Shortage of Drivers Impacts Industry

BY STEVE BJERKLIE

cott Qualls remembers when he got bit “by the benefits are difficult for us to compete with,” says Hardwick. bug,” as he calls it. Forty-five years ago in Gorham, Qualls points out that many smaller trucking companies N.H., he used to walk with his mother to her job at worry that if they put in the time and expense to train a young S the old Lamppost restaurant, and from there to driver, a bigger company will lure the driver away with a better kindergarten at the local elementary school. On those walks compensation package. “It’s all about dead presidents at the he’d watch big roll by, one after another, most end of the day,” he says, referring to folding money. of them on their way up to the Brown & Co. paper mill in Berlin, Moreover, the opioid crisis in New England has removed N.H. “Back in those days, the trucks didn’t have heaters in the whole swaths of young people from consideration as drivers, cabs, no CD players, no air-conditioning, they had four-speed since anyone with a drug conviction cannot qualify for a CDL. transmissions. You had to be a real truck man to drive those Insurance is another issue. Drivers with any kind of infraction – a trucks,” he remembers. “They were men. And I wanted to be speeding ticket, for example – are difficult if not impossible to just like them.” insure. But stories like Scott’s are becoming rare in the logging industry. Add to that the specialized nature of driving wood trucks. A shortage of log truck drivers, part of a general nationwide “What do you need to be a driver for us? You need to be a very shortage of truck drivers, is putting pressure on logging and good driver, for starters, you need to be organized and capable companies to move wood to mills and markets. According of completing paperwork, you need to be strong enough to throw to the American Trucking Associations, the truck industry’s largest straps over a load, and you need to be willing to work long hours,” trade group, the industry overall is short about 60,000 drivers, with comments Hardwick. A driver for her company will typically work that number expected to grow to 100,000 in a few years. While 12 to 14 hours a day, and as a result she won’t hire drivers who numbers for log and wood truck drivers specifically are difficult to have to commute more than an hour to get to the job. compile, everyone interviewed for this article acknowledged that “Young guys want to leave home at 8 in the morning and the shortage of drivers in the -products industry is real and get back home by 3 in the afternoon,” says Qualls. “You can’t having a big impact on operations. do that if you’re driving a truck. My stepson sees that I’m away “Trying to find a full-time driver right now is like trying to from home a couple nights a week, and he sees the hours I put find a needle in a haystack,” says Qualls, who drives for Yves in in a day. He says, ‘I don’t want to be part of that,’ and there Marquis Trucking out of Canaan, Vermont. “We’ve been hiring are a lot of other young men who feel the same way.” retired drivers just to fill in.” But perhaps the biggest obstacle to finding qualified young The shortage is “very serious,” said Teri Hardwick, president drivers is experience. Learning how to haul heavy loads on small and CEO of D.H. Hardwick and Sons, a logging company based rural roads in the kind of difficult weather conditions that are in Francestown, N.H., that runs 18 trucks with nine drivers. typical in logging is a challenge. While there are truck-driving “After weather, finding drivers is our toughest challenge.” schools and a few vocational programs, you can’t learn how to The shortage is forcing major management decisions. Last read snow and ice on the road in a classroom. “Young drivers year, RCT Trucking, a major wood hauler out of Skowhegan, need to get exposure to terrain, weather conditions, driving ME., bought two trucking companies in New Hampshire, adding with different weights – things you learn from parents or drivers a total of 33 rigs to the RCT fleet, mostly to employ the drivers already in the industry,” Jimmy Carrier of RCT Trucking told the who worked for those companies. New Hampshire Timberland Owners Association this winter. “But The shortage’s cause, most acknowledge, is a big wave of we are losing that connection between parents and mentors and retirements by older drivers coupled with a dearth of young drivers kids.” “It’s mostly on-the-job training,” adds Qualls. entering the business. But that’s just part of the story. With fierce Yet even that could be at risk, potentially making the driver competition for new drivers, large trucking companies are offering shortage even more severe. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety

signing bonuses, better compensation and benefit packages, and Administration, the industry’s chief regulatory agency, has STEVE BJERKLIE even educational benefits. “I’ve heard that some companies are considered new rules that would require all entry-level truck even offering to pay for your training to get your CDL (commercial drivers to be trained at a certified school or program; peer-to- driver license, a necessity for truck drivers). Those kinds of peer training wouldn’t be allowed.

A loaded truck operated by Kelly Logging heads toward the main road from a timber sale in White Mountain National Forest.

