Need a job? Become a trucker

The trucking industry has 200,000 job openings.

Thu, Jul 26 2012 at 12:07 PM

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Green Jobs, Transportation

A couple of days ago, a headline on CNNMoney.com announced that the trucking industry has 200,000 job openings. I didn’t think much of it because trucking isn’t exactly a green job. Then the topic came up on Wolf Blitzer’s "The Situation Room," and Jack Cafferty even dedicated his question to viewers to the topic. The sudden attention to the topic definitely piqued my interest.

On Tuesday, David Heller of the Truckload Carriers Association told CNN that there were about 200,000 jobs open in the trucking industry. Unemployment is stagnating above the 8 percent mark, but here sit 200,000 open jobs. That doesn’t sound logical.

It’s not just that there are hundreds of thousands of open jobs now, but the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) expects trucking industry jobs to increase by 20 percent in this decade. With this many jobs sitting vacant, it looks like trucking is going to be a high-demand career until at least 2020.

So why are there so many trucking jobs open? This was one of the big issues covered in the CNNMoney.com article, Tons of trucking jobs …that nobody wants. Turnover is high in the industry because living life as an over-the-road trucker isn’t easy, especially for drivers with families.

However, that’s not even the first hurdle to filling these open jobs. Long-haul truck drivers must complete a commercial driver’s license (CDL) certification class and this takes both time and money. Unemployment checks certainly aren’t going to foot the bill for a $6,000 CDL class.

The upfront financial cost was the topic of Lynn Alexander’s answer to Jack Cafferty’s question, “With 8.2% unemployment, why does nobody want 200,000 trucking jobs?” on "The Situation Room" Facebook page.

“The problem is not wanting to take a job of this nature but when you have been unemployed since 2007 like my husband has due to the housing industry, it takes every dime I earn to support our family, I can not put the money out to pay for all the certifications and so forth.”

This definitely supports the saying, “it takes money to make money.” This also poses a bigger question: what does the trucking industry need to do to draw in more employees and retain these workers for the long term?

Related transportation story: Truck-stop fitness centers help drivers stay in shape

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Comments: 3

Enter your name Jul 29 2012 at 3:22 AM

It sounds like an adventure but Imagine going across the Rockys or Mount Eagle in a snowstorm, you have to stop and put chains on your tires and then drive 25 mph for hours over the hump, then stop and in 12 degree weather remove the chains, then you continue on, but now your Hours behind and the Dispatcher and the New EOBR says you must ge tthere by 8 am, AND YOUR TIRED...and you cant stop so you drink coffee, and you Drive on and you get the load delivered because if you dont you dont get paid.....

.... More

and you do this all winter, or all summer, In every kind of extreme including Wind that over turn your truck......and your pulled into the weight station, and the MAN wants you to come inside, your logs are inspected, your medical fitness is called into question, wheres your medical card, who is your doctor, where are you going, Lets go look at your brakes, and they inspect your load, and your truck, and YOU...... This is a daily and weekly life of a trucker, You eat at Popeyes, or Wendys, or Taco Bell or Subway....the choices are limited, the truck stops are filled with SODA, CANDY, SUGAR SNAKS AND COFFEE...theres no healthy choice, no salads, no fruit,... You fuel and get a FREE shower and go back to your truck in the parking lot, just whe you think your about to fall asleep the knock on the door of a Lot Lizard, or someone wanting to sell something stolen, or if your in an area where you cant run your engine you have to turn off the truck or your ticketed, or worse FINED.... And as you fall asleep in your bunk some young local driver with the big chrome pipes thinks its funny to let his jake brake spout off and you jump outta bed as the loud truck roars down the aisle waking everyone..... The you fall asleep and the EOBR BEEPS, AND BEEPS, AND BEEPS, Until you get up and answer the dispatcher asking if your parked for the night....an hour later it happens again....BEEP...BEEP..BEEP Now they want to know where you are......this hapens quite allot, each day...stupid questions as they know where you are, know your parked but now they have a device EOBR....that they can use to move you down the road,.......

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horacenick Jul 27 2012 at 2:20 PM

Actually i'm considering this as i saw this article. Thanks!

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thegreentraveler Jul 27 2012 at 2:04 PM

While I'm sure there are plenty of people that would take the life of a trucker as a living, and an enjoyable one, personally I'm just not sure if I can keep my butt on the seat of a truck or stay in traffic that long. It'd drive me insane.