In a conference call hosted by Stifel Capital Markets with reporters and others Friday, Feb. 13, American Transportation Research Institute President Rebecca Brewster outlined the shifting age demographics among drivers industrywide. The trucking industry, as illustrated by the following chart, when compared with other prominent industries contains a disproportionately older workforce, with well more than half of drivers above the age of 45.
ATRI’s recent demographics report, available here, was aimed in part at documenting to what extent, if any, this may have been “how we’ve always been operating,” Brewster said. Is trucking truly witnessing a “demographic shift” long-term, in which “our percentage of employees in the 25-34 group have decreased significantly over time”?
Turns out, as has been confirmed by many an anecdote from recent history, the shift is real. The chart below compares driver age demographics utilizing census data at 10- and 20-year lookbacks.
Brewster described a sort of “greatest generation” among drivers operating today, those who started their careers “more than 20 years ago and have stuck with it.” Those drivers, she adds, will retire within the next 10 or slightly more years, and unless more is done to attract those of the younger generations, the current systemic issues many carriers are having with recruiting will not abate.
“We conclude that the shift to older employees is a more recent trend” than previously thought, she said — “post-2003, and it might be related to the Great Recession, when a lot of people left and simply didn’t return,” seeking out careers in other industries.
