How America’s Trucking Industry Reached a Breaking Point

Image by wirestock on Freepik

For decades, the American trucking industry represented stability, skill, and a strong professional identity. It was a career built on grit, experience, and long hours that kept the country’s supply chain moving. But over the last ten years, the industry has quietly unraveled. Today, trucking is facing a crisis that didn’t arrive suddenly. It accumulated little by little, through weakened training standards, oversupply of poorly prepared drivers, falling freight demand, and a regulatory environment that is imbalanced at best and negligent at worst.

A major shift began when policymakers and large carriers pushed aggressively to solve what was widely advertised as a national “driver shortage.” Instead of strengthening the profession, the response lowered the barrier to entry. CDL licensing schools expanded rapidly, and many evolved into what insiders now call “CDL mills”: programs that focus on getting drivers licensed as quickly as possible rather than preparing them for the realities of the job. Thousands of new drivers entered the industry each year with a license in hand but without the training, mentorship, or real-world experience that trucking once insisted upon.

A new driver in training. Image by freepik

At the same time, the make-up of the workforce began to change in ways many industry leaders admit they failed to fully understand. In recent years, there has been an exponential rise in foreign-born and non-domiciled CDL holders entering the industry through low-rigor training pipelines. A non-domiciled driver is someone who holds a CDL from a state in which they don’t actually live. Creating a loophole that makes enforcement and oversight significantly more difficult. Many of these drivers come through fast-track programs, some with limited English proficiency and limited exposure to the standards, safety expectations, and communication demands of the American freight network.

None of this is the fault of individual drivers. This is a systemic issue, one created by the industry itself. When you take an already strained environment, add accelerated licensing, reduce training rigor, and overlay it with complex routing, safety requirements, and regulatory expectations, the result is predictable: a widening gap between the skill level the job requires and the preparation new drivers actually receive. The influx of inexperienced and undertrained drivers did not just shift the demographics of the workforce; it quietly reshaped the culture and competency of the industry.

Meanwhile, freight demand began to soften. The timing couldn’t have been worse. While more drivers and more carriers were being pumped into the system, the actual volume of freight started to decline. National trucking revenue dropped from just over a trillion dollars in 2023 to under $906 billion the following year. Freight tonnage slipped as well. With fewer loads available and more trucks competing for them, the market turned vicious. Rates collapsed. Carriers began underbidding one another to survive. A destructive race to the bottom took hold.

An abandoned trucking company lot. Image by freepik

The consequences of this oversaturated market have not only been visible, but very painful. In the past two years alone, two Minnesota-based carriers closed overnight, leaving around 200 drivers without a job. A 70-year-old, 50-truck family fleet shut down after decades of operations because the math simply no longer worked. Dozens of smaller fleets filed for bankruptcy. When a trucking company shuts down, it’s not just freight that gets stranded. Drivers lose their paychecks and often the trucks they’re still financing. Dispatchers, safety managers, administrative staff- all suddenly unemployed. Shippers scramble. Supply chains seize. It is a domino effect with real human stakes.

As the industry destabilized, safety and professionalism began to erode. Veteran drivers with years of experience navigating weather, mountains, ports, HOS rules, and customer expectations, found themselves sharing the road with people who, through no fault of their own, hadn’t been taught the fundamentals. Reports of inconsistent maintenance, skipped safety procedures, and poor communication have become alarmingly common. The phrase many experienced operators now repeat is blunt but accurate: “We don’t have a driver shortage. We have a shortage of qualified drivers.”

Oversaturation in the trucking industry.

This reality also exposes the flaws in the decades-long “driver shortage” narrative. The numbers tell a different story. Major carriers routinely post turnover rates of 80 to 90 percent. That means many fleets replace nearly their entire workforce every year. The issue has never been finding people willing to try trucking. The issue is keeping them, because the job has become less stable, less profitable, and increasingly chaotic. Over the next decade, the industry will need to hire more than a million new drivers just to maintain its current workforce, not because the sector is expanding, but because drivers continue to leave at staggering rates.

Overlay all this with a regulatory system that is paradoxical in its design. Trucking is heavily regulated in some areas: hours-of-service rules, electronic logging mandates, emissions requirements, and administrative compliance demand enormous time and money. Yet in arguably the most critical areas: training quality, licensing integrity, carrier vetting, and maintenance enforcement, the system is shockingly lax. Almost anyone can open a trucking company with minimal capital and little understanding of the industry, and thousands have. The result is an environment where experienced, compliant carriers are drowning in bureaucracy while poorly prepared operators slip through the cracks unhindered.

Image by aleksandarlittlewolf on Freepik

Taken together, these pressures have pushed the industry to a breaking point. But breaking points also create opportunities. If there is one message emerging from this moment, it is that the future of trucking will belong to the carriers who choose standards over shortcuts. The businesses that will survive, and ultimately rebuild the reputation of this trade, are the ones investing in real training, enforcing disciplined safety practices, refusing to cut corners, and prioritizing communication and reliability over short-term gains.

America still relies on trucking as the backbone of its supply chain. But to remain that backbone, the industry must rebuild itself with intention. The solution isn't more drivers, it’s better training. It’s not more carriers, it’s better oversight. It’s not more regulation, it’s smarter regulation. And above all, it’s a renewed commitment to professionalism in an industry that once took pride in it.

This moment may feel like an unraveling, but it can just as easily become a reset. If trucking is going to reclaim its stability, its respect, and its future, the rebuilding must begin now, with higher standards, better preparation, and a shared belief that experience, safety, and skill still matter. Connect with us: mypevo.com | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn