Perhaps the biggest fleet-related issue that probably isn’t going away any time soon is the shortage of drivers, especially those with a commercial driver’s license (CDL). Although it’s hard to look at a national unemployment rate below 4 percent as anything but good news, an unfortunate consequence of such a positive economic trend is that it’s become even harder to recruit and retain qualified drivers.
However, the upside is that it’s forced beverage fleet managers to rethink how they find, train and keep their drivers. And a pervasive trend currently is the shift in focus toward smaller vehicles that don’t require CDL drivers.