Driver Shortage Forces Companies to Look Overseas

Facing a chronic driver shortage that has plagued the trucking industry for the past several years, some trucking companies are finding creative solutions to the problem.

J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. of Lowell raised driver pay by 33 percent last year and reduced its driver turnover by more than one-half. Other companies have raised pay and offered their drivers other valued amenities, such as more time off, better and more comfortable trucks and bonuses.

One of the more creative approaches to the problem is being offered by Worldmaster Inc. of North Little Rock. The company, a subsidiary of Trek Group, was founded in 1993 by Peter Ruston of Australia. The company specializes in importing drivers from other countries, including Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain.

The drivers visit the United States for about three months for orientation, then are issued a visa by the government to spend 11 months in the country training at truck driver schools. Most of the drivers split the time evenly between the classroom and on-the-job training.

The program solves two problems at once. It gives American trucking companies much needed drivers and it allows the foreign drivers an opportunity to learn the trade. In Australia, for example, there are more drivers available than there are schools to train them or companies to hire them.

However, getting the visas isn’t always easy. The federal government classifies truck driving as unskilled labor, a category for which the government is reluctant to issue visas. Also, the federal Department of Labor doesn’t accept the industry’s claim that there is a shortage of qualified truck drivers.

“There have been a number of efforts over the last nine years by companies that wanted to bring in foreign drivers to supplement their work force,” says Linda Darr, vice president of international affairs at the American Trucking Association. “But, it is very difficult to do.”

Companies that use Worldmaster pay a fee to the company and the company takes care of obtaining the visas, paying health insurance and worker’s compensation and filing most of the forms required by federal and state governments.

Arkansas truck drivers win national awards

Two Arkansas truck drivers have received national honors.

Thomas Lawson, a driver with ABF Freight System Inc. of Fort Smith, was named Goodyear’s National Highway Hero for rescuing a motorist from a burning car along Interstate 20 in Mississippi.

The highway hero program was started by Goodyear in 1983 to recognize professional drivers and “the oftentimes unnoticed, life-saving rescues and roadside assistance they provide as their jobs take them across the country.”

Lawson was traveling along the interstate when he noticed a bicycle in the road and then saw an overturned, smoldering car. He pulled the driver of the car, Lynn Wilson, from the wreck moments before the car exploded.

Lawson received a $3,000 Super Bowl-style gold and diamond ring and $20,000 in U.S. savings bond.

Lawson is the third Arkansas driver to receive the award. In 1987, Robert Williams of Fort Smith received the award for freeing a driver from her burning car. The following year, Tommy Smith of Paragould received the award for twice entering a burning car to rescue injured motorists.

Roy L. Dickens, a driver for Willis Shaw Express in Elm Springs, placed sixth in the list of top 10 national winners in the 1997 Company Equipment Driver of the Year contest sponsored by the Truckload Carriers Association and Overdrive magazine.

Dickens has been a driver with Shaw for 17 years and has accumulated more than 3 million accident-free miles without a single claim for lost or damaged freight.