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Problems faced by Trucking Industry
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Problems faced by Trucking
Industry
The thought of crisis in trucking industry shudder our
souls as these crises will lead to great economic and
commercial loss. We are not saying that this will
happen, but if the present situation prevails the day
is not far when no one would like to take up trucking
as their profession. Though at present over eighty
per cent of all communities in the US rely solely on
trucking industry to deliver all of their fuel, medicine,
clothing and other consumer goods but the number of
problems faced by trucking and distribution
companies is growing at a rapid pace. Here, we have
listed some of the major problems faced by the
trucking companies as well as the truck drivers.
What are the problems faced by Trucking
Industry?
Today, trucking companies are facing many hardships
like high cost of fuel, highway congestion, trucking
security, insurance costs, the lack of truck drivers,
etc.
The skyrocketing diesel fuel price are pushing
trucking industry, which many consider the backbone
of the American economy, right up to the breaking
point, a gallon of diesel which was once for $.89 has
risen to an average price of over $3.50 per gallon.
This outrageous price hike has lead the trucking
companies and freight industries to face decline
in the profit margin. The profit margin which once
used to be around 25 percent has now been cut to
around 5 percent.
Historically, fuel represented the second-highest
operating expense for freight trucking but now soaring
fuel costs are surpassing labor as the largest expense
at some trucking companies.
The soaring fuel cost is not the only problem faced
by the trucking transport companies it is also the
unavailability of truck drivers. The trucking companies
across the country are facing a shortage of long-haul
drivers. The growing demand for long-haul drivers has
made the shortage more acute. High driver turnover
has also been a problem throughout the trucking
industry. The problem is that new blood is not coming
into the trucking companies and today's economy
demands more trucks to haul more freight. Moreover,
driving long-haul is considerably a difficult job which
all truck drivers understand and also know that taking
up this job would result in no regular sleeping hours.
Even highway congestion is another factor counting
for the hard times faced by trucking and distribution
industry. Highway congestion is a result of the misuse
of federal highway funds which disables the states
abilities to build new highways, as once said by
Bill Graves, president of the American Trucking
Associations. Since twentieth century the highway
traffic has doubled and sadly highway capacity has
increased only 3 percent, resulting to traffic-choked
highways.
Conclusion
Just pointing towards the problems will not lead to any
solution but sorting an answer for the problems can be
helpful. Trucks haul 70 percent of all freight tonnage
and rise in fuel cost has the potential to increase the
cost of everything transported by truck, including
food, retail and manufactured goods. Thus,
government needs to help in bringing down the fuel
price and construct more highways as increase
in the transportation of freight is likely expected in
coming years. It becomes the duty of the trucking
companies to give more attractive offers to the truck
drivers like high-tech trucks, predictable schedules,
better security and insurance, to attract more truck
drivers into trucking and distribution industry. If there
will be persistent shortage of truck drivers then the
goods will start piling up at the ports and will not
be delivered on scheduled time, which is presently
faced by some trucking companies.
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