One quarter of freight firms across the US agree: The labor shortage is the biggest concern impacting their industry in 2025.
On top of that, 75% of them report seeing a healthy demand for their business, indicating that the lack of labor is holding back much-needed industry growth. Addressing this shortage is a top priority for a noteworthy segment of the frieght industry in the near future.
These findings come from a recent survey by Tech.co, which polled hundreds of workers within the US transport and shipping sector during April 2025.
With tariff uncertainty set to shake up the business in the coming months, the lack of laborers is an even bigger concern than before. Here’s the latest data on how the industry is thinking about the upcoming challenges.
25% of US Freight Firms Say a Labor Shortage Is the Biggest Issue Affecting Business
By 2030, the US could need another 160,000 driver positions, according to one estimate. Now, Tech.co’s latest logistics industry survey confirms that this labor shortage remains a huge problem in the sector.
When asked what issue was hitting their business the hardest in April 2025, a full quarter (25%) of respondents cited “workforce shortages” specifically – the highest percentage across all ten issues that those working in this sector cited.
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The only issue that came close to being as large as labor shortages was the rising cost of diesel fuel, which 23% respondents cited as their biggest concern.
The third most cited issue – worries over major unforeseen disruptions including weather events or major infrastructure failure – was labelled the top industry problem by just 16%, indicating that most operations are focused on hiring the right people while keeping fuel budgets in check.
Here’s the full list, ranked by the percentage of professionals who say each issue is causing the biggest impact on business.
- Workforce shortages – 25%
- Rising diesel prices – 23%
- Major unforeseen disruptions – 16%
- Government regulations – 14%
- Problems with working conditions – 8%
15% of Firms Say Retention and Recruitment Is Their Priority
What can transportation operations do to address the shortage? There’s no clear answer. We found that 15% of US freight firms put staff retention and recruitment as their priority for this quarter, making this challenge the third most mentioned priority after vehicle upkeep at 23% and “managing financial pressure” with 21%.
Those firms might just be caught between a rock and a hard place, as boosting retention and recruitment will likely require increasing financial pressure rather than decreasing it. Providing better training and development opportunities is the most popular strategy among survey respondents who claimed recruitment and retention was their priority, followed by “enhanc[ing] recruitment efforts.”
Here’s the full list, in order of which percentage of firms said it would be their top strategy:
- Provide better training and development opportunities: 8%
- Enhance recruitment efforts: 7%
- Improve work-life balance for drivers: 6%
- Increase driver compensation and benefits: 6%
- Improve company culture: 6%
Raising salaries to lure in a fresh, younger crowd of cross-country truckers may be the most clear way to meet the current demand. According to US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median annual wage for heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers was $57,440 as of May 2024.
Driver Retirements and New Regulations Are Set to Increase Shortages
The shortage of truck drivers will likely remain a major concern for years into the future, given that 110,000 of US truckers are over the age of 65 years old.
Since their average age of retirement is currently 69 years old, the industry only has a few options for what will happen across the next half a decade: We’ll either see a major decrease in working truckers, a much older demographic as truckers pushing 70 continue to work, or a massive influx of younger truckers will meet the demand.
That last option would be the healthiest move for the industry, which faces another even more immediate problem as well: In early May, the Trump administration added a new regulation that requires all truckers to speak English under the assumption that they would otherwise be unable to read traffic signs. With the amount of the non-English speakers in trucking potentially as high as 3 million, the trucking shortage may soon be far larger than current predictions suggest.
