Truckers awash in applications

As businesses continue to cut jobs in the recession, trucking companies say they are being flooded with applications from displaced workers.

In the past the trucking industry has had an insatiable desire for recruits, but officials said, in these tight economic times, they are having to turn away interested drivers.

Officials with U.S. Xpress said they have scaled back advertising and suspended its inexperienced driver program.

“It is a very, very unusual time,” said Russ Moore, vice president of recruiting at Chattanooga-based trucking company U.S. Xpress Enterprises. “The calls and the activity is up but the need is down.”

At U.S. Xpress said applications are up 38 percent from the same time last year, and at Covenant Transport applications are up 10 percent from last year, officials said. Officials at both companies said they would not provide the total number of applicants.

Along with attracting more interest, trucking companies have also improved their retention, said John Arthur Daniel, a spokesman for Covenant Transport.

Mr. Daniel said driver retention has improved 20 percent from last year at Covenant, and Mr. Moore said retention at U.S. Xpress gone up by between 30 and 50 percent.

Improved retention has left fewer jobs open for drivers fresh out of trucking school, said Mr. Daniel.

Historically truck drivers tended to jump from company to company looking for sign-on bonuses. That trend has ended since nearly 3,000 trucking companies went out of business last year and many drivers are happy to just have a job, said Mr. Moore.

“People have really hunkered down,” he said. “A lot of people are finding that the grass isn’t greener on the other side of the fence.”

At the same time, Mr. Moore said trucking companies are cutting drivers and miles because of the economic climate.

“People are laying off good drivers,” he said.

Although right now companies can’t hire the hordes of graduates from trucking schools, Mr. Daniel said, when the recession lifts the need for drivers will return.

“This is a short-term blip on the radar,” said Mr. Daniel. “The economy contracting is not going to last. The economy will turn around and when it does the overall trend is that there are not enough drivers coming into the industry.”

More than 300,000 drivers will reach retirement in the next 10 years, and, with so many companies cutting drivers, many people have left the industry, said Mr. Moore.

“It is a good time to get into trucking — it just may take you a while to find a company,” he said.