Trucking Firm Brings Drivers East to Va. Ports

Click here to write a Letter to the Editor.

o combat a shortage of drivers, a company with operations near Virginia’s ports brought drivers with it from California, the Newport News (Va.) Daily Press reported.

California Multimodal Inc., or CMI, which began operating in Hampton Roads, Va., in November, brought five independent truckers who typically work for it from California, with more expected to follow, the paper reported.

Truckers are in strong demand, both in Virginia and nationally. American Trucking Associations in May said there are about 1.3 million long-distance truckers in the United States, with a need for 20,000 more. (Click here for previous coverage.)

On any given day, the local Virginia ports’ region could use 125 more truckers to haul cargo containers in and out of seaport terminals, Chick Rosemond, a vice president at Wyatt Transfer in Richmond, Va., told the Daily Press.

CMI, based in Signal Hill, Calif., near the busy Port of Long Beach, decided earlier this year to do business in Virginia, after the company's owner, Bob Curry Jr., saw growing trade between Asia and the East Coast, the Daily Press said.

For years, goods from China bound for the East Coast have unloaded at West Coast ports such as Los Angeles and Long Beach, then trucked or railed across the country.

But increasingly, products are being sent to the East Coast by ship via the Panama Canal, and that is expected to increase with upcoming renovations to make the canal wider, in order to accommodate larger ships, the paper reported.