Every day in America, hundreds of thousands of tons of goods fail to be delivered due to a labor shortage in the trucking industry.
But how much money is lost due to understaffing in the trucking freight industry? To answer that, experts at altLINE researched know how many truckers are missing from the workforce at any given moment, then understanding and analyzing the job market across America and then estimating the economic losses.
“We scraped the largest job listing aggregate on the web and found 7,213 truck driver jobs being advertised each day, suggesting a potential continuous deficit of 24,043 truckers. Multiply this by the reported $3,971 revenue per week for every truck that is not being manned, and we arrive at the true cost to the freight industry – $95.5 million every single week,” says experts at altLINE.
Key takeaways:
- When only tractor trucks are considered – the heaviest weight class of trucks – the vehicles already outnumber professional truckers by more than 3:1. Add in the roughly 10.5 million other heavy trucks, and the amount of vehicular hardware going unused in the United States starts to hit home. Straight trucks generate slightly less revenue per week compared to their heavier counterparts, but the sheer number of them going unused adds $39.9 billion to the tractor trucks’ potential $7.3 billion, giving a total potential loss of almost $50 billion every week.
- On average, Missouri had the most available trucker jobs being advertised, with an average of 202 jobs listed on online job boards each day. Following the “70% of jobs aren’t posted online” rule, this suggests that Missouri alone has 673 trucking jobs waiting to be filled at any given moment. However, it is Wyoming that has the highest demand for truckers relative to its population – there is an empty trucking position available for every 1,031 residents of the state. Texas, known for its massive interstate import/export volume, is fifth on the table for the sheer number of empty seats, but once compared to the state’s large population, it has one of the lowest demands for truckers per person in the country.
- Outside of D.C., Ohio sees the most turnover, with around two-thirds of its truck driving jobs being filled and replaced each day, leading to an average recruitment time of just 3.6 days. The other state topping our charts is Nebraska, which has the lowest average recruitment time of just 2.5 days. However, its turnover is 47%, which, while well above average, suggests several older, stagnant openings in the region are not being filled. Indiana sees the least active job economy for truckers by both metrics. With a daily turnover of only 21% and an average recruitment time of almost 2 weeks, it is here that employers are most struggling to find staff.
“The trucking shortage isn’t an isolated labor issue; it’s a national economic challenge. Billions in potential revenue are being lost in just the freight industry, and the consequences for businesses and consumers further down the chain are immeasurable but undeniably significant. Some parts of the country are struggling more than others to find drivers, but the impact can and will affect local businesses wherever you are,” says altLINE.
