An Industry In Crisis

There's a crisis in this industry - there aren't enough workers, and it's going to get worse before it gets better. The industry itself has a bad reputation - outsiders hardly have any respect for it at all.

As a result, young people aren't entering it the way they should be. Parents and guidance counsellors, at best, don't encourage kids to consider this industry. At worst, they actively DIScourage them from considering it. Schools are seeing their enrollments decline - in some cases as much 75% from previous levels. Enrollment problems today mean hiring problems tomorrow, and many companies are taking notice. They're doing small things to minimize the problem - like keeping older workers around longer - but it's only a temporary solution. Everyone knows there's a big problem coming soon unless something major is done.

The story above is the kind of horror story we hear about all the time - a looming driver shortage, not enough being done about, people running scared. However, this particular horror story isn't about the trucking industry at all. The story above is actually about the IT industry, and the current work shortage there. It came from a larger article that Fortune magazine published a few months ago, and the problem is getting to be fairly severe for the IT and high-tech industries.

There are lots of other industries facing challenges similar to what we deal with in trucking. They've had differing levels of success in tackling these challenges, but there are lots of creative and interesting ideas out there.

What are we doing here?
I'm going to use this blog to explore some of those ideas and see how we can 'borrow' them for the trucking industry. We're also going to look more broadly at the challenge of maintaining and improving driver quality, both through the recruiting and ramp-up processes, and through ongoing driver management activities. And since a blog is no fun without discussion, I encourage you to post your comments and feedback on the various postings - let's get a good discussion going here and see what we can do with it!

What are THEY doing?
As for the IT industry, they're doing a lot of things that will sound familiar - career fairs, public awareness campaigns, general "brand building" for the industry as a whole. In trucking we're already doing some of those things, but we could certainly do more to build the industry's brand. We'll look at some ways to do that over the next little while as well.