'It’s more so in the truckload space, but it’s becoming a problem in LTL as well,” says Chuck Hammel, president of Pitt Ohio. 'As an industry, we need to start recruiting younger employees and train them as drivers. Each year we lose more and more drivers to retirement, and it’s difficult to replace those drivers, let alone grow our driver workforce. Today it seems that most companies replace those drivers by poaching them from other companies, and that’s not sustainable.”
In the TL sector, sign-on bonuses as high as $10,000 are being offered for drivers who last one year with a company. Even so, driver turnover in the TL sector rose 5 percentage points to 95% turnover in last year’s third quarter, according to Bob Costello, chief economist for the ATA.
Hawkins adds that YRC and other unionized LTL operators (UPS Freight and ABF Freight System) should theoretically be in the best positions to attract drivers. But a shortage of workers appears even despite a more favorable work-life balance, more predictable schedules and union protection.
Several other carriers have reported that they’ll offer pay increases or bonuses this year. Old Dominion recently allocated $500 to all 22,000 employees to be distributed this year, while many carriers are increasing driver and dock pay in an effort to retain employees in a tight labor market.
We’re still capable of attracting drivers from other modes as well due to the quality of life around LTL,” adds Hawkins. 'And our turnover is not near what you see in other segments.”
https://www.logisticsmgmt.com/artic...and_less_than_truckload_ltl_companies_in_2017
