deliver.
Diana Stinson on Trucking in America
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