"The average age of commercial truck drivers is 55 and rising rapidly,” said Jon Gilbert of PLG Consulting. "The concern is that older, qualified truck drivers are retiring, and we are not getting adequate replacement drivers.”
- NBCnews.com
One company that seems to have found a solution, at least for itself, is UPS. Dan McMackin, public relations manager at UPS and a former truck driver himself, told NBC News that while the company does have to get creative during the Christmas season to bring in new workers, the company isn’t facing any general shortage of drivers.
“We have roughly 127,000 drivers , and about 20,000 of those are tractor/trailer,” McMackin said, adding that the majority of the drivers work in delivery. “About 12,000 or so are over the road, but most just go out in one day for around five hours and then return that distance. This makes it a very unique and attractive job offering because you don’t have to sleep in a truck cab or berth or eat at truck stops. We're one of the largest users of rail in America, so any ground shipments going beyond about two states away from origin go on the rails.”
Though UPS does recruit outside the company, most of its drivers come from the UPS pipeline and, like McMackin, have held other internal positions before they work up to being a driver, where the perks are cushy. “They get a better package than I do: full pension, full healthcare, and a 401(k) that the company matches.”
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From NBCnews.com