An Arizona news station recently reported on a potential surge in nationwide food prices due to issues in the trucking industry.
Much of the United State’s winter produce come across the border of Mexico and through the city of Nogales, Arizona, where it is then loaded onto semi trucks and taken to various retailers across the country. This year, however, Jim Watson, who runs JSJ Enterprises trucking company in Arizona, says that he barely has enough drivers to move the produce out of the warehouse.
CBS-5 in Arizona, interviewed Watson, who says that he’s been aggressively trying to hire drivers, but has consistently come up short.
“I have announced my job openings in newspapers, on craigslist. We have job fairs… I think I’ve had one application,” Watson explained.
According to industry estimates, there’s currently an estimated “shortage” of 50,000 truck drivers in the country. Some people, however, argue that there isn’t an actual shortage of drivers, but instead, a lack of drivers willing to take historically low pay that companies and shippers are demanding.
In their report, CBS 5 reporters say there’s an estimated 1,500 empty tractor trailers sitting in Nogales right now, but with no one to drive them, the prices of food coming through Nogales are expected to increase dramatically.
Prices have already risen from $1,600 for a load from Nogales to Los Angeles, to $2,200, and will likely continue to rise.
“A lot of these produce companies are going to move out of Nogales and find other ways to transport their product so a lot of local workers are going to be out of a job,” said Watson.
For now, Watson has hired 20 Mexican truck drivers with valid U.S. commercial drivers licenses to transport produce into the country, but it is not a permanent solution.
Mexican truck drivers are only permitted to drive from Mexico straight to their drop-off location, and then back to Mexico, making it impossible for the produce shipped to Nogales to be picked up and transported by these drivers.
Until a solution can be found, consumers in the US will have to cope with the rising prices of food and all other goods dependent on the trucking industry. When it hits their wallet, the general public may realize that a disruption in the trucking industry doesn’t just affect truckers — it affects the entire country.
