Needs

“Need is for driver’s interested in earning a premium salary, scholarship to be used by themselves, or a family member for college education, and elimination of their existing student loan debt” 

It has been highlighted by multiple corporate, and government officials of the unique applicability of Family Transporter talent sustainability effort to the recently passed law (Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act). Our program aligns directly with the State Freight Plans, and U.S. Department of Transportation National Freight Strategic Plan, and specifically addresses special needs school bus driver, commercial truck driver, and workforce shortages highlighted as key safety & security issues in all reports.

 

This is quite compelling considering the immediate-growing need to enhance the resilience of the Transportation, and Healthcare Critical Infrastructure Sectors. Resilient critical infrastructure is key, especially a resilient transportation, and healthcare critical infrastructure that the recent pandemic has laid bare as a significant weakness nationwide.

Obvious consequence to healthcare worker, patient, business, and/or employee-family has been devastating. TNALT (www.TNALT.org), the nation’s largest 501c-3 nonprofit association of Locum Tenens-Physicians, identifies this as a top issue that must be rectified, and supporter of Family Transporter.

• We are addressing the commercial  driver shortage as follows

1. Goal–With a concentration on dislocated U.S. Veterans, and other vulnerable population segments (including Millennials), the tying together of job creation with the growing shortage of special needs school bus drivers is the Goal.

2. Incentive–Providing  a school loan debt forgiveness, and scholarship toward a sought after degree/certificate creates Incentive.

3. Hope— Establishing an opportunity for Intragenerational Mobility through a program allowing a driver to bestow their scholarship to a family member (e.g. child, grandchild etc..), and provide those drivers coming from families where Generational Poverty is the Norm,  a sense of Hope.

4. Motivation–Leveraging an executive mentoring approach that guides the driver candidates through the education required for a possible new career within the hiring firm/industry creates Motivation.

5. Public Trust–Measurable increase in transportation security, and safety creates Public Trust.

6. Satisfaction–Increased family/student quality of life with quantifiable reduction in transportation costs creates Satisfaction.

7. Partnership–Comprised of families, school districts, corporations, government, and academia makes it all happen.

Exposure

1. There is “NO” existing remedy to the commercial driver shortage as all across-the-board incentives are found to be lacking,
2. Driver Retention is KEY with continually high turnover causing following:
   1. Safety, Security, Quality of Life Impact to Special Needs Students that has a “Domino Effect” to corporations reliant on employees dependent on School Bus Transportation. .
   2. Increasing “Opportunity Loss” from driver turnover as economy improves,
   3. Loss of investment in driver training dollars,
   4. High Recruitment Costs averaging $5k to $10k per driver.
   5. Studies estimate average cost of turnover per driver for all companies at $8,234.00.
3. Corporations face growing issues with vehicle carriers (both outsourced, and their own) as there exists greater aggregated demand for increased transportation capacities to move more people/goods, yet a dependence on a continually shrinking supply of commercial drivers.
4. All corporations heavily dependent on commercial drivers, faces following:
   1. Spiraling costs for commercial transportation services as the demand grows exponentially for these services from an improving economy, and is coupled to an ever shrinking supply of commercial drivers,
   2. Ongoing customer service impact due to delivery issues,
   3. Increased safety, and security issues due to reliance on fleets transporting more with less manpower,
   4. Continual economic-safety-security repercussions resulting from the domino effect,
   5. Companies are likely in the continual planning stages to re-engineer dependence on status quo, and facing significant escalating challenges.
5. The consequences are significant.