Better Roads Could Help Fleets Keep Drivers by Improving Productivity, ATA’s Costello Says
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Federal officials should focus more on efforts to reduce traffic congestion along the country’s main roadways, a move that would help retain drivers across the trucking industry, American Trucking Associations Chief Economist Bob Costello said.
“Let’s fix the roads and bridges so they [drivers] aren’t sitting in traffic, because so many of them want to leave because they’re sick of that,” Costello told the audience here at the Recruitment and Retention Conference on Feb. 11. The event was co-hosted by Conversion Interactive Agency and Transport Topics.
Congestion along main freight corridors is unappealing for truckers who often find themselves stuck in massive traffic jams for many hours, and several drivers opt to leave the industry as a result. Therefore, repairing and expanding the nation’s main highways would have a direct effect on driver retention, Costello added.
He also indicated during his keynote address that because “there is no one reason for the driver shortage, there’s no one solution to the driver shortage.”
ATA, in a 2015 report, estimated the shortage of drivers industrywide to be 48,000, and the shortage is projected to increase to 175,000 in eight years.
Another report by the American Transportation Research Institute, also from 2015, noted that one way to tackle roadway congestion is by establishing a new funding system that focuses federal resources on alleviating truck bottlenecks.
A five-year, $305 billion highway bill signed into law in December aims to boost programs designed to improve freight connectivity nationwide. Still, critics of the law are urging transportation leaders on Capitol Hill to reach a long-term funding solution that provides more funding for transportation projects.
