Once Implemented, CSA Performance Will Determine Drivers Earning Capacity
The trucking industry has experienced the dwindling of quality driver applicants in the past 10 months. And recruiters across the country are the first ones to feel the scarcity of good applicants.
We can blame it on the economic downturn which debuted in late 2006 - among other things - and resulted in the reduction of business activities that dislocated quite a sum of truck drivers.
Waning demand forced a lot of trucking companies to file "Chapter 11." Unfortunately, for those surviving hauling companies, downsizing became the rule rather than the exception.
While the economic turmoil placed both mediocre and high-quality drivers into the same hiring pool, downsizing was executed with extreme precision. Least-productive drivers were the casualties of the economic crisis and high-productivity drivers retained their jobs, adding questionable-quality drivers to the hiring pool.
Over the years since 2006, the hiring pool was filled with high-quality drivers - who lost their jobs - to the brim. Trucking companies were favored of being able to replenish departing drivers with high-quality substitutes. Now, this pool of high-quality drivers has been sucked dry.
One should also take note that due to the economic crisis-motivated slash in driver salary and the decreasing rate of driver turnover, which is at its all-time low at a little more than forty percent (40%). Drivers have been searching, first and foremost, for security and are hesitant to another carrier they are not familiar with, as a result.
The factors presented have left the trucking industry at point where the accessible driver pool is dominated mainly by mediocre aspirants. This has caused trucking companies across the nation having a hard time getting highly qualified drivers to bolster their capacity or event to have substitute drivers.
The question that haunts the industry right now is..."Is there a chance for good-quality drivers to become more available?" An obvious answer to that is a very disappointing, "It's not very likely." A dangerous concoction of low churn and dwindling driver pay mixed with improving freight demand and the implementation of the Comprehensive Safety Analysis 2010 replacing the FMCSAs SafeStat program will definitely have a negative effect on the balance of driver supply and demand.
There are various views with regard to the effect of the CSA 2010 once it is fully implemented on the drivers' supply. A lot of the people in the industry firmly believe that CSA will have a negative effect on the driver supply, and will cause it to decrease more.
So, to what these may result to? If the industry passes the tipping point, the industry's incapacity to employ qualified drivers will begin to pressure freight rates to shoot up considerably.
Another natural outcome between the tag team of the supply-and-demand imbala nce and of the implementation of the new government regulations, augmented by somewhat long driver build cycle (the period it takes to entice considerable amount of new aspirants to professional driver echelon and to train and utilize them), is distinctly ascending driver compensation.
Raising driver wages seems to be the step the trucking industry is taking to attract high quality drivers.
As a result of the new CSA regulations, it is very likely to influence major changes in the basis that dictates a drivers mileage or percentage pay rate.
Before the CSA years, the most significant metric in knowing incoming driver pay has been current verifiable Class 8 experience. It is very likely that a drivers CSA score, when it is implemented will evolve into a major metric in actuating a drivers market value.
It is very likely that once the CSA is implemented, shippers and insurance underwriters will rate carriers as sum of their drivers total CSA scores. Of course, haulers with attractive scores will have an edge over fleets with low drivers CSA scores.
For sure, experience and longevity will no longer be the basis in determining drivers pay scale. Drivers CSA performance will become a crucial metric in a drivers earning capacity. On the other hand, driver incentives for fuel management, on-time delivery, and other activities that affect customer satisfaction and profits will definitely stay.
