ARLINGTON, VA – With more attention being paid to the looming shortage of qualified truck drivers, American Trucking Associations (ATA) released a report aimed at helping fleets recruit and retain drivers.

Conducted by ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello, the “Benchmarking Guide for Driver Recruitment and Retention” is a 92-page report, containing data and anecdotal information based on interviews with more than 50 fleets, which have 130,000-plus trucks and oversee more than 155,000 drivers and contractors.

"We found more and more carriers are considering hiring inexperienced drivers and are turning to truck driver training schools to help them place those drivers," Costello said. "Demand for new, inexperienced drivers is likely to increase at a faster pace than in the past. Fifty-six percent of truckload fleets we spoke with said while they currently do not hire inexperienced drivers, they are considering hiring these drivers."

The report also found that half of respondents who had closed their own truck driver training school would consider reopening them if they can't get enough new drivers from their outside truck school partners. However, they all said this would be a last resort and that they would prefer not to reopen their schools.

With data broken down by carrier type, this guide provides a view on the current state of how fleets of all types are dealing with the driver market and touches on subjects such as driver profiles, driver hiring and recruiting practices, and truck driver training school usage.