TORONTO — Is the qualified driver shortage good or bad for the industry? It’s a question carriers have begun asking themselves and each other with no clear consensus, says Ontario Trucking Association President David Bradley.

In fact, he says there’s a “tug of war” within the truck carrier community in terms of competition, pricing strategies, and growth plans based on those who see the driver shortage as a good thing and those who see it as a major problem and want to improve the quality of truck drivers.

Is the driver shortage a good thing for business? Bradley
says those who say so refuse to adapt to change.

Some carriers privately express that the driver shortage is keeping capacity tight and therefore freight rates strong. Others insist that’s short-term thinking, and successful carriers are going to need to secure and retain quality drivers if they want to continue doing business in the future.

“There is a change in culture underway in the industry,” Bradley said at the Canadian Recruiting & Retention Conference in Toronto. “Over the last few years we saw signs of that change emerging — a renewed focus on returns on investment, pricing that includes the cost of compliance, paying drivers for all their time, the use of new technologies to improve enforcement, etc.

As transportation costs increase, there will be pressure on shippers to shop the market, continued Bradley, who remains bullish on trucking.

“That is only natural. This has led to increased price competition in some markets, but soft prices are not sustainable. The economy is expected to continue to grow, albeit perhaps more modestly; the driver shortage is only going to get worse and will absorb any excess capacity that emerges; trucking will continue to dominate the freight market; and the level of sophistication needed to run a trucking company will keep some players out of the market.

“The issue, as it always is, will be pricing discipline,” he added “No one said changing the culture would be easy — there will be bumps along the way — but I do believe the industry has turned a corner and the direction of change is irreversible.”

“The biggest tug of war going on in the industry is between those who want a new business paradigm for the future and those who either don’t want to change; can’t change, or think that nothing will ever change.”