With America’s freight trucking market severely impacted by a shortage of drivers, the future does not look to be improving with the upcoming ELD (Electronic Logging Device) mandate coming into effect December 12th of this year. The industry today is already seeing an estimated shortage of 50,000 drivers, a number which may swell to as high as 174,000 by 2026 if the trend continues (joc.com). Although industry leaders are pushing truckers and freight companies to accept the regulations and move on, many are not. Fred Fakkema, VP of compliance for Zonar Systems believes as many as 16% of current truckers will walk away from trucking as the new mandate comes online (trucks.com).
The trucking issues across the U.S. are set to affect multiple industries and supply chains downstream, as moving raw materials, energy sources and product becomes increasingly more expensive and difficult to book. The chemical industry is set to particularly be impacted, as moving raw materials often seasonally competes with oil and gas freight lines. A shortage of truck drivers and lines available, especially on a short notice further pushes the issue.
While often difficult to plan ahead as last-minute and emergency loads come up, the ideal lead time to secure lanes and fair rates is a minimum of one week, with two weeks an ideal advanced notice to book trucks on your required lanes.
In order to effectively move materials and product with the way the industry is, The Chemical Company works hard to develop lasting relationships with our freight and carrier companies to ensure Security of Supply, assuring your supply chain moves uninterrupted through all market conditions.
