Good drivers leaving in droves; new HOS hurting safety, carriers say

(EDITOR’S NOTE: This is Part 2 of the CCJ coverage from the “All About the Driver” panel discussion Oct. 22 at the American Trucking Associations Management Conference and Exhibition in Orlando. Part 1, featuring a debate on hourly pay for drivers, is here. Part 3, on driver recruiting and retention, is here.)

Recent changes in the hours-of-service rule have delivered yet another regulatory blow to the trucking industry’s overall operating efficiency and its ability to retain qualified drivers, a panel of fleet executives concluded this week. And, most critically, the changes could have a negative impact on truck safety.

“It absolutely will negatively impact our driver wages and productivity at a time when we can least afford it,” said Derek Leathers, president and COO of Werner Enterprises. “It absolutely limits driver flexibility at a time when we can least afford to make the job more restrictive.”

Leathers was responding to a recent survey in which 44 percent of carriers said the July changes to HOS have hurt the ability of fleets to find and keep good drivers. The discussion was part of a driver-focused session Tuesday at the annual American Trucking Associations Management Conference and Exhibition in Orlando.

And while the panelists each said that, three months in, the hard data was still being developed, all had anecdotal examples and intuitive expectations.

At Werner, as Leathers explained, the number of drivers in the 60-67 age group had held steady for “a long, long time,” as a few would retire and about an equal number would move up.

In the 90 days leading up to the hours-of-service change, that number fell by half.