Driver shortage hits home: gasoline tankers searching for operators

There are fears the summer driving season could be curtailed by a looming driver shortage for gasoline tank car drivers.

Of course, word of driver shortages is nothing new for the overall trucking industry, which estimates it is approximately 50,000 drivers short of what carrier executives say they could use to fill trucks as the nation emerges from the post-coronavirus lockdown.

Last year, the government began a registry of drivers who have had issues with alcohol or drugs. As many as 60,000 former drivers are no longer available as a result. That is affecting all trucking companies.

According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administrations (FMCSA), this registry, a Congressionally mandated Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse, did not change the federal drug and alcohol testing regulations, or the required percentage of drivers tested. And before the establishment of the Clearinghouse, the identical number of drivers would still have been prohibited from operating – until they had successfully completed the statutorily required return-to-duty process overseen by a Substance Abuse Professional. The only difference now is the degree of difficulty for prohibited drivers to circumvent the system.

Retirements spurred by COVID are up and driver turnover—or “churn,” as it’s known in the industry—is a constant challenge. For large TL carriers the first quarter of this year, American Trucking Associations reported turnover of 94 percent, up 20 percentage points from the first quarter of 2017.

“Business is strong and solid now,” Greg Orr, president of CFI, a unit of Canada-based TFI International, parent of North America’s 17th-largest truckload operation with $756 million in revenue in 2020. “If I had more available capacity, we would definitely able to keep it filled.”

Naturally some would say there is no such thing as a “driver” shortage. More accurately, there is a “dollar” shortage for pay of experienced, safe drivers. Such drivers are easily fetching upwards of $60,000-to-$65,000 for hauling freight.

The industry is responding not only with annual pay raises and sign-on bonuses, but often two annual pay raises for drivers.

For example, Roehl Transport recently announced that it will give its drivers $4,000 to $6,000. The increase covers all its flatbed, van, curtainside and dedicated segments.

It’s the second pay bump in five months for the Marshfield, Wis.-based truckload carrier this year. The company gave annual pay increases of $2,000 to $3,000 for accident-free drivers in February.

But such pay hikes might not be enough to prevent Americans’ summer vacation plans from being disrupted due to the possibility of gasoline delivery shortages.

In 2020, about 123.49 billion gallons (or about 2.94 billion barrels) of gasoline were burned in the United States. That’s an average of about 337 million gallons per day (or about 8.03 million barrels per day).

By the way, this was the lowest level of annual consumption since 1997 and about 16% less than the record level of consumption of nearly 392 million gallons per day in 2018.

(As far as diesel goes, the Energy Information Agency says in 2019, distillate fuel (essentially diesel fuel) consumption by the U.S. transportation sector was about 47.2 billion gallons. That accounted for 15% of total U.S. petroleum consumption and, on an energy content basis, for about 23% of total energy consumption by the transportation sector.)

But unlike the twin oil shocks of the 1970s, petroleum is in abundant supply thanks to the domestic fracking revolution and ample foreign supplies from the likes of Saudi Arabia, Russia and other oil exporting countries.

What has become scarce are drivers needed to get fuel from refineries to service stations. According to one trade group, almost one-fourth of the country’s tanker trucks are idled because of scarcity of drivers.

And it’s not just drivers. The National Tank Truck Carriers, an industry trade group, said in a recent report that dispatchers, mechanics, inspectors and engineers are also in short supply for the sector.

But it’s drivers that concern tank carriers the most. That’s because driving an 11,000-gallon vehicle filled with highly volatile fuel – they’re often referred to as “rolling fireballs” when the rare, but spectacular, accidents occur – requires specialized skills.

Most tank carriers have to be certified in hauling hazardous materials. The tank sector says the answer is expanding the overall tank truck applicants, and improving safety throughout in the trucking industry.

Tank truckers are part of a movement that is backing the Drive Safe Act (H.R. 1374/S. 569), which allows 18-to-20 year-olds to engage in interstate commerce under a new graduated Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) program. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is allowing some under-21 drivers in a pilot program which permits 18-to-20 year-olds with military drivers to operate in interstate commerce.

Tank truck officials also complain of “antiquated” domiciliary regulations that require a driver that learned to drive a truck outside their home state to return home before taking the driving skills portion of their CDL exam. The industry says this is an obstacle to driver training schools educating prospective applicants outside of their domiciled state.

Carrier officials say by speeding up and easing the CDL licensing processes, individuals can join the trucking industry quickly while maintaining high safety standards. Expanding Labor Department-administered job education programs could provide more opportunities to work as drivers, tank inspectors and mechanics.

Exact figures are hard to come by but officials estimate as many as 30% of the nation’s tank truck drivers may have retired or left the industry since the economic slowdown caused by COVID in the spring of 2020.

NBC News recently reported spot shortages of gasoline in Florida, Arizona and Missouri due to a lack of tank truck drivers. The fear is this shortage could make it harder to find fuel, especially over the summer driving season.