14 THE NORTHERN LOGGER | MARCH 2019 “TRYING TO FIND A FULL- TIME DRIVER RIGHT NOW IS LIKE TRYING TO FIND A NEEDLE IN A HAYSTACK” STEVE BJERKLIE

THE NORTHERN LOGGER | MARCH 2019 15 “The skills needed to promote a good log truck driver or chip Teri Hardwick. One is that the job requires real physical strength truck driver many times come from a family member or friend – “You’ve got to be able to throw those straps over the load,” in the industry showing the new generation the ropes,” says she says. “That’s not easy.” The other is the long hours. Younger, Hardwick. “The tricks of the trade of off-road driving, navigating stronger women tend to have families, and they don’t want to be landings and mill yards, and tons of other necessary skills will away from home for 14 hours a day and they don’t want to leave be lost in the early learning stages of driving, which is a very home at 3 or 4 in the morning to get to a log landing by 5 or 6. important time for habits to form. Off-road driving is not at all She adds that, male or female, good drivers who can run like highway driving and needs attention early on. Many regions log trucks with log loaders “are a rare breed,” and points out have different circumstances and are known to the older that efficient loading and unloading – the key to moving wood drivers. A truck driving school’s lessons are not a one size fits with as little cost as possible – is coupled with the efficiency of all rule. We have interviewed drivers who have a CDL-A but took operators at mills and yards. “Lots of our drivers will run logs lessons and passed their test using an automatic tractor. I think but are loaded and unloaded by someone else. Now that more you can guess how they did driving an 18 speed logging truck. softwood pulp is starting to move, it is more important than We have had to relieve drivers from the wheel before the test ever to have good crane operators at the mill log yards to keep drive was even complete.” drivers moving along onto another load and reducing wait time Could more women drivers help alleviate the industry’s for drivers. Yard crane operators play a role in driver efficiency as shortage? “I’d like to see it,” says Scott. “There are already well,” she says. “The two jobs are tied at the hip to keep wood a few great women drivers out there. Tina Dyment at Fort moving efficiently. An organized yard with good firm ground can Mountain Companies” – a forest operations company based in only improve production for both the mill and the supplier.” Allenstown, N.H. – “is a great driver. She gets a half-mile per The hunt for drivers is an ongoing challenge. In the past, when gallon better mileage than anyone else because she’s got a more drivers were looking for work, companies had success great touch on the pedal. She’s phenomenal.” placing ads in the classified section of local newspapers. But the There are two big drawbacks for many women, points out last time RCT Trucking tried that, the company received more than 100 applications of which one, maybe two, came from Loading an HHP truck at the Richard Carrier Trucking (RCT) yard in viable candidates. Office staff can’t waste time weeding through Skowhegan, ME. RCT is one of the largest log and wood trucking firms in dozens of applications that are only going to end up in the round the Northeast. file anyway. In today’s trucking job market, word-of-mouth is STEVE BJERKLIE

16 THE NORTHERN LOGGER | MARCH 2019 STEVE BJERKLIE

A D.H. Hardwick and Sons truck waits for loading at the Hardwick yard in Bennington, N.H.

the best advertising. “Good drivers know good drivers,” says Hardwick, noting that her company has also had success finding drivers with Facebook. But with a shrinking pool of candidates, it sometimes seems as if northern New England’s forest products companies simply swap drivers as needs and seasons change. “We all know each other,” she comments. Even with the challenges and obstacles, there’s much about driving trucks in the forest industry that’s attractive. Even if you’re an employee, on the road you tend to be your own boss. You’re out in the . You’re driving in some of the most beautiful rural country in New England. You see wildlife, all kinds of weather, and the four seasons at their most splendid. You’re a member of a league of people who share a love of wood and the forest. The camaraderie in the industry is remarkable and life-lasting. Scott Qualls recalls visiting a long-retired driver not long ago, a gentleman who still remembers working in logging camps. The trucks he drove were tough, noisy machines with no creature comforts. Double-clutching, because the transmissions were not synchronized, was required, and that could be difficult on a steep slope with 80,000 pounds of logs behind the cab. Scott let the old pro drive his Marquis Trucking rig for a few miles. He marveled at the ease of the driving and at all the amenities – GPS-guided routing, any kind of music on demand via Sirius XM, perfect temperature control, heated seats. He said if he’d known it’d be like this, he would’ve stayed in trucking. He looked over at Scott. “You guys are cupcakes.” NL

Photos by Steve Bjerklie courtesy of the New Hampshire Timberland Owners Association

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