Driver Shortage in California Creating Uncertainty for 2021 Harvest

One of the great commercial challenges of the ongoing pandemic has been to maintain a steady supply of food and medical supplies. Despite signs of recovery, the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to present an unprecedented challenge to California’s food industry. One of those challenges could be a severe shortage of truck drivers for this harvest season.

Each year a successful harvest requires a significant number of trucks and drivers to be available throughout the state to move the harvest-ready fruits and vegetables, both fresh and process ripened, from the field to packing houses or to food processor facilities. This is especially true for California. Internationally, California is the world's fifth largest supplier of food, cotton fiber, tomatoes and other agricultural commodities. Nationally, California is the leader among the Top 10 agriculture-producing states in the U.S. with over $50 billion in cash receipts for all agriculture commodities accounting for 13.5% of the U.S. receipts for all agriculture commodities.

Yet, that counts for nothing if the food can’t reach its destination — your tables.

Last year, the food service business collapsed as restaurants shut down and schools, colleges and entertainment venues ceased operations under COVID-19 restrictions. The loss of food service had farmers and growers plowing over crops. However, retail grocers saw an upshot in demand. As a result, many food processors turned to their warehouses to keep up with demand.

Now, with COVID-19 on the decline and states reopening, food service is expected to ramp up and processors are counting on the harvest to meet the demand, as well as looking to replenish depleted warehouse inventories.

But a driver shortage, coming at this most critical time, has created uncertainty in the food industry.

Since February, Southern California agricultural haulers have been reporting driver shortages of up to 30% for long-term seasonal drivers for both fresh and processed produce. According to trucking companies, the outlook is even more grim for the valley harvest. Some agricultural haulers are warning California’s processors that driver shortages could reach as high as 50 to 60% as early as June.

While some of the shortages can be attributed to COVID-19, trucking company recruiters are reporting that the recent extension of federal unemployment benefits has added to the problem. Though likely an unintended consequence, trucking companies are reporting that many seasonal drivers are not seeking work citing the availability of unemployment and are not likely to return to work until late-September when the unemployment ends.

There is no silver bullet to fix the driver shortage crisis currently threatening California growers and food processors. But steps can be taken to mitigate the impact in the short-term and allow agricultural haulers to increase the efficient use of available assets for this harvest season. But those steps need to be taken quickly.

One of the simplest solutions would be to increase the weight limits for trucks hauling produce from the field to the factory during the harvest season. Allowing a weight tolerance increase of 10% from the current 80,000 lbs. to 88,000 lbs. would bring a host of benefits at not a huge cost such as decreasing the number of trucks on the road as well as cutting down on pollution and increasing road safety.

But achieving this weight increase is tricky given the overlapping authorities between the state roads and the federal highways. CLFP is working with the agricultural transport companies serving our members to provide solutions before this shortage becomes a crisis.

By John Larrea, CLFP Government Affairs Director