Truck Driving Jobs and Truck Driver Jobs:
The Future and Saving Money in Your Search

Before looking at the future of truck driving jobs and truck driver jobs, it is instructive to take a look at the past and the present.

Truck Driving Jobs: The Past

In May 2005, Truckline.com reported: "Current Trucking Industry Shortage of 20,000 Drivers may Jump to 111,000 by 2014" and that "the driver segment most severely impacted" was long-haul truckers, which represented at the time 1.3 million of the 3.4 million truck drivers on the road. (1) One author wrote on Sept. 26, 2007, "there's always a shortage of drivers."(2) Have A great truck driving jobs money saving idea? Share it!

Paul F. Grayson, Chief Engineer for American Industrial Magic, LLC, wrote on March 19, 2008,

Estimates are that the USA is about 54,000 drivers short of what the nation needs and by 2014 - just 6 years from now, the nation will be 111,000 drivers short of what is needed to keep the economy moving.

What impact did the huge spike in the cost of diesel -- the fuel required to run the trucks driven by those with truck driver jobs -- have on the trucking industry in 2008? A June 13, 2008 article from a major newspaper in South Carolina (our home state) cited the at-that-time soaring diesel fuel costs as one reason why "hundreds of small to mid-sized trucking outfits are folding -- leaving legions of trained drivers looking for work."

The author further stated that thousands of the nation's 18-wheelers were off the road due to increased price competition among trucking companies. "During the first three months of this year, 935 trucking companies filed for bankruptcy, according to Avondale Partners research. That's the highest failure rate seen since the economic slump of the early 2000s, Broughton said." (Donald Broughton is the transportation industry analyst at the investment firm Avondale Partners.) "Broughton estimates that more than 42,000 long-haul trucks — roughly 2 percent of the nation's fleet of about 2 million — were idled during the quarter."

On October 13, 2008, one blogger wrote, 

The trucking industry has long been a barometer of the vitality of the U.S. economy. Historically, there has been a strong correlation between the condition of the U.S. economy and the volume of freight shipments hauled by the nation's trucking companies. Manufacturing output has seen a significant slowdown over the last two months, thus contributing to the gloomy outlook for the trucking industry as a whole. Many experts believe that cargo volume will stabilize in the near future....(4)

Truck Driving Jobs: The Present

In a January 28, 2009 article citing the setting of National Truck Driver Appreciation Week, the American Trucking Associations stated:

"There are over 3.5 million professional truck drivers nationwide - delivering the goods U.S. consumers need every day of the year. Logging over 432 billion miles per year, trucks delivered 10.7 billion tons of freight in 2007, or 69 percent of total U.S. freight tonnage. Professional truck drivers are more essential to the national economy than ever before, and they're delivering their loads safely and professionally."(5)

The American Trucking Associations reported on January 26, 2009 that the "advanced seasonally adjusted For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index plunged 11.1 percent in December 2008, marking the largest month-to-month reduction since April 1994..." and "Compared with December 2007, the index declined 14.1 percent, the biggest year-over-year decrease since February 1996. During the fourth quarter, tonnage was down 6.0 percent from the same quarter in 2007." ATA's Chief Economist predicted that truck tonnage will not likely improve much before the third quarter of 2009.(6)

Then in 2010, there was this news, "For all of 2009, the tonnage index was down 8.7 percent (slightly larger than the previously reported 8.3 percent drop), which was the largest annual decrease since a 12.3 percent plunge in 1982."(7)

Truck Driving Jobs: The Future

The United States Department of Labor publishes an Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH) every two years that includes information about the nature of the work, training, employment, earnings and job outlook for hundreds of different occupations. In its biennial 2010-11 edition, this handbook provided information about "Truck Drivers and Driver/Sales Workers."

Under its "Employment" section, it read:

Truck drivers and driver/sales workers held about 3.2 million jobs in 2008. Of these workers, 56 percent were heavy truck and tractor-trailer drivers; 31 percent were light or delivery services truck drivers; and 13 percent were driver/sales workers.

Stating that "Average employment growth is expected" this OOH stated:

Overall employment of truck drivers and driver/sales workers is expected to grow 9 percent over the 2008-18 decade, which is about as fast as the average for all occupations. As the economy grows, the demand for goods will increase, which will lead to more job opportunities. Because it is such a large occupation, 291,900 new jobs will be created over the 2008-18 period.

The number of heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers is expected to grow 13 percent between 2008 and 2018, which is about as fast as average, mainly as a result of increasing demand for goods in the U.S. As the economy continues to grow, companies and households will continue to increase their spending on these products, many of which must be shipped over long distances.

Our Observation about Truck Driving Jobs

As of February 2, 2009, Mike's weekly miles had been down for a number of months. During the last part of 2009, his miles went up somewhat, most likely because he was volunteering to stay out on the road through some weekends because Vicki was now riding with him full-time. It used to be that it was easy to find parking at truck stops on Friday and Saturday nights. We have observed that that has not been the case for quite a number of months. We think this may be due to other drivers working through weekends just to keep their truck driving jobs.

Read more about Mike's trucking company.

Although the economic downturn has greatly affected the transportation industry, we anticipate that the volume of freight will increase at least modestly in the USA in the coming months.

Our Conclusion on Truck Driving Jobs and Truck Driver Jobs

When using money saving tips, we have found that having truck driving jobs can be profitable. During the economic downturn, some drivers have had to cut their profit margins and become more competitive with their rates. The variety of truck driver jobs depends on many factors, including the weight of your truck.

If you are thinking about entering the industry where there are truck driving jobs and truck driver jobs, you will first need to get training. Read more about truck driving training schools.

If you’re already employed in the trucking industry, explore our website to learn money saving tips to keep more of your hard earned paycheck in your pocket.

Money saving tip: Before you attempt to get a truck driving job or training for such a job, make sure that you know the nature of the job, the equipment you will be expected to use, the hours you will be expected to work, how far from home you'll be expected to travel, and how much you will be paid for your labor. It helps to know some trucking terms, which we have provided in our glossary. Don't waste your time, effort or money on training or a job that you're not well suited for. You may want to read our page on how to become a truck driver, on which we provide an overview of the job and requirements. As we know from having an account on Twitter, there are a number of firms that tweet truck driving job openings all across the USA. Following these free job posting links may or may not be free; be aware of all costs -- even in fine print -- before you proceed.

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1. http://www.truckline.com/stateindustry/pages/drivershortagereport.aspx

2. http://lifeontheroad.com/2007/09/26/truck-driver-shortage/293.html

3. http://www.controleng.com/blog/1180000318/post/440023644.html

4. http://freightfactoring.wordpress.com/2008/10/03/us-economic-crisis-impacting-publicly-traded-trucking-companies/

5. http://www.thetrucker.com/News/Stories/2009/1/28/NationalTruckDriverAppreciationWeek2009datesset.aspx

6. http://www.truckline.com/pages/article.aspx?id=471%2F{8E1C7279-ED27-4C03-B189-CEEEE26BBB12} 

7. http://www.truckline.com/pages/article.aspx?id=665%2F{8E1C7279-ED27-4C03-B189-CEEEE26BBB12}