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Employer Quotes

The quotes below are from employers in this industry: Transportation

They are talking about this topic: Industry Trends

 

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Both the automotive repair and commercial driving sectors have been affected by various federal policies and insurance company requirements; these policies and requirements often make it more difficult to hire new employees. For instance, recent federal requirements state that interstate trucking employees must be at least 23 years old, and insurance policies require a clean driving record for technicians. (Technicians who do not have a clean record are not able to move cars brought in for repair.)

Employer Quote Region
"One consistent thing that I hear is about the age for insurance, and 23 is really pretty much the common...by the time [I was] 23, I was already on a path. I was graduated from a four-year university. If I was waiting until I was 23 to go and drive a truck, what did I do between there? Probably get in trouble. And then I can't drive a truck because I have a bad record in some other form. So part of it is, we can't wait to have them join the career until they're 23. We need to get them at 19 and then maybe at 19 they need to go through a formalized training program, like a technical college driving school and then they have to be part of a mentoring program at a carrier. We can send them to war at 18. I think we can put them in trucks at 19. I was just with a customer a couple of weeks ago, and he was really disappointed because he had a really good driver, he was 21 years old, and he just got a call from his insurance agent. And I walked in and I could tell his face was still red. He was like, 'Just my insurance agent ruining my business.' And so he told me about what was going on. He said, 'Great kid, 22, grew up on the farm. Had been driving equipment since 13 years old. Another 14 months will make him just perfect. And I don't know what to do with him for 14 months.'" Central
"Congress just passed a law. It's not in effect yet. It's going to really hurt our industry that you have to have a median age of 23 [for commercial drivers]. We're struggling over that one. (The prior age was 18 for commercial drivers)." Central
"We're running into issues, like an entry-level technician, or the wash bay kid, or the detailer, you can't hire anybody. I mean, one out of ten kids have some type of driving record incident. I know our insurance company at work. It's just a big battle to get anybody hired. It could be a great kid and he had one wreck, and you can't hire him. So it's a tough situation." Metro
"Even current employees, we track their records every six months. We had to let one go last week, a really good technician. But he [couldn't] drive, he [couldn't] move a car, he [couldn't] sit in the car, he [couldn't] back it up in the stall. So you have to hire a porter to be able to drive cars for him, and that's not economically feasible, so it's really gotten to be a challenge." Metro
"I don't think the insurance company's ever told me that they wouldn't allow me to hire somebody. They'll insure anybody, it's just a little bit more. Well, we're cost-sensitive. I could hire him and pay a little bit more, or hire her and have no additional expense and cost. What am I going to do? They said, 'you can keep them as an employee, you just can't have them drive.' Well, that's like having a cab driver that can't drive a car for at least the next 15 months. You could make it work but at an additional cost, but why would I?" Metro
"Just to be clear on the driving record thing, it isn't the employers' choice to do that, it's the insurance company saying, 'we won't insure this person,' so it's not just because the employer's got a hard line. They're [unable] to do it because the insurance won't allow it." Metro
"We really have no choice in hiring drivers without two years verified work experience. So you end up with these kids that are coming off the farm; sometimes we can get them on probationary status and double up drivers, if you will, and they'll do their own training. That's probably the best case scenario right now for people to get into the industry, but, you know, truck driving is not the fanciest job in the world." Northwest
"Typically [insurance companies] go back three years, but they continue to go back further and further. They'll go back six years and see a DUI or something along that line, or excessive driving, they're very, very stringent." Southwest
"Some of the trends that will hurt us will be some of the stringent federal [regulations]." Southwest
"[W]e have a number of employers out of dealerships that call our shop for future employment. One of the first questions is whether or not they have a DUI and [if they do], they can't hire them because their insurance company will not cover them." Southwest