Supply Chain News: Biden Administration's Unprecedented Actions to Expand and Improve Trucking Jobs

April 4, 2022

The Biden Administration has announced major achievements to expand and improve trucking jobs. Trucking moves 72 percent of goods in America and is a lynchpin in our goods movement supply chain. Trucking costs grew more than 20 percent last year as a surge in demand for goods caused by the pandemic confronted a decline in trucking employment that preceded the pandemic. The low supply of drivers is driven by high turnover and low job quality. Turnover in trucking routinely averages 90 percent for some carriers and drivers spend about 40 percent of their workday waiting to load and unload goods –  hours that are typically unpaid. Many truckers are not directly employed and operate as independent small businesses, bearing the burden of leasing, gas, insurance, and maintenance costs themselves. These financial burdens cause many to leave the profession. Trucking also draws on an older, heavily male workforce—the median age is four years higher than the overall workforce and almost 90 percent of the industry is men—which adds to its recruiting challenges.

Resources:

Review the White House Fact Sheet on the Biden Administration’s Unprecedented Actions to Expand and Improve Trucking Jobs.