Truck driving is a tough job. Nearly 5,000 people die on U.S. roads each year in accidents involving trucks, and this demanding profession is known to come with many mental and physical health risks. Yet truck driving remains the most popular occupation in 29 U.S. states. But that may be changing.
Despite being backed by an $800 billion annual freight business, being a popular job and offering competitive wages and benefits, the industry is in the midst of a generational change and facing a labor shortage.
The typical truck driver is 57 years old, and that average age is rising.
The industry is struggling to find new workers, with annual turnover rates approaching 100% — the shortage could reach 175,000 by 2024, according to the American Trucking Associations. So desperate is the labor shortage that even teenagers are being hired to drive 18-wheeler trucks.
Fortunately for the industry and its workers, the self-driving car movement is fast approaching and could be just what the industry needs to modernize its image, attract younger workers, and improve the quality of jobs at the same time.
And contrary to popular belief, self-driving cars will still need workers for the foreseeable future.
With an eye on both the future of self-driving cars and the truck driving workforce, TuSimple, the first publicly traded self-driving technology company in the U.S., approached Pima Community College in Arizona to offer the first self-driving certification for truck drivers.
The companies hope the new autonomous vehicle jobs will offer young workers safer working conditions, more flexible schedules and the opportunity to learn transferable technical skills they can use in future jobs outside of trucking.
The five-class, 12-credit Autonomous Vehicle Driver and Operations Specialist certification program is designed to improve the skills of current workers who hold a Class A Commercial Driver’s License (CDL), which is required to operate tractor-trailers and other truck vehicles.
Because employers are also looking for workers to perform duties other than driving, the Class A CDL prerequisite is waived for new workers.
The program can be completed part-time or full-time, online or in-person, and equips students with an applied understanding of logistics, computer information systems, and advanced industrial technology. The certificate can also be stacked toward Pima College’s advanced degree programs in Automation Industrial Technology, Logistics and Supply Chain Management, and Cybersecurity.
The cost of the program varies from $868 to $3,228 depending on the format selected and is included on the list of eligible training providers that receive WIOA funding.
Pima also hopes to diversify the predominantly white, male profession of truck driving. More than 75% of enrollment is people of color, with 22% each being black and Latino. 11% are Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, 22% are Asian and 22% are white.
Meanwhile, 62% of all traditional commercial truck drivers are white.
Why did Pima Community College stand out to TuSimple as the right partner to provide training for these emerging occupations?
While it may sound appealing, training for the “jobs of the future” can be risky, especially outside degree level, and not all emerging jobs are high quality jobs.
When negotiations began, TuSimple had fewer than 10 employees and no trucks or warehouse in Tucson, but now it’s a unicorn valued at more than $1 billion.
While research universities hire administrators and faculty with relevant expertise to carve out areas of local technology-based economic development, this is not the case at most community colleges.
Pima acknowledges that it and other community colleges can’t train in every hot emerging technology field. They and other colleges need to strategically decide which emerging jobs resulting from new technologies are worth prioritizing.
For Pima, the strategy has been to embed itself within the state’s economic development structure, train with purpose and avoid hype.
Notably, Pima College President Lee Lambert served as the only community college voice on the board of directors of Sun Corridor, a public-private economic development organization, which recommended Pima College as an ideal training partner for TuSimple, further enhancing the college’s status as an economic development player.
However, many university presidents serve on such committees.
To ensure the operational success of its economic development mission, Pima has asked this article’s co-author, Ian Roark, to serve as Pima’s official liaison on employer relations as well as local economic development.
“Other universities typically don’t have a formal economic development function assigned to them,” Ian says. “At Pima, workforce development is positioned as part of a broader economic development context. It’s not enough to train for jobs that already exist. Pima wants to drive job creation in the region because it means more opportunities for our learners.”
