On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) and the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced several new initiatives to support truck drivers, improve driver retention, and expand access to quality driving jobs.
As part of President Joe Biden’s “Trucking Action Plan” announced in December, the USDOT and DOL announced they will expand the registered apprenticeship programs, create a Women of Trucking Advisory Board, create a task force on predatory truck leasing arrangements, begin studies into truck driver pay and unpaid detention time, launch the Safe Driver Apprenticeship Pilot and invest over $32 million to improve CDL licensing processes.
“In some parts of the trucking industry, 90% of drivers turn over each year. Making sure truck drivers are paid and treated fairly is the right thing to do, and it will help with both recruiting new drivers and keeping experienced drivers on the job,” said Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
In the summer of 2021, as the supply chain crisis grew, Buttigieg and Labor Secretary Marty Walsh wrote an op-ed that detailed the high turnover rates within the trucking industry and ways to address them.
“In the 30 days since the Administration’s Driving Good Jobs Initiative was launched, there is new energy and enthusiasm behind the effort to ensure jobs in the trucking industry are good, safe, and sustainable jobs attractive to new generation of truck drivers who will remain in the industry over the long term,” Walsh said. “Industry has to and is stepping up to partner, and in the last month, we are already working with more than 100 employers to expand Registered Apprenticeships for drivers, an important step to making this shift a reality.”