Three federal agencies recently held a roundtable to discuss truck driver recruitment and retention.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg served as moderator for the conversation about best practices to improve driver retention and limit turnover. Turnover rates are more than 72 percent for small carriers and more than 90 percent for large long-haul carriers.
There is a lag time between employees leaving and the positions being filled, which causes driver shortages and supply chain disruptions.
Labor Secretary Marty Walsh spoke about the Department of Labor’s registered apprenticeship programs and how they can be a tool in driver retention by allowing drivers to enter the industry prepared for job challenges. The programs also allow participants to receive training on innovative technologies and not be burdened by debt from training.
Meera Joshi, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration deputy administrator, said the agency
will facilitate connections between stakeholders and DOL apprenticeship resources and also will help support the implementation of best practices.
Some state departments of motor vehicles are meeting or exceeding pre-pandemic commercial drivers license issuance rates, and this is helping to address the truck driver shortage. So far this year, an average of 50,000 commercial drivers licenses were issued monthly, a 14 percent increase from 2019’s monthly average and a 60 percent spike from 2020’s monthly average.