Truck Driving Industry Looking to Hire Thousands of Employees

WARNER ROBINS, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – For those seeking employment, finding a job is a job. But even in this tough economy, there is one industry looking to hire thousands of people.

David Bazemore never thought he’d be a truck driver. He spent most of his working life in the food industry, but recently he’s made a big change.

“It’s very difficult to keep a good job in a restaurant and when I left that industry, I was sitting back trying to decide what would be a good industry to get into, where is there a lot of demand,” Bazemore said.

And truck driving was the answer. Middle Georgia Technical College offers an eight week commercial truck driving program. Instructor John Barfield says his students learn the basics needed to get an entry level job.

“It’s a good opportunity for short term training and a lucrative career to follow,” Barfield said.

And there is a high demand for drivers. According to a recent report from the Georgia Center of Innovation for Logistics, US companies are expected to create more than 115,000 jobs per year by 2016, but the number of people getting trained for those jobs is barely 10 percent.

“A lot of the veteran drivers, 40, 50, 60 year old drivers are starting to retire, hit that retirement age and there’s just not enough people coming into the industry to fill those seats,” Barfield said.

He also says there is another reason why many aren’t driving the big rigs.

“The bad part is you’re going to have to travel quite a bit at first and be away from your family,” he said.

But if you can handle that and parallel park an 18 wheeler, then the trucking industry wants you.

Barfield says 90 percent of his students are pre-hired or have job offers before they graduate. He also says the income for truck drivers isn’t bad. Many first year drivers make around 30 thousand and after a few years of experience drivers can make up to 60 thousand dollars a year.