Trucks are taking over American roads, fueled by a rise in pandemic online shopping and disruptions to global supply chains.
Along the way they’re chewing up pavement, adding to congestion and infuriating residents, who must contend with 18-wheelers and delivery trucks as soon as they pull out of their driveways. They’re also causing headaches for state and local governments that face multibillion-dollar bills to finance road upkeep and expansions.
....Truck mileage—tractor trailers and delivery trucks combined—on all roads hit a record of nearly 300 billion miles in the 12 months ended September 2021, roughly 2% above the same period in 2019, before the start of the pandemic, according to data from FTR Transportation Intelligence, a freight forecasting firm.
A month ago every newspaper was full of stories about shortages of truck drivers. Now we're complaining about too many trucks.
Which is it? Can we please get our story straight?
Every time I have to stop at a crossing for some huge freight train or share the interstate with some big ol' trucks, I figure, hey, this is good for the economy and these guys are just trying to do their jobs.
My wife's company is expanding. She has more employees than before, she also can't find enough people to fill jobs given the demand for services and the constraints on hiring and onboarding resources.
I'll go tell her that it's impossible to have more people and still not have enough. This is a huge relief, glad we got it straightened out.
A 2% increase in truck mileage in two years sounds like the amount of stuff being trucked around is growing at about the same rate as the population. That doesn't seem to be "Trucks are taking over American roads".
Too many or too few? Both can be true and it's not as if all freight is a result of pent-up consumer demand or hauling fuel.
My employer has customers lining up to sign dedicated capacity contracts; they need certainty as they plan/order feedstocks and make commitments to their own customers.
We can't find enough hazmat drivers - anybody worth hiring is already working.
Equipment is a challenge because of limited production ( thanks COVID!). Multiple buyers for every truck or tank trailer on the lot.
The scale of the problem is understated or simply misrepresented by the focus on backlogged consumer goods; business is good and much activity is on the raw materials and process side.
Sounds like WSJ is trying to find a way to admit the “supply chain crisis” is over.
Heh.
Now we have the to much supply chain crisis. Biden is still doing it wrong!
Can't he just get in a truck and pretend to drive like a real entertainer?
There aren't enough truck drivers but there are too many trucks on the road:
The economy continues to expand, such that there is more demand for goods today than two years ago. The backlog at ports is slowly being cleared by an expansion of truck driver hours, but there is ongoing pressure to move more goods than two years ago.
Therefore, there are more trucks on the road but not enough truck drivers.
Too many trucks?
Not enough roads!
But as Doc Brown said, where we're going we don't need roads.
There is a difference between 18-wheeler's and delivery vans that routinely double park.
Of course the overwhelming demand is why there's a shortage of drivers. Some of that is due to the scale back of railroads...
In moderate to heavily dense Los Angeles there are *many* delivery trucks (UPS, Amazon, FedEx, DHL) that:
a) double park - in effect, a temporary, moving, and unpredictable "RIGHT LANE CLOSED AHEAD"
b) park within the yellow island on wide, multi-lane streets, and
c) in general are a hindrance to visibility - especially when trying to determine when it's safe to exit from a driveway onto the street. They are brick walls on wheels.
It's all because of the move from shopping in a physical store to online purchases.
Kevin should drive up to L. A. and take pictures of these irritants. They are easy to find.
It takes more truck drivers to drive smaller trucks so big trucks wouldn't take over the roads.
Too much public urban space devoted to cars is more like it. Also, federal fuel taxes are too low.
>Can we please get our story straight?
Nope. The corporate media needs to paint Joe Biden's America as terrible. Gotta protect those tax cuts - the bribes to Sinema might not be enough.
Kyrsten Sinema grew up dirt po'. It's no wonder she has liked to any means, above or below board, to keep herself from drowning in the debt kultur in which America's global elite like to see the lesser wallow.
(Honestly, surprised this isn't a Jacobin taek yet. Would pair well with their defense of the attempted abductors of Gretchen Whitmer.)
It can (and probably is) both, you know. There are more trucks on our city roads/streets but it is still not enough to manage the massive increase in shipping/trucking demand.
We just need that many more truck drivers/logistics workers.
Sloppy reporting. Combining 18-wheel big rigs with Amazon vans into one category doesn’t delineate what’s really happening, which any of us would, anecdotally at least, say is more local delivery vans on surface streets not more big rigs on the interstates.
I have no idea how many packages fit in a delivery truck, but say it's 100. That one truck is eliminating 100 people from getting in their cars and driving to a store to pick up the thing they ordered. Seems to me like more delivery trucks reduces congestion.
2017: Donald Trump wears a lapel pin emblazoned "I LUV TRUX".
2021: too few trucks on the road.
ETTD.
Kevin, shirley the science of trucks must arrive at different conclusions as our understanding of them evolves, no?
No, can't tell the story straight cause that would mean the truth and heaven forbid, folks do not like the truth. We must have some controversy, even if it is manufactured as lies. Such idiocy.
We’ll get to the Goldilocks “just right” level of trucks as soon as the November elections are over.
There are many more trucks on the highways than there used to be even a few years ago, Anecdotally, I have driven from Vancouver, WA to the SF Bay Area 10 times in the past 18 months (family health issues),also back and forth to Seattle multiple times, and it's amazing how many trucks are barreling down the highway, usually way over the speed limit. Feels like a gamble to drive a mere auto among those behemoths. And then there are the three-trailer rigs in Oregon. Try merging next to one of those! And soon those massive vehicles will be driverless! Error free computers will drive them and pass you! I can hardly wait. And have you seen the GM truck ads showing "drivers" slapping their knees while auto-drive steers their truck towing a trailer past a slower vehicle? Good times.
I do much of that route too. You should see (the) I-5 from the Grapevine to Stockton. Most of it two lanes. No passing lanes. Trucks slowing everything down when one tries to pass another.
Maybe time for three lanes in each direction.