Worried about the continuing shortage of truck drivers? Don't just talk about it—there's plenty shippers can do to improve the situation.

So says David R. Goodson, a transportation consultant who believes that shippers' behavior can alleviate the shortage of truckload drivers, and improve customer-service levels to boot. "Shippers have to help carriers retain drivers, particularly in [regard to] how they treat drivers," says Goodson, a senior manager with KPMG's operations risk management practice in Minneapolis, Minn. "Shippers don't understand that the more you mistreat drivers, the more your service will suffer."

Goodson, one of the original authors of the National Survey of Driver Wages, which tracks driver pay for 400 fleets, says the driver shortage first arose about 10 years ago. Prior to motor carrier deregulation in the 1980s, he notes, truck driving was considered to be an attractive occupation. After deregulation, though, truck driving changed from being a well-paid job to a low-paid job, he says.

Although drivers' wages rose dramatically from 1996 to 1999, compensation has stagnated during the current recession. In the last six months, though, wages have begun to creep upward as carriers attempt to put more operators behind the wheel to meet shipper demand. Nevertheless, says Gordon Klemp, managing partner of the National Driver Wage Survey, "on an inflation-adjusted basis, wages are still below what they were 20 years ago."

Goodson notes that at present, a truckload driver with a couple of years of experience can earn $40,000 a year, and as much as $50,000 with a top motor carrier. That's a major reason why carriers face difficulties in recruiting individuals, especially younger workers with more attractive job options. "Until we hit a wage rate that will produce all the drivers we want, we will have a shortage," he says.

Contributing to the job's diminished appeal, says Goodson, are shippers' practices that can add unproductive and uncompensated hours to a driver's workday. When the federal hours-of-service rules counted idle time at a shipper's premises as being off the clock, drivers who were paid by the mile didn't mind as they were well compensated. Because the revamped hours-of-service regulations now count hours spent loading, unloading, and waiting as on-duty time, drivers try to avoid shippers whose practices cause delays that cut into their compensation. Let those expensive delays happen too often, and truckers won't find the profession to be worth their while—a situation that will only exacerbate the shortage of qualified drivers.