America doesn't have enough truck drivers; the is job lonely, stressful and dangerous, so few of them stick with it

Truck drivers roll through swaths of lonely countryside.
(Photo by George Etheredge, The New York Times)

In his song "All I Do Is Drive," Johnny Cash sums up a lot of why there's a shortage of truck drivers: "All I do is drive, drive, drive/Try to stay alive/And keep my mind on my load/Keep my eye upon the road."

"In a world contending with the unrelenting impact of the Great Supply Chain Disruption, a shortage of truck drivers is frequently cited as an explanation for shortages of many other things — from construction supplies to electronics to clothing," reports Peter S. Goodman of The New York Times. "Last year, trucking companies in the United States suffered a record deficit of 80,000 drivers, according to the American Trucking Association, a trade association. Given that trucks move 72 percent of American freight, a lack of drivers spells substantial disruption."

To investigate truck driver life, Goodman joined seasoned truck driver Stephan Graves for three days riding shotgun, from Kansas City, Mo., to Fort Worth, Texas and back. Graves told Goodman, “The lifestyle probably is the first thing that smacks people in the face. You know what it does to you. You’re thinking about it all the time. We’re tired. Our bodies are starting to go. Our bladders have been put to the test. And no exercise. We end up with all types of heart and other health ailments. You can’t truly fathom what it’s done to you.” Goodman writes, "He is prone to rhapsodizing about the open road. But he does not struggle to explain why his industry is perpetually bemoaning a shortage of drivers. . . . It is a job full of stress, physical deprivation and loneliness."

Are there not enough workers, or is it something else? "Some experts counter that the very notion of too few drivers is bogus," Goodman reports. "The average trucking company has a turnover rate of roughly 95 percent. . . . As the trucking association itself noted, more than 10 million Americans held commercial driver’s licenses in 2019. That was nearly triple the 3.7 million trucks that required a driver holding that certification."

Steve Viscelli, a University of Pennsylvania labor expert who once worked as a truck driver, told Goodman, “There is no shortage of truck drivers. These are just really bad jobs. . . . Until the 1980s, truck driving was a lucrative pursuit in which one union — the Teamsters — wielded enough power to ensure favorable working conditions, Mr. Viscelli recounts in his book The Big Rig. But the Carter administration deregulated the industry in the name of fostering competition, clearing the way for an influx of new trucking companies that diminished pay and increased demands on truckers."

Goodman writes, "Graves is satisfied with his employer. . . . He earns what he describes as 'a comfortable living.' . . . He and his fellow drivers are now enjoying the upper hand. Trucking fleets are handing out across-the-board raises to retain drivers while offering $10,000 cash bonuses in a frantic effort to court new hires. . . . Still, a three-day run in Graves’s vehicle — from Kansas City, Mo., to Fort Worth and back — reveals the inherent pressures of a relentlessly stressful job. . . . Here is a life spent navigating the hazards of piloting a truck weighing 26,000 pounds and pulling a 53-foot trailer, while balancing the need to ingest caffeine against the imperative to limit bathroom breaks. . . . The hours pass, the towns recede, while the gnawing loneliness of the road is constant." 

As an over-the-road driver, "Graves typically does not make it home by nightfall. He drives roughly 9,000 miles a month, spending two and three weeks on the road at a time, before returning home to his condo in Kingsport, Tenn. . . This is Day 10 of a 19-day trip that has taken him from Texarkana, Ark., to Texarkana, Texas, with three separate runs through Chicago, a stop in Indianapolis and a drop in Spartanburg, S.C., before bringing him to Kansas City. . . . Mostly, he rolls through vast stretches of emptiness, the flat, largely treeless plains punctuated by distant herds of cattle. . . .One of the primary reasons young people tend not to stick as truck drivers, Graves explains, is the challenge of maintaining ties to the rest of the world."