ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, April 5, 1997 TAG: 9704070013
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON THE ROANOKE TIMES
The trucking industry is hungry for drivers and one carrier in Roanoke is making a bid for those being cast off by another firm's closing.
The trucking industry needs drivers, and few know that better than George Dobyns, chief recruiter for the Roanoke operation of Cardinal Freight Carriers of Concord, N.C.
Today Dobyns will stage a truck-drivers' job fair at a Roanoke motel. His target: More than 70 Roanoke-based drivers recently told by Shorewood Packaging Corp. of New York they were being laid off.
Shorewood announced last month that it will close its local trucking unit. The company will continue processing packaging material at an adjacent Roanoke plant but expects to phase out most of its trucking operations by the end of April.
The Cardinal Freight event will be from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Colony House Motor Lodge on Franklin Road.
Long-distance trucking is the nation's primary means of moving consumer goods and industrial materials, and the industry is in a pinch for drivers. The trade magazine Virginia Trucking reported in 1995 that an estimated 93 percent of trucking companies nationwide had turned down work because they were short of drivers.
Those numbers still hold true, according to Tim Shephard, vice president of safety at Howell's Motor Freight Inc. in Roanoke.
The Virginia Employment Commission has a "a great deal" of truck-driving jobs in its lists of openings, said Marjorie Skidmore, manager of the agency's Roanoke office.
Employee turnover is a major reason so many trucking companies almost always need to hire drivers, said Shephard and Skidmore. One reason drivers are hanging it up is time away from home : They often sleep more nights on the road than in their own beds.
The average wage for Roanoke area trucking company personnel, including drivers and other hourly workers and salaried managers, was $12.75 last summer, according to the most recent VEC data.
Despite the driver shortage, the trucking business continues to grow. The American Trucking Association estimates the industry will need 300,000 new drivers every year through 2005.
Turn to a newspaper classified section and the come-ons jump out:
"Home Weekends!" said a help-wanted ad placed last month by Howell's Motor Freight. "New pay package," announced Epes Transport System of Greensboro, N.C. "Make Big Money," said an ad listing a toll-free phone number and no company name.
So it comes as little surprise that Shorewood's layoff caught the attention of trucking companies with local operations.
Cardinal Freight, which serves the East and Midwest, said its need for drivers is constant. But soon it will grow more intense; the company is expanding its fleet of 600 truck tractors by 60 and needs to hire at least as many drivers. The carrier will hire as many in the Roanoke area as possible; meanwhile, recruiters in Richmond, West Virginia and North Carolina also are on the hunt.
Cardinal Freight will pay drivers with three years' experience 28 cents a mile, Dobyns said. Those with five accident-free years with their last or current employer will get 30 cents a mile. Top pay for drivers at Cardinal is 34 cents a mile.
Roanoke "is just a good spot to work for us, because we have an awful lot of traffic that flows through here," Dobyns added. The freight travels Interstate 81 and U.S. 220, he said.
LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: CARY BEST THE ROANOKE TIMES. 1. For Cardinal Freightby CNBdrivers like Joe Thomas, wages run from 28 to 34 cents a mile. The
expanding company needs to hire at least 60 more truckers. color. 2.
George Dobyns (right), a recruiter for Cardinal Freight, talks over
routes with driver Donald Ripke. Dobyns faces competition from other
staff-hungry freight companies.