LAKESIDE, Calif. — With 3.5 million truck drivers in the U.S. according to the U.S. Census, you'd think there'd be a surplus of drivers, bur industry experts say that still is not nearly enough.
United Truck Driving School training coordinator and admissions counselor Phil Harris said the pandemic underscored the high demand for more drivers.
"There's no one going into it, everyone is retiring, and now retiring even faster than before because we've always had a shortage. The industries are hurting for drivers, and now their pay is coming up,” said Harris, who started driving tow trucks at 18 years upon his CHP father’s suggestion.
United Truck Driving School classes are packed with students willing to pay the $5,000 course fee in cash to ensure their process in getting a class A or B commercial driver’s license to quickly get on the road to work.
“Across the nation, we have hit our shortage a lot faster than we thought with nearly 200,000 drivers down. A lot of things are going up, we are going to see a 30% increase in our groceries because we can’t get it to the stores. With the shipping in LA, we can't get the containers in because there are not truckers to get the containers out,” said Harris, who is an Army veteran police officer.
On the United Truck Driving School’s driving yard in Lakeside, students learn the ropes.
Jason Lindsay has been in truck driving school for three weeks. He's driven a tow truck before but never a semi and is excited for a new opportunity.
"I'm from Oceanside where we have FedEx, and Coca-Cola and Superior Ready Mix, which are all like a half a mile from my house, and everybody is hiring, literally everybody is hiring nowadays,” Lindsay said.
After seeing the global need for truck drivers in countries such as England with a mass shortage impacting getting gasoline, student drivers in San Diego feel like they’re in the right field for job security.
“There are logs, air brakes, you have to do a full truck safety inspection and back up that big trailer. You got to be good at math, be mechanically inclined and you have to have patience for your drivers out there, who act like they don’t see you, but you are the biggest thing on the road,” Lindsay said.
With 20 student drivers in a class, many get one-on-one training before some are able to make $50,000 to $60,000 a year. Harris stresses there is more work than what meets the eye.
"Oh, $22 an hour, and we are driving our cars, and we look up, and we see this guy doing the same thing, but just in a bigger vehicle, uhhh let me go get my license, I can do that. But we are away from home for long stretches at a time, and we just work a lot so the turnover is always going to be there,” Harris said.
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