Demand for more Drivers!

A state of logistics report put out by the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals on June 9, 2010 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. had some good news for the unemployed this week: "the U.S. trucking industry will need to hire about 200,000 truck drivers by the end of 2010, and will need to add another 200,000 drivers by the end of next year." *
Thanks to a recent upswing in the economy in the past few months, there has been a reduction in the number of applicants and a smaller work-force pool to choose from, which has led to the demand for more drivers. Wilson's report, "The Great Freight Recession" said: "the economy is showing stronger signs of recovery as we move into the second half of 2010." Wilson also pointed out that following a recession, growth in the freight industry goes up by about 10 percent.*
As of now, the demand for truckers is there and will continue to be for the next one to two years -- at least until these 400,000 positions are filled with the economy driving the demand. "How much of a driver shortage we have will depend on how much the economy picks up," Wilson says*
Perkins is seeing these same indications as our customers across the country continue to have increased volumes weekly. We entered our “busy season” about 60 days earlier than in previous years. This supports all the reports that we see about our industry and we project a very busy summer for our drivers!

*Information obtained from article posted on aol.com by Gwen Parks