Our weekly driver recruiting report keeps you informed of all of the latest driver recruiting data. Searches, clicks, rates … it’s all here. In addition to updated data, in each episode, we also cover a new trucking/recruiting-related story. This week’s story – The BLS reports that there are fewer drivers in June of 2021 than there were at the beginning of the pandemic. Is there a massive shortage of drivers, or is there more to the story than the initial numbers indicate?
Check back with us on our blog or YouTube page every Wednesday morning at 10 am CT for the newest report.
How do you like your Weekly Report?
We provide the Weekly Report in numerous formats every week. Which one is right for you? Watch the latest reports on our Recruiting Resources or YouTube pages, use our Numbers at a Glance section for quick visual references, download the Weekly Report PDF (available below), read the transcript, or listen to the audio version of the July 21, 2021, Weekly Report below.
Numbers At A Glance – July 21, 2021
[one_half]
Truck Driver Searches |
| WoW: Δ Up 26% |
|---|
| MoM: Δ Up 12% |
| YoY: Δ Up 10% |
Load Volume |
| WoW: ∇ Down 6% |
|---|
Volume by Segment |
| WoW: Dry Van ∇ Down 13% |
|---|
| WoW: Refrigerated ∇ Down 18% |
| WoW: Flatbed Δ Up 4% |
Spot Rates |
| WoW: ∇ Down 2¢ per mile |
|---|
[/one_half]
[one_half_last]
Clicks On Truck Driver Postings |
| WoW: Δ Up 1% |
|---|
| MoM: Δ Up 1% |
| YoY: Δ Up 15% |
Truck Postings |
| WoW:Δ Up .3% |
|---|
Rates by Segment |
| WoW: Dry Van ∇ Down 1¢ per mile |
| WoW: Refrigerated ∇ Down 5¢ per mile |
| WoW: Flatbed ∇ Down 11¢ per mile |
[/one_half_last]
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July 21, 2021, Driver Recruiting Insights
Would you like to have your own copy of the trucking industry data? All of the information covered in this week’s report for July 21, 2021, is available for your convenience in PDF form below.
Click the image to download the July 21, 2021, Driver Recruiting Insights PDF.
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Weekly Report – July 21, 2021 Transcript
It’s Wednesday, July 21st, 2021 – and it’s time for the Weekly Report. For Randall-Reilly I’m Joshua Miller. Let’s dive right in.
THIS WEEK IN JOB BOARD SEARCHES AND CLICKS
Searches and clicks were up across the board. Truck driver searches were up 26% WoW, 12% MoM, and 10% YoY. For clicks on truck driver postings we saw increases of 1% WoW, 1% MoM, and 15% YoY.
Though we did see a pretty sizable increase in searches last week, the clicks only increased slightly. The difference between these two led to a decrease in click-through rate. Clicks increased for experienced company drivers and teams, while they decreased on postings for owner-operators and inexperienced/trainee positions.
THIS WEEK IN FREIGHT
Load postings in the truckstop.com system fell by 6% WoW. This is somewhat surprising as posting volume usually increases after a holiday. As it was, we saw decreases of 13% WoW for Dry van and 18% for refrigerated, while flatbed saw a slight increase of 4% WoW.
Truck availability on the spot market increased ever so slightly by .3% WoW, as the overall ratio of loads to trucks declined to its lowest point since week 6.
Spot rates dropped by 2¢ per mile WoW. This now makes the fifth time in seven weeks the rates have declined. Dry van was down 1¢, refrigerated fell by 5¢, and flatbed decreased by 11¢ WoW.
STORY OF THE WEEK
The Bureau of Labor Statistics is reporting that there were 38,300 fewer drivers employed in June of 2021 than there were at the beginning of the pandemic. So … not great if you’re looking for drivers, right? Well … maybe. There’s a little bit more to the story than that number alone would indicate.
You see, the BLS payroll data only looks at drivers employed by a company. It could be that those 38,000 drivers didn’t actually leave the driver pool at all. They just became owner-operators. If that’s the case, the pool of drivers would be largely the same. However, because the BLS is only measuring company data and not self-employed drivers (owner-ops) it would give the appearance of a driver shortage. So, do the numbers back this up?
Well, from 2018 to 2020, there were only four months that saw more than 4,000 new for-hire trucking companies launch. Yet, here in 2021, there hasn’t been a single month with less than 6,000 launches. June alone saw 10,000 new companies starting up, with most of those new carriers being very small.
If even a small portion of former employee drivers became owner-operators, that shift would offset the implied employed driver shortage. This means that trucking companies in need of company drivers are not only battling other fleets … they’re fighting to convince company drivers to STAY company drivers, rather than making the jump and becoming an owner-operator.
And that does it for this week’s report. Don’t forget to check out the latest episode of Digging Deeper that I mentioned last week. It’s now up on our blog and YouTube page, so when you have a moment give it a watch and go ahead and sign up to be notified when registrations open for our Season 2 webinar premiere.
That’s all I have for you today. Thanks for joining us. Come on back and see us next Wednesday morning for all the latest data and a new story of the week. Until then, have a great week everybody.
