ATRI Seeks Carrier Input on Hiring Across Demographics
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Researchers at the are calling on motor carriers to participate in a driver demographic survey that for the first time includes an examination of carrier hiring practices for drivers with prior criminal convictions.
“As the trucking industry tackles truck driver workforce challenges, ATRI’s prioritized this study to explore underrepresented hiring pathways, including individuals with criminal histories,” ATRI said in a statement. “This survey examines motor carrier hiring practices, decision-making factors and workforce reintegration strategies, with optional follow-up research interviews for further insights.”
“What we’re trying to do is create a road map for how truck drivers are changing and evolving over time by every demographic you can think of, from trip links to gender, to age, where they’re migrating within the industry, over the road, LTL to local courier service,” said Dan Murray, ATRI’s senior vice president. “So it’s a massive demographic study. And it has a couple little sidebars to it.”
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Researchers already have collected information on one of the sidebars, taking a look at the prospects of the foster care population, he noted.
“Thousands of people age out of foster care at 18, and essentially have no training, no background, no income, no job,” Murray said. “So we’re working with the foster care industry to see if that’s a potential population for addressing the truck driver shortage.
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“Another one is looking at the formerly incarcerated population. Some people call it ‘justice involved.’ The question is are there groups within the formerly incarcerated that would both be amenable and willing to become a truck driver, but also is the motor carrier industry willing to hire them?”
Of course, it’s likely that if a potential driver spent time in jail for theft or some other serious crime, the industry would certainly not want to hire them into a position where cargo is vulnerable, Murray said.
ATRI already has begun checking with motor carrier focus groups on who would be willing to hire formerly incarcerated people, and some have said, “We just won’t do that,” Murray noted. However, he added that ATRI’s preliminary research has identified about a dozen carriers willing to hire drivers with criminal records.
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Murray said truck drivers’ average age of about 50, combined with an accelerating wave of baby boomer retirements, is creating particular challenges for the trucking industry, which has one of the nation’s oldest workforces.
“As the industry continues to seek out solutions to its various workforce challenges, there is a new emphasis on the possibilities of hiring truck drivers with criminal histories,” said Robyn Smith, director of driver relations for May Trucking Co. and a member of ATRI’s Research Advisory Committee. “However, there is limited data on how to successfully integrate these individuals into motor carrier operations. ATRI’s research will provide valuable insight to help the industry balance safety, compliance and workforce development.”
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May ranks No. 98 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest for-hire carriers in North America.
“We’re looking into three different avenues,” said Abbigail Huffman, an ATRI research analyst and co-author of the study. These include examining driver population trends over the past 10 to 20 years, analyzing the characteristics of modern truck drivers, and exploring potential pathways for those involved in the justice system and foster care.
Researchers are hoping to complete the study sometime in April, Huffman said.
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