If you were to ask 100 trucking professionals why the U.S. truck driver shortage exists, you’d likely get 100 different answers, including that there is no shortage. Because of this, as the founder of SlipSeat, the one question I’m often asked is, “How did SlipSeat create a solution to the shortage when others can’t even agree on the problem?”
The short answer is that I have a very unique background for trucking as well as a very unique trucking background. Combined, they are perfect for “seeing” the shortage clearly, understanding its root cause, and crafting a practical solution that works across trucking sectors.
I entered the trucking industry about 25 years ago through the IT side, custom coding a complex forecasting program for a 24/7 sugar beet operation in Montana. There, I met Gary – a gentle giant of a man who worked the graveyard shift. He was an ideal employee – kind, honest, and dependable – and he loved his driving job so much that he’d regularly show up 30 minutes early. I was there for over a month learning the operation. We talked about anything and everything.
What struck me about Gary was how poorly he’d been treated by his past employers. One right after the other. Some asked Gary to do illegal things. Others did illegal things to Gary. Some of it was downright brazen. Tragically, his story wasn’t unique. Over the years, I’ve heard countless stories about bad actors across all trucking sectors.
With my background in Labor Economics, I knew exploitation like this shouldn’t be happening. And certainly not at scale. Market forces should be weeding out the bad actors, but they weren’t. Depending on the sector and location, bad actors were the norm, not the exception. Somehow, market forces had been weakened. And guess what…weakened market forces will lead to a shortage if given enough time.
To an economist, it’s simple to prove: a driver shortage and enough unused driver capacity to offset it both exist. That’s evidence of a problem because they shouldn’t exist together. The only way those two things can coexist is if market forces of the driver industry have been weakened; otherwise, wages would rise, drawing out those unused hours.
What this means is that the shortage isn’t about a lack of drivers or even that drivers are underpaid. It’s caused by macroeconomics.
To fix the issue, we created SlipSeat, which is an AI driven, economics based B2B marketplace designed to solve localized geospatial truck driver shortages. Those are the kind you might find at a port or oil boom town. It works by creating a supply & demand driven, pay-as-you-go virtual driver pool that local area carriers can share.
A shortage makes it harder for carriers to hire drivers and increases the length of time it takes. Loads can sit over that time which can cause issues with shippers, their customers. Using our flexible pool of pre-qualified drivers, carriers are able to move loads while waiting for their HR department to recruit more drivers.
In high density areas like ports, our platform creates Just-in-Time drivers, which brings all the goodness of Just-in-Time Inventory to truck driver operations. Having faster access to drivers allows motor carriers to carry fewer drivers on payroll and allows them to use a bottom/up approach to operations. With it, a carrier can possibly save enough money to 2x truck profit.
Meanwhile, in the background, our platform fixes the larger macroeconomic issue causing the shortage. About the time we hit national scale, our collective driver pools should both solve the problem causing the national shortage and generate enough supply to offset it.
In the end, the industry gains capacity. Motor carriers save time, money, worry and risk while having access to more drivers who can move more loads and make the carriers more money. The ports get a free shortage solution. And drivers like Gary end up with more money, flexibility, and control and a lot less exploitation.