The Moving-Van Driver shortage is not helping the millions of Americans moving this summer. Take 7 million families moving last year and add a truck driver shortage and you have some weeks-late deliveries. Many families are moving from high tax cities like Chicago to low tax cities like Sugar Land and movers are struggling to keep up. Eily Cummings of Unigroup - which includes United Van Lines and Mayflower, says many moving van drivers are aging out, and recruiting is a bit complicated. "The moving industry is such a unique business. We know that our uniqueness set us apart. Our drivers own small businesses, manage crews and provide customer services." Cummings says they overcome most of the hard feelings of the longer move by setting expectations up front with their customers, and keeping in touch.
Cummings says the shortage of drivers is mostly about age. "The aged of the typical truck driver is 50 years old, and the age of the average worker is 42. So our workforce - overall - is aging out." Cummings says state-to-state moving is not going as quickly as before, but they are handling it as well as they can. "There are a lot of people flooding out of California, New York, New Jersey and even Ohio. All at the same time looking for lower-taxed states. The increased demand does mean some hauls have to be delayed. We have found that is most successful is communicating clearly the expectations that our customers understand, and keeping them updated as often as possible."
photo: GettyImages
United Van Lines