Press Release

For Immediate Release

Truckers association pushes back against driver shortage claims amid supply chain challenges

OOIDA responds with flow chart and white paper

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, which represents professional and small-business truckers, issued a response to the constant claims of a truck driver shortage as the U.S. struggles to resolve supply chain issues.

“We have been hearing this myth for decades,” said Todd Spencer, president of OOIDA. “The real problem is high turnover and retention. Compensation has been falling for years and the conditions have not improved. Trucking needs to figure out how to keep drivers instead of burning them out.”

The OOIDA Foundation, which carries out transportation research from the unique perspective of truckers, issued a flow chart, The Typical Day for an Owner-Operator and a white paper, OOIDA Foundation Statement on Flaws in Driver Shortage Narrative.

The flow chart explains how the issues affecting the supply chain today are not due to a lack of drivers, but because of excessive detention time and other inefficiencies.

The white paper takes aim at the notion of a chronic and persistent driver shortage supposedly impacting the trucking industry. Its careful review of the facts concludes that trucking is instead plagued by retention issues and, at times, an unattractive working environment due to long hours and inadequate compensation.

The Association applauded a recent Substack headline for saying what truckers have also said for years. Alana Semuels, a Time magazine correspondent, said Stop saying there’s a trucker shortage, it just makes everything worse for truck drivers, and that claiming there’s a truck driver shortage is kind of like saying “there’s a shortage of tributes volunteering for the Hunger Games.”

The Typical Day for an Owner-Operator: https://www.ooida.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/The-Typical-Day-for-an-Owner-Operator.pdf

OOIDA Foundation Statement on Flaws in the Driver Shortage Narrative: https://www.ooida.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/OOIDA-Foundation-Statement-on-Flaws-in-Driver-Shortage-Narrative.pdf

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