OTTAWA — More than a third of individuals who’ve obtained their class 1/A licence don’t ever migrate to the trucking industry as drivers.

That’s one of the more startling discoveries in the Canadian Trucking Human Resources Council’s (CTHRC) follow-up study on Canada’s worsening driver shortage.

The newly released report — Canada’s Driving Force Phase 2 — is a response to concerns about the perceived driver shortages raised since part one of CTHRC’s study in 2002. Six separate reports in the study cover profiles of: employers hiring of class 1/A licence holders; people taking class 1/A driving tests; inactive class 1/A holders; occupational patterns of drivers; and unseated trucks.

Information obtained from the test participant survey suggests that at the time of completing their Class 1/A test, the majority (80.5%) of participants wanted to work in the trucking industry as either a driver (68.7%) or in another occupation in the sector (11.8%). However, only 64 percent of respondents, less than two thirds, find their way into truck cabs as commercial drivers; and another 10 percent might leave the industry after a year.

There is, therefore, a “considerable loss of potential drivers between licensing and employment in the industry,” according to CTHRC.

60 percent of employers indicated that the driver shortage
was one of their top two concerns. A 10% hike from 2002.

Ultimately, however, CTHRC believes it could be less than half of test participants that might find “suitable” employment in the industry due to lack of proper training or lifestyle requirements of the job.

In the eyes of employers, the existing supply of available drivers were often not “qualified” to step in and do the job because of insufficient training, experience or the driver’s inability to meet Canada-U.S. regulatory requirements.

This suggests that many carriers are only interested in road-ready drivers. However, while employers acknowledge that there are sufficient numbers of individuals who possess the necessary driving licence, a significant proportion — 30.2 percent — provided either no training themselves (17.1%) or limited training (13.1%).

When training was provided, explains CTHRC, it tended to be more “passive,” such as general orientation to the company, rather than intensive types of tutoring such as mentoring of new drivers and-or internships.

“The shortage of qualified drivers is not a ‘supply side’ issue, but rather a training/qualification issue,” notes the study.

Still, despite the lack of training leadership from many carriers, 60 percent of employers indicated that driver shortages were one of the top two concerns for their organization — a 10 percent increase over the 2002 study.

The estimated turnover rate for the period covered in the survey was about 22 percent, with a higher rate for firms with more long-haul drivers (24.7%). Industry “leave rates” (terminations, quits and/or retirements) are currently outpacing new hire rates, according to the report. Specifically, the new hire rate of 17.6 percent would not be sufficient to replace all the job vacancies (24.5 percent) resulting from drivers exiting the industry.

In order to solve the shortage dilemma, there is no “magic bullet,” states CTHRC. “The trucking sector is not a homogenous sector; therefore, a ‘one size fits all’ strategy may not be sufficient to address the diverse human resource requirements of the industry.”

— Look for more on the CTHRC study in our upcoming October issue. For an in-depth two-part feature on how demographics are quickly affecting recruitment and retention, be sure to pick up our August and September print issues of Today’s Trucking.