Pop quiz.
Whose said this about the need to retain truckers in their jobs?
"Truck drivers, like doctors and nurses, are essential workers and we need to start treating them that way."
A. Teamsters President James P. Hoffa
B. Martin "Rubber Duck" Penwald in the 1978 movie, "Convoy".
C. Every trucker ever.
D. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg and Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh
If you chose "D" it's obvious you've been reading CNN Business and/or our sister publication Overdrive. Buttigieg and Walsh wrote that in June as part of an opinion piece, which went on to say:
"For truck drivers, who face long, stressful, and often underpaid hours away from home, for the hundreds of millions of people who rely on the goods delivered by truck every day, and for the safety of everyone who shares the road with truck drivers, we need to finally start addressing this issue.
"To do so, we need to understand the root of the problem. The core reason for America’s truck driver capacity issue is the startlingly low retention of current drivers.
"Among large truck companies, driver turnover rates for long haul drivers are over 90%. For smaller ones, it’s not much better, 72%. In the long haul sector, drivers are regularly leaving companies or leaving the industry altogether."
How truckers are treated and paid were also topics of conversation when a new driver subcommittee of the FMCSA's Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee met recently.
In his coverage of the Buttigieg/Walsh op/ed and the meeting of the trucker subcommittee, Overdrive's Editor Todd Dills wrote about another topic that has drawn an increasing amount of attention: overtime pay for truckers. Dills spoke with members of the drive subcommittee about their thoughts on a variety of topics that might help keep drivers driving.
