Page 40 - ATR 2 2014 web

paying for It

Financial help for would-be truck drivers can be hard to find

By Jennifer Barnett Reed – usually at least $5,000 — is simply out Transport, ABF Freight Systems, USA

Contributing Writer of reach. Truck, PAM Transport and Maverick
“It doesn’t seem like a great cost, USA — and about 6,000 trucking com-
It’s not news to anyone in the but if you’re already in dire straits and panies overall. That’s a lot of companies
transportation industry that the nation- have lost your job, it’s a barrier many looking for workers.
wide shortage of truck drivers is real can’t get past on their own,” Summers “We’re not doing a good job of
and is only going to worsen in the com- said. finding those people, and if we do find
ing years. Meanwhile, good-paying jobs are them, it requires a $4,000 to $8,000
It’s also probably not news that going unfilled. training piece to get them in the truck,”
a significant number of Americans — “Now that the economy is com- Summers said. “People who are long-
3.6 million, actually — have been out ing back, there’s more freight trucking term unemployed don’t have that kind
of work for at least six of cash to spend.”
months. Some trucking com-
It seems like it should panies do offer to front
be fairly easy to add 2 + the training costs for new
2 and get 4: An industry hires, Newton said, but
in sore need of new work- having to pay that money
ers and workers in sore back out of their paychecks
need of decent-paying over a few months keeps
jobs, seem like the perfect them from getting back on
combination. And in fact, their feet financially.
many new truck drivers “It dis-incentivizes and
have come into the profes- discourages drivers from
sion after careers in other the get-go to stay on the
industries. But it’s not job,” she said.
necessarily an easy path to President Barack
follow. Obama focused atten-
Robert Summers, tion on the long-term
director of business and transportation companies can haul, but they’re turning unemployed during his State of the
technology at Arkansas State University down business because they don’t have Union speech in January, and recently
- Newport, said the major barrier he drivers to get it there,” said Shannon authorized $150 million in federal grant
sees is financial. Truck driving educa- Newton, vice president of the Arkansas money for state/business partnership
tion programs like the one at his school Trucking Association. programs aimed at training or retrain-
provide a certificate of proficiency, The Bureau of Labor Statistics esti- ing workers for jobs that businesses are
which means they don’t qualify for mates the need for truck drivers will now hiring foreign workers to fill.
most federal financial aid programs. grow by 11 percent from 2012 to 2022, Unfortunately, truck driving is not
“Unless a student has a source of or by almost 200,000 jobs. Currently, on the state’s list of target occupations,
job retraining funds or is a veteran, about 30,000 trucking jobs are unfilled said Mike Kennedy of the Arkansas
there’s no funding directly available for nationwide —jobs that pay a median sal- Department of Workforce Services. In
this group of students,” he said. ary of more than $38,000 per year. Arkansas, those grant funds will be
And for someone who’s been out of Arkansas is home to six of the targeted mainly at the technology sector
work six months or longer, the cost of a nation’s largest for-hire trucking com- and medical field.
four-week truck driver training program panies — FedEx Freight, J.B. Hunt “We’re going to try to see if we can

40 aRkaNSaS tRuckiNg RepoRt | issue 2 2014