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For some time now, the American Trucking Associations have been saying it is worried about a growing shortage of long-haul drivers. The ATA says, if this trend keeps up, the industry will need an additional 111,000 drivers by 2014. Many seasoned drivers are now approaching retirement age.

In May 2005, the Association said that, in addition to the new drivers, companies have to find replacements. TheAutoChannel.com reported:

Another 219,000 must be found to replace drivers 55 and older who will retire in the next decade, putting total expansion and replacement hiring needs at 539,000 or an average of 54,000 new drivers per year for the next decade.

Scores of drivers exited the long-haul trucking industry after average weekly earnings fell 9 percent below average construction earnings in the 2000 recession. Driver wages have since failed to regain pre-2000 levels when they averaged 6 percent to 7 percent higher than construction wages. Long-haul drivers also cited extended periods away from home and unpredictable schedules as reasons for transitioning to other occupations.

At the same time, the industry also is challenged with finding qualified drivers. Many trucking companies reject a high percentage of driver applicants because they lack qualifications. Those challenges escalated in recent years as the industry tightened its security and safety measures.

Now trucking companies are getting more aggressive in their recruiting and retention efforts. 

The New York Times reports:

With predictions from the [American Trucking Association] that the current shortage of 20,000 drivers will grow nearly fivefold within a decade, trucking companies are offering generous 401(k), stock-option and health-care packages to new recruits and cash bonuses and prizes to drivers who refer viable candidates.

In hope of stealing drivers from competitors, companies have begun outfitting more of their cabs with satellite radio and television and introducing policies to allow drivers to bring pets and spouses on the road.

Allied Holdings, a trucking company based in Decatur, Ga., employs chaplains to check on the morale of its drivers. Schneider National, based in Green Bay, Wis., holds "driver recognition days" every few months at regional repair shops, featuring Elvis impersonators, free barbecue and raffles for motorcycles and iPods. The trucking association has also begun pressuring large truck stops to add Internet portals.

"Hands down, this is the most serious crisis the industry has faced," said Duff Swain, president of the Trincon Group, a transportation consulting firm in Columbus, Ohio. "Close to 10 percent of major fleets have their trucks sitting up against the fence because they're short on drivers."

Since more than three-quarters of all goods in the United States are shipped by truck, it is only a matter of time, Mr. Swain said, before the shortage causes delays in products hitting the shelves and leads to consumer price increases because of rising transportation costs.

Despite the 7.4 million Americans out of work as of last December, and the recent round of layoffs in manufacturing industries, trucking has struggled to find workers in part because the lifestyle is so grueling.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported last fall that a local community college has a waiting list for applicants who want to enter its commercial-truck driving course.

FleetOwner.com says trucking companies are stepping up recruitment among Hispanics and the "team driving" sectors. Team driving usually consists of married couples who travel together.

The Auto Channel story  said (about last year's forecast):

"The driver market is the tightest it has been in 20 years," ATA President and CEO Bill Graves said. "It's a major limitation to the amount of freight that motor carriers can haul. It's critical that we find ways to tap a new labor pool, increase wages and recruit new people into the industry that keeps our national economy moving."

Of the 3.4 million truck drivers on the road, 1.3 million are long-haul truckers, the driver segment most severely impacted by the shortage. Although the current driver shortage is set at 20,000 drivers, it seems larger to the industry because of a high degree of driver "churning," or moving from carrier to carrier. Large truckload carriers reported an average annual turnover of 121 percent last year.  

(See a detailed PDF of the 2005 ATA study here.)

The Home Church Movement

Underlying the megachurch movement is a less-noticed one, Time magazine reports this week. While the megachurches give members a big congregational experience, a movement toward home church meetings is growing.

Some now wonder if these home churches might undercut the "mother" churches. 

Here are some resources to help you as you report this story:

• The "Homechurch Homepage" -- a guide for people who want to begin conducting services in their own homes
• The House Church Network -- an online community, with resources, ideas and a newsletter, of people who have moved church to their homes
• Religioustolerance.org's Christianity: Home Churches page
• Home Church Meetup page -- a search page for home churches in your coverage area

Contemporary Art Market is Hot

Newsweek says:

To say that the contemporary-art market is "hot" is to say that computer users sometimes click on Google. A lot of people have made an awful lot of money in business in the past decade, and they're looking for something cool -- and cultural -- to do with it.