Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com • September 25, 2017 • Hartford Business Journal 13 trucking experts say. Others have shed their long-haul routes and now drive for courier services and dis- tributors offering shorter, one-day routes, where they can leave home in the morning, do their runs, then return home that night. Known in the industry as "last-mile deliv- ery,'' experts say large logistics operators that warehouse and distribute products for grocers, merchandise retailers and other third parties are stepping up and buying small trucking lines to handle those quick deliveries. That expands opportunities and options for drivers. "People want more home time," Pruchnicki said. "They want more family time. The money doesn't seem to be the catchall anymore.'' And the pay is good. According to the state Department of Labor wage data, Connecticut truckers with a commercial driver's license earn from a median $12 an hour for least seasoned drivers to a median $23 an hour for more experience. New, inexperienced Coastal drivers start at $24 an hour; more expe- rienced drivers earn up to $80,000 a year, Pruchnicki said. Another contribu- tor to the shortage, Costello said, is a federal rule banning drivers younger than 21 from driving big rigs between states. That rule, he said, is outdated considering many 18 year olds who don't attend col- lege are immediately searching for a job to earn a living. "They just can't sit around and wait until they're 21 to get a job,'' he said. Recruitment efforts Somers' New England Tractor Trailer School, which has tutored truck drivers since 1965, has about 500 pupils enrolled there and at its Bridgeport satellite campus, about the same count as a year ago, said Mark Greenberg, the school's second-generation owner and a third-generation trucker. His student-drivers average 24- to 36 years old, an indication that Millennials are recognizing the job and career opportuni- ties in the field, Greenberg said. He said he's uncertain whether he's training enough new drivers to fill the void. "When's enough enough? … We see older workers coming out of industries that aren't paying enough,'' Greenberg said, citing retail, light construction and food services. "We see people who are working but have no trained skills.'' Pruchnicki, who chair's the MTAC board, said he and a partner started Coastal Carriers to haul gasoline, heating and liquid hazardous waste. He said he could take on more business today if he knew he could comfortably hire five new drivers, but that's a challenge. To entice new talent, Pruchnicki said he has invested in newer trucks with comput- er-controlled gearboxes to replace 10-speed, stick-shift transmissions. Coastal also offers its 50 nonunion drivers, whose average age is the mid-40s, floating holidays and quarterly incentive bonuses, up to $500, for keeping semis clean and accident free, and being up to date on mandated hourly/mileage logs and other paperwork, he said. After six months, new drivers get a travel bag embossed with Coastal's logo. "It's a cheap way to say 'thank you'," said Pruchnicki. "You have to do those things to get people to come into the industry.'' Dattco's DeVivo says part of the hiring/ retention solution lies in creating a better work environment and showing drivers they are appreciated. That means upgrading truck/ bus fleets with newer, modern vehicles, along with better pay, benefits and perks. "They have to want to come to work for you,'' DeVivo said. License bottleneck Trucking has em- braced internet technol- ogy, such as YouTube and webinars, to train drivers, observers say. But modern training tools cannot overcome the licensing bottleneck in Connecticut for a Class A (heavy truck) or Class B (box truck) com - mercial driver's license, or CDL, observers say. The state Department of Motor Vehicles con- firms its corps of CDL driving inspectors each handle five to six, behind-the-wheel tests a day. Each test takes about 90 minutes, due to all the state and federal requirements that must be observed in testing, a DMV spokesman said. DMV has taken steps to shorten the test- ing wait time, which Greenberg of the New England Tractor Trailer School says now extends to 30 days. "We do testing during the week at 30 com- panies statewide and on weekends at 21 com- panies that are willing to pay for all expenses involved with bringing in a DMV employee to administer the test,'' DMV spokesman William Seymour said via email. "This is designed to help companies expedite the process of put- ting qualified drivers on the road." Brokers: Though plenty to offer, CT an unlikely Amazon home By Gregory Seay gseay@HartfordBusiness.com O nline retail giant Amazon's explosive growth and market influence has been a factor in the rapid growth and labor demand in the nation's trucking industry. Connecticut is home to a major Ama- zon customer-order fulfillment facility off Day Hill Road in Windsor. It also has a smaller, "order-sorting'' center in Wallingford and just announced plans to open another distribution center in North Haven. But it's the tan- talizing prospect of landing in Connect- icut a headquarters facility for Amazon — a tech-savvy online retailer employing some 50,000 skilled, highly paid workers — that has economic- development officials and politicians in Connecticut and almost every other state quaking at the opportunity. An estimated 100 applicants are pursuing Amazon's headquarters, published reports say. Hartford, on behalf of the entire state, will be among them. "We plan to make a pitch to Amazon, and we plan to work with our partners around the region to do it,'' Mayor Luke Bronin said in an email statement. " … We can compete and win, but to do it we're going to have to think, act, and market ourselves as unified metropolitan areas." The state Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD), too, is collaborating with communities on an Amazon pitch but, DECD spokes- man Jim Watson said, "it is too early to say which one(s). We've invited all towns to submit proposals for sites." However, there is one group of profes- sionals — commercial real estate brokers — for whom the excitement of having one of the world's richest corporations owned by one of the world's richest people establish a major presence in their backyard must be tempered with realism. Though most agree having Amazon lay corporate roots in Connecticut, per- haps the Greater Hartford region, would be great, they say it's pretty unlikely. "As much as I wish the answer were different I don't think there is any chance of the Hartford region attracting Amazon,'' said Jay Wamester, principal/ market leader for Colliers International in Hartford. "We just don't check enough boxes on their wish list. The best bet might be Fairfield County but even then the business climate in Connecticut is something that lots of companies don't want to get in the middle of." Amazon said it would prefer to open the headquarters in a suburban or urban area with more than 1 million people. It's looking for a community that "thinks big" and a location that will attract tech- nical talent. It also wants a good and stable business climate environ- ment. Mayors from Toronto, Canada, to Tulsa, Okla., rushed out re- sponses, calling their cities prime candidates. Baltimore, Boston, Columbus, Detroit, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Vancouver and Washington D.C. also expressed interest. Joel Grieco, executive director of office brokerage for Cushman & Wakefield in Hartford, said Connecticut has sufficient infrastructure, a sizable academic cluster, and other amenities that would appeal to Amazon. But Grieco harbors concerns. "My knee-jerk reaction is that Con- necticut's governance is probably ill- suited to properly pursue an opportunity such as this. Incentives and cost of doing business will be a huge factor in Amazon's decision. Sadly, our reputation as a state precedes us. But we should still try." Andrew Filler, principal in Boston broker Avison Young LLC's Hartford region office, says that "from a practical standpoint, the Greater Hartford area is a great Northeast location. Halfway between New York City and Boston, with a ton of intellectual capital close by." The region also offers important infrastruc- ture amenities, including highway prox- imity and an international airport. But Filler says Connecticut's reputa- tion for high taxes and regulation could hamper its efforts to lure Amazon. "My concern is the anti-business repu- tation Connecticut now has and how that would effect a decision,'' he said. CNNMoney contributed to this report. BY THE NUMBERS CT's Trucking Industry 57,760 The number of jobs provided by the state's trucking industry in 2015. $3 billion Total trucking industry wages paid in Connecticut in 2015. $51,878 The average annual salary for truckers in Connecticut in 2015. Source: CT DOL The state is working with some communities eager to woo Amazon's headquarters. IMAGE | CNN PHOTO | SAM RODRIGUEZ, ALL AMERICAN AERIAL PHOTO | PABLO ROBLES Middletown truck hauling company Bailey's Express helps move goods across a three- state footprint in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

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