CTA launches new Web site dedicated to driver shortage issue

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OTTAWA, Ont. — The Canadian Trucking Alliance’s Blue Ribbon Task Force on the Driver Shortage (BRTF) has launched a new Web site offering information, education and research related to the shortage of qualified truck drivers.

Drivershortage.ca was unveiled at the CTA Spring Board Meeting in Scottsdale, Ariz. BRTF officials say the new site builds on the group’s goal to provide leadership in promoting the issue to industry and supply chain stakeholders, government officials and the general public.

“Drivershortage.ca is the only online, one-stop shop for everything related to the driver shortage situation affecting Canada and the US,” says Mark Seymour, president of Kriska Transportation and chair of the BRTF. “It’s a multifaceted media repository of daily news, studies, videos, facts and statistics that reflect both the systemic and ancillary underpinnings of the driver shortage – from supply and demand to demographics, to pay issues and driver lifestyle. It presents from many different angles the challenges of maintaining the industry’s unmatched standard of service.”
 
Featured prominently on the Web site are two flagship reports on the truck driver shortage – a report authored by the BTRF, which established a series of “core values” and guidelines designed to help alleviate the shortage and make the industry more attractive to potential new drivers; and the Conference Board of Canada’s comprehensive study quantifying the economic magnitude of the emerging gap between the supply and demand for professional drivers.
 
The site posts original news and aggregates print and video content from media sources on a variety of related topics that play into the capacity question, including: freight economy conditions; turnover, rates and compensation trends; demographics and immigration; recruitment and retention strategies; regulations; and driver training and education. Topical facts and figures, as well as additional studies and reports from a variety of academic and industry resources, are also available on site.
 
“There is no single bullet that will fix the driver shortage and, ultimately, market forces will decide what happens,” says CTA president David Bradley. “However, like the good work done on the BRTF report, Drivershortage.ca provides leadership and helps industry and its partners map out a coherent, cohesive direction on how to go about resolving these issues.”
 
Above all, adds Seymour, the tone of the Web site echoes the BTRF’s declaration that truck drivers are unequivocally the backbone of the industry. “They are our number one resource. Without them there is no industry,” he says. “Hopefully efforts like Drivershortage.ca will bring this dialogue out into open and help close the usual communication gaps that sometimes exist between drivers, carriers and our customers.”

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  • Driver shortage– what a bunch of BS — if drivers would get a fair pay there would be plenty of people willing to drive. you get what you pay for ..

  • Why would the CTA hold their meeting in Arizona? No convention space in Canada? Or do they think they are politicians; waste money faster than it comes in? As for the driver shortage and attracting new people to the industry? Use some of the money you just wasted to RAISE WAGES, provide BENEFITS and allow more HOME TIME! You will then have plenty of young prospects.When I started driving I was making .16/mile. FORTY years later I am getting .40/mile! How many of these trucking executives have had pay increases that LOW? NONE!

  • Considering the recent reports in Truck News regarding the Insurance Companies’ restrictions that prevent new drivers from getting employed by small Trucking companies (i.e. Requiring a minimum of 2 years experience), I have to wonder how the driver shortage will ever end!! Not every guy or gal that desires to get their Commercial Driver’s licence wants to go out on the road for 2 years of long haul working for a large carrier when their intention is to work for a smaller carrier that stays in their corner of the country. Maybe the companies who are short of drivers should rattle the cages of their insurance companies to relax their rules a bit so they can put some local drivers in the seats of their trucks! I’m just sayin!…..

  • Many new truck drivers are not willing to work for low wages for 2 years before getting a job with carrier that pays them fair and treats them better the insurance industry needs to limit insurance premiums to 10 cents per mile for truck drivers even if the government has to take over truck insurance. Many small trucking companies less than 15 trucks and owner-ops would willing to train and hire new truck drivers except the insurance companies will not let them. The CTA needs to set up a plan to make trucking companies of all sizes can hire and insure new drivers. The CTA also needs to set up load matching service that all these surplus loads that they do (not have drivers for are put on and the load board will charge a max of 10% ) before any member can bring more than 2 drivers per year. The CTA and the OTA needs to set up a office that has 3 phone lines and truck parking investigate concerns customers not paying waiting time or fairly or on time. At this time to many OTA members in Ontario have bid too low counting a large supply of cheap overseas drivers. They knew that with E-logs and speed limiters truck drivers and small trucking companies in Canada would get out truck and I was told 6 years ago and 5 years ago that that these small trucking companies should close if they could not afford to upgrade their trucks when the speed limiters came in.