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Hours
truckers can spend behind wheel creating severe shortage
Changes
in how many hours truckers can spend behind the wheel are creating a
severe shortage of drivers, speakers at the South Carolina International
Trade Conference said Tuesday.
"Our
pool of drivers is dwindling," warned Philip L. Byrd, president and chief
executive of Bulldog Hiway Express. "The nation is experiencing a
tremendous shortage of drivers."
The new
hours of service rules, which took effect in January, are supposed to make
highways safer by limiting drivers to a maximum of 14 working hours in a
24-hour period. Curtis Thomas, an official with the South Carolina
division of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, said the
rules should prevent 75 fatalities and 1,300 accidents a year.
Carriers face a minimum penalty of $550 per violation per day, with a
maximum fine of $5,500, he said.
Chuck
Odom, vice president of logistics sales for Averitt Express said the rules
have cut productivity by 20 percent for long-haul truckers. Motor carriers
nationwide will have to hire 180,000 additional drivers to bolster the 2
million now on the road, he said.
Concerns over terrorism have led to more thorough background checks that
have also reduced the pool of prospective drivers. Carriers already had to
verify that applicants had three years of prior employment experience
before they could be hired.
Meanwhile, the growing U.S. economy has created a demand for drivers at a
time when young jobseekers are less enamored of the long-haul trucker's
life, with its long hours away from home.
Boyd
cited those reasons as well as low wages for the shrinking driver pool.
Odom
said the scarcity of drivers has left some trucking customers hundreds of
shipments behind schedule, and carriers unable to add enough trucks to
meet demand. Averitt wants to double its fleet over the next 36 months, he
said, but it will be extremely difficult to find drivers.
Ron
Reighter, former traffic manager for Wellman Industries, said the
hours-of-service rules offer some benefits to shippers because of the need
for both them and the carriers to become more efficient. But shippers will
have to request drivers two to three days in advance, and face higher
charges for waiting time and multiple stops.
He
predicted that shippers will direct more traffic to intermodal services in
order to reduce their reliance on motor carriers.
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