Supply Chain Panel Approves Recommendation for Multiagency Effort to Address Driver Shortage

From EMA:

Last week, the International Trade Administration’s Advisory Committee on Supply Chain Competitiveness (ACSCC), voted to recommend the Department of Commerce lead a multiagency effort to immediately address the truck driver shortage.

ACSCC Workforce Development Subcommittee Chair Anne Strauss-Wieder told the panel that “our recommendation focuses on the driver shortage. We had a shortage prior to the pandemic and that situation has accelerated during the global health emergency. What we have recommended for committee consideration is that the Department of Commerce lead a multi federal agency effort to proactively address the shortage. Various departments are doing this already. And indeed, the Infrastructure Bill passed by the Senate also addresses part of this as well, including new funds for an apprenticeship program for the Under 21 Driver Initiative as well as establishing a board to increase the number of women entering and being retained in the trucking industry.”

The ACSCC recommends that Commerce facilitate the pathways to becoming an interstate truck driver by expanding the demographic pools attracted to the profession and increasing driver training and apprenticeship programs, and to improve the driver experience through addressing truck-parking shortages and safety concerns.

EMA continues to work with multiple departments alerting them to the dire problems the petroleum marketing industry is facing and to potential solutions regarding the driver shortage. In particular, EMA has been working with DOE on a 100-page report and recommendations on the shortage.