One of the main problems in the area of grain cargo logistics in the United States is that the number of grain truck drivers is falling every year.
Troy Presley, a senior grain merchandiser at CoMark Equity Alliance, explained to participants in the L.A.B. Logistics Agro Benchmark project that the reason for the shortage of grain truck drivers is that issuance of licenses to drive this type of vehicle is highly regulated. "Operation of trucks is highly regulated and very few people want to operate them. In addition, their salaries are not very high," he said.
According to him, another reason is that drivers are switching from grain carriers to vehicles for transporting crude oil and petroleum products, which offer higher salaries.
Representatives of the CFTS portal and the Mariupol Investment Group (MIG) visited a farm, where a farmer also told them about the shortage of grain truck drivers. According to the farmer, he himself has to operate one of the two trucks on the farm because of the shortage of drivers.
The Center for Transport Strategies (CFTS) and the Mariupol Investment Group (MIG) are jointly implementing the L.A.B. Logistics Agro Benchmark project. During the first phase of the project, the participants in it visited more than 15 agricultural and logistics enterprises in Germany and France to study the features of agricultural logistics in these countries with the aim of applying what they learn in Ukraine. The second phase of the project, which has the same aims, is taking place in the United States.
