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The US trucking industry trade press often portrays the US labor market for truck drivers as not working, citing persistent driver shortages and high levels of firm-level turnover, and predicting significant resulting constraints on the supply of motor freight services. We investigate the truck driver labor market using three techniques. First, using data from the Occupational Employment Statistics of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, we delineate the structure of the driver workforce.Second, from the same source we find that the trucking labor market has displayed some characteristics of a "tight" labor market since 2003: rising nominal wages, stable/growing employment, and lower rates of unemployment than other blue-collar jobs. Third, using data from the Current Population Survey we describe the occupations and industries from which drivers come and to which drivers go, when they change occupations, and statistically analyze these entries and exits. We find relatively high rates of occupational attachment among drivers, and importantly, we also find that truck drivers respond in the expected manner to differences in earnings across occupations.Finally, we point out that the issues discussed by the industry are concentrated in one segment of the overall market, that for drivers in long distance truckload (TL) motor freight, which contains between one sixth and one fourth of all heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers. These findings suggest a more nuanced view of this labor market. The market as a whole appears to work as well as any other blue-collar labor market, and while the truck driver market tends to be "tight," there do not appear to be any special constraints preventing entry into (or exit from) the occupation. There is thus no reason to think that driver supply should fail to respond to price signals in the standard way, given sufficient time. The persistent issues localized in the TL segment are not visible in the aggregate data, and require a distinct analysis.
Long-haul trucks have been described as sweatshops on wheels. The typical long-haul trucker works the equivalent of two full-time jobs, often for little more than minimum wage. But it wasnÕt always this way. Trucking used to be one of the best working-class jobs in the United States.ÊÊ The Big RigÊexplains how this massive degradation in the quality of work has occurred, and how companies achieve a compliant and dedicated workforce despite it. Drawing on more than 100 in-depth interviews and years of extensive observation, including six months training and working as a long-haul trucker, Viscelli explains in detail how labor is recruited, trained, and used in the industry. He then shows how inexperienced workers are convinced to lease a truck and to work as independent contractors. He explains how deregulation and collective action by employers transformed truckingÕs labor markets--once dominated by the largest and most powerful union in US history--into an important example of the costs of contemporary labor markets for workers and the general public.
Media and industry reports maintain that the U.S. long-distance trucking market is experiencing a shortage of drivers, and that the shortage is expected to persist well into the future. At the same time, reports of supply-chain disruption throughout U.S. industry focus on a lack of transportation infrastructure, which generally means trucking in the U.S. Truck rates, or the per-mile rate charged for trucking services, rose substantially in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era, suggesting that the market was responding to market signals. However, the connection between labor shortages, rising truck rates, and an apparent lack of trucking services has yet to be established empirically. In this paper, we develop an empirical approach based on an equilibrium search-matching-and-bargaining framework in which we estimate the role of labor shortages in accelerating driver wages, and truck rates. We estimate the model by combining U.S. Bureau of Census Current Population Survey data on truck drivers, with USDA-NASS data on truck rates, to establish the linkage between trucker-supply and the demand for trucking services. We find that the COVID-19 pandemic was responsible for a rise in for-hire trucker wages of some 38%, and a rise in average truck rates of nearly 50%, and that the gap between trucker-job openings and successful matches explains a significant, but small, rise in truck rates. Our empirical findings point to a fundamental mismatch in the skills required in the trucking industry, and the workers attracted to trucking as a profession. If market incentives are unable to attract more drivers to the industry, more public-option trucking schools are likely part of a long-term solution.
Long hours, low wages, and unsafe workplaces characterized sweatshops a hundred years ago. These same conditions plague American trucking today. Sweatshops on Wheels: Winners and Losers in Trucking Deregulation exposes the dark side of government deregulation in America's interstate trucking industry. In the years since deregulation in 1980, median earnings have dropped 30% and most long-haul truckers earn less than half of pre-regulation wages. Work weeks average more than sixty hours. Today, America's long-haul truckers are working harder and earning less than at any time during the last four decades. Written by a former long-haul trucker who now teaches industrial relations at Wayne State University, Sweatshops on Wheels raises crucial questions about the legacy of trucking deregulation in America and casts provocative new light on the issue of government deregulation in general.