North Dakota Signs Emergency Order to Help Recruit Truckers to Deliver Milk

Trucker shortages are being felt across North America, with the U.S. experiencing a shortage of more than 80,000 truck drivers according to an estimate from the American Trucking Association.

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, singed an emergency order on Tuesday that is meant to ease a shortage of truck drivers to deliver milk to schools, business and other customers, according to the Associated Press.

The emergency order will temporarily waive the hours of service requirements for truck drivers for 30 days, which follows a decision by the state's milk marketing board to waive enforcement of certain licensing requirements until April 1. The emergency measures come after a major milk distributor in North Dakota went out of business, due in part to a lack of certified drivers, putting rural consumers and more than 50 school districts at risk of losing milk deliveries. North Dakota currently has 49,858 drivers with a commercial driver’s license (CDL), down from 52,824 in 2017.

“We’re grateful for the efforts of the Milk Marketing Board and the distributors who stepped up to ensure that students and other North Dakota citizens can continue to receive reliable milk deliveries,” Burgum said in a press release. “Our actions today are only a temporary fix for a much larger challenge, however. We are committed to fostering the innovations needed to get government out of the way and encourage more drivers to enter the workforce. Over the coming weeks, the Department of Transportation will continue to focus on reducing wait times at DOT testing locations and working with third-party testers to expand testing opportunities.”

This temporary fix will help ensure that businesses, nursing homes, senior citizen centers and schools all have access to milk. However, there seems to be no quick fix to supply chain issues and trucker shortages in sight.

“We have adequate production and processing of milk," Goehring said in a statement. "Our concerns lie with access to containers for processors, labor issues within the supply chain and a major shortage of drivers.”