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and other carriers that catching COVID is a concern for them, so they may not want to come back to work for that,” Antonini said. “The enhanced and ex- tended relief efforts, economic relief, is holding some of them out, as is the vaccine availability.” With vaccine eligibility expanding, he added, “we’re hopeful that some of these folks will come back to work.” Eric Sauer, senior vice president of government affairs for the California Trucking Association, expressed con- cern that when harvest moves into the Central Valley and Northern California, “we could be seeing a 50, up to 60%, need for drivers for this harvest season.” Antonini noted that carrots har- vested in the desert mostly move to Bakersfield for processing, and on- ions go to Gilroy, Firebaugh and the Turlock area. “For every load, you really need two trucks, because one’s got to be going down as one’s coming up,” he said. The bulk of agricultural drivers are hired for a July 1 start, Antonini said. “We’re just now starting to recruit drivers,” he said, adding he will probably know by the second week of May where he stands. Antonini said the demand peaks during harvests of processing tomatoes, almonds, pistachios and walnuts.
Trucking-company president Joe Antonini says if a severe shortage of drivers persists into the summer, the consequences could include “crop spoilage, waste, crops not even being able to be harvested.” He says there has been a driver shortage for years, driven by an aging workforce and a dwindling number of younger people entering the profession.
“During those four months of July to October, that’s when themost drivers are around,” he said. He listed thepotential consequences of a summer driver shortage as “crop spoil- age, waste, crops not even being able to be harvested.” Driver shortages have been a chronic
problem, Antonini said, with a number of factors in play. “Number one, the Class A driving population across the country is getting older,” he said, referring to the drivers license commercial truck drivers need. “We don’t see as many young folks get- ting into the industry as we did 15 years ago. I would say each year for the last 10 years, we’ve seen it get worse andworse.” Truck-driving jobs are in high demand because of the boom in e-commerce, even before the pandemic, he added. “What really exacerbates it for the sea- sonal truckers like us is, we can only offer these folks anywhere from 90 to 120, 150 days of work,” Antonini said. At the trucking association, Sauer said theaverageageofatruckdrivernowstands at 52 or 53. He said some companies have beenofferingbonuses toattract andretain drivers, but described driver shortages as “a decade-long, national issue.” For food processors, Larrea said, op- tions are limited. “We’ve got a very short time period to do anything at all,” he said. “The harvest is coming uponus.We’re trying to get out ahead of it in order to make sure that it doesn’t evolve into some kind of a crisis associated with the inability to be able to pull these vegetables and foods from the fields and get them into the packing- houses or the processing facilities, and ultimately themarkets.” One action that could provide partial relief would be the renewal of weight variances for trucks. At the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, President Trump issued an emergency declaration that allowed for federal natural disaster assistance for state and local governments. In turn, Caltrans issued temporary permits raising the al- lowable gross vehicle weight from80,000 to 88,000 pounds on state highways for trucks hauling essential goods, which in-
cluded food and paper products and the rawmaterials needed to produce them. The emergency declaration expired last July, and a new one would be need- ed to obtain another weight variance, Sauer said. Larrea said discussions are ongoing at state and federal levels. Antonini said trucking companies are “definitely behind this” for agricultural commodities. Some crops can’t add 10% weight to the container, he said, but for those that can, it would help. “If you’re short 10%of drivers, and you are able to haul 10% more, in essence you’re even,” Antonini said. “Any weight variance that couldbe had for agriculture commodities would be a plus for the in- dustry as a whole.” Although another weight variance represents the most viable option for relief, he said, “in the end, that won’t solve the problem.” “If the industry is truly short 35% of drivers come August,” Antonini said, “we’ll just make a chip in the shortfall.” That prospect raises alarms for Larrea, who said many food companies have in- ventories below ideal levels as a result of the pandemic’s shifting of markets. The companies look at the 2021harvest to “re- plenish the inventory,” he said, and they anticipate renewed demand fromrestau- rants, schoolsandother food-servicebusi- nesses “as the states start to open up.” “That’s where we’re worried about it, because we don’t want to see (crops) left on the ground,” Larrea said. (Kevin Hecteman i s an ass i stant editor of Ag Alert. He can be contacted at khecteman@cfbf.com.)
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18 Ag Alert April 28, 2021
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