The old hands are heading out the door. And companies are scrambling to replace them.
A new report from Trucknews.com lays bare a challenge the trucking industry has been dancing around for years: retirements are accelerating, and the institutional knowledge those veterans carry, the hard-won expertise about routes, loads, equipment, customers, and the countless judgment calls that never make it into a training manual, is walking out the door right alongside them.
When carriers can’t find quality drivers, or when promising new drivers leave because they feel invisible, everyone pays.
It’s not just that trucks need drivers. It’s that experienced professionals are leaving faster than the industry is developing their replacements.
Why Young Drivers Are Leaving
The research found that younger professionals are exiting the industry at a disproportionate rate, not necessarily because they can’t hack it behind the wheel, but because they don’t feel supported once they’re there. Limited mentorship. Unclear career paths. A sense that they’re left to figure things out on their own in an industry that has always depended on experienced voices showing the next generation the ropes.
What’s at Stake for Alabama
This isn’t a small problem. Trucking moves roughly 75% of all freight into, out of, and through Alabama. The ripple effects of an underpowered talent pipeline touch every retailer, manufacturer, hospital, and school in this state. When carriers can’t find quality drivers, or when promising new drivers leave because they feel invisible, everyone pays.
What Good Mentorship Looks Like
The good news is that some carriers are doing it right. Swift Transportation’s partnership with FleetForce in Mobile, launched earlier this month, is exactly the kind of hands-on, on-site mentorship model the industry needs more of. When carriers embed training directly in their own terminals, putting new drivers side by side with experienced professionals from day one, they’re not just filling seats. They’re building culture.
Alabama’s Workforce Development Push
The Alabama Trucking Association has long championed workforce development as a core priority. Programs like mytruckingfuture.com exist precisely to show Alabama’s next generation of professionals that trucking offers a real career, one with competitive wages, benefits, and a future.
ATA members who have built strong internal mentorship cultures know what the research confirms: drivers who feel invested in stay.
The industry built America. It’s going to need the next generation to keep it moving. That starts with showing up for them the way they show up for us, every single mile.
