Professional Driver Demographics are Shifting

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Excerpt from Eight Trends Shaping the Truck Stop and Travel Center Industry in 2024 Toolkit from the NATSO Foundation

Understanding consumer expectations and preferences has become critical to a retailer’s success in today’s operating environment. Successful businesses must stay ahead of the curve by identifying and adapting to emerging trends, whether in consumer behavior, drivers’ needs or industry practices.

The NATSO Foundation identified eight key trends expected to shape the truck stop and travel center industry in 2024.

A trend with a big impact on the travel center industry is the demographic of professional drivers. 

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Trucking companies are tapping into underrepresented pools of candidates to help attract new entrants to the industry. These include younger drivers, women and minorities. Truck driver demographics are important because they influence the products and services drivers need.

As the pool of drivers and length-of-haul changes, truck stops and travel centers have to make getting to know their customers a top priority. Darren Schulte, NATSO’s vice president, membership, said operators who figure out who their customers are have higher sales and conversion rates compared to those taking a cookie-cutter approach. “Are they long haul, short haul, day drivers, fleet, owner operators? There are nuances and they are all different,” he said.

Schulte added that 19% of truck drivers are immigrants compared to 13% of the overall population, according to George Mason University.

Jeremy Reymer, founder of DriverReach, which provides driver hiring services, said the number of minorities joining the industry has remained relatively steady and can vary by region. “If you’re in the Chicago-land area, there are a lot of Eastern European drivers. There are Indian drivers all around,” he said.

Drivers still tend to be older— the average age of an over-the-road driver is 46. Leah Shaver, CEO of the National Transportation Institute said the largest group of drivers are between 45 and 54, which accounts for about 40% of the driver pool, according to an NTI survey. The next largest group is drivers between 35–44, which make up about 20% of the driver pool, followed by drivers 55-64, which make up 19% of the driver pool.

Some programs are aiming to attract the next generation of drivers, including a young driver training program through the Minnesota Trucking Association and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Safe Driver Apprentice Pilot Program, which allows drivers between the ages of 18 and 20 with an intrastate commercial driver’s license to operate interstate.

However, just 3% of the driver pool is comprised of drivers 20–24 while 13% is made up of drivers 25– 34. The average age of a new driver being trained is 35. “We’re not attracting as many younger drivers because we can’t hire them right away, and they’re choosing other careers first,” Shaver said. “Driving truck is a second or third career choice.”

Reymer said ATRI will undertake a research survey in 2024 to determine how to attract more women to the industry. Although women are driving trucks in greater numbers, they still account for just 7% to 12% of the driver population. “Women 35 the average age of a new driver being trained are safer drivers in every measurable category, and they are helping to improve the industry,” Reymer said.
 

Want more Trends Shaping the Truck Stop and Travel Center Industry in 2024? Access the Eight Trends Shaping the Truck Stop and Travel Center Industry in 2024 Toolkit from the NATSO Foundation here.

// This article was created for Stop Watch magazine, the magazine of the NATSO Foundation. The NATSO Foundation is the research, education and public outreach subsidiary of NATSO, Inc. The NATSO Foundation provides programs and products to strengthen travel plazas’ ability to meet the traveling public's needs through improved operational performance and business planning. Visit www.natsofoundation.org for more information. (Donate to the NATSO Foundation here.)