DALLAS – Austin Carter has been driving a truck since he was 21. Even though he’s only in his late twenties, he’s as passionate about it as any of the older truckers he’s worked with.
What you need to know
- Thousands of truck drivers left the industry during the pandemic
- The average trucker is between 40 and 55 years old
- A man and a woman set up their own academy to help young drivers get their commercial driver’s license
- You’re trying to recruit younger people into the industry
“Oh my god! It’s not a job, it’s a lifestyle,” said Carter, who was parked in the parking lot of a truck stop in South Dallas. “I always wanted to do something that suited me.”
Carter said he found out by driving a semi truck. At a young age, Carter’s starting salary was $ 50,000 a year and only rose over the years after he and his fiancée Sierra Nicole started their own freight forwarding company.
However, as the pandemic hit the world, Carter saw thousands of truck drivers park and exit the trucking industry. Carter has parked his trucks too, but only to delve deeper into the industry he loves.
He and Nicole founded the Elite Trade Academy and are in the process of crowdfunding young, budding truckers to get their commercial driver’s license and be ready to hit the field in just four weeks.
Nicole even uses her large social media following to find new, young drivers.
“People are very surprised that I work in trucking,” said Nicole. “Our goal is to have a large campus on which we can serve a large number of students.”
At the moment, the youth seems to be a major target for the trucking industry.
“There’s not enough Gen Z in the industry right now,” Carter said.
Dallas-based trucker Brandon Thomas, also in his 20s, has only been driving his semi-trailer for about a year but said that during that time he has definitely noticed less company on the streets and more demand for his services.
“A lot of freight was slowed down by the pandemic and now it’s catching up. That’s why you’re seeing so many vacancies at the moment, ”said Thomas.
Along with all of the drivers who left during the pandemic, trucking seems to have an aging problem in general. Various sources put the average age of truckers on US highways between the mid-1940s, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates it could be up to 55 years old.
Many industry experts said that it is difficult to recruit new and younger drivers because of the long hours, external factors such as gasoline prices and lack of privacy that many drivers encounter.
The result is the shortage of truckers on the roads and supply chain bottlenecks in many different sectors. Some economists have even warned consumers to shop early for the holidays this year as inventory of many gift items could be low and delivery times could be long. the truck shortage is only one factor.
Thomas said he too is trying to urge young people to give the industry a chance because he thinks it suits him very well and is not as strenuous as many have made it out to be.
“The possibilities, do you understand what I mean? Driver, owner operator, you’re out there now, you know what I mean? ”Said Thomas, adding that he even returns to Dallas most nights.
Carter hopes his school can also help sell more young people for the business, because he said, simply put, it’s an industry too important to dry up.
“So that we can make sure people get their gifts, toys, gadgets, and the like, on time, we need more truckers on the road to help,” Carter said.
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