HIGH POINT, N.C. — A trucking company, with locations in the Piedmont Triad, is hoping its driver education program can make a dent in the nationwide truck driver shortage,
Eighty percent of the United States is dependent on trucking for daily deliveries, but the pandemic hit the industry hard. In 2021, the American Trucking Association said the country was short around 80,000 drivers.
"I was told about 30 years ago (there) was going to (be) a truck driver shortage, and I thought, you're crazy; everybody wants to be a truck driver," said Sam O'Ham, the Director of Driver Training and Compliance for Estes Express Lines. "It's hard work and now you have a lot of people that's just wanting to go into the computer field and trucking is a thing of the past."
O'Ham founded the Estes Express Line's Driver Education Program to take current employees and train them to be drivers through a 14-16 week program. He said there are many reasons to join the industry.
"If you want to make a good living, you want to support your family, it’s a good place to be," O'Ham said. "If you want to see the country if you want to know that everything you buy, you might have delivered."
The American Trucking Association says there isn't one single cause of the truck driver shortage, but that means there isn't one solution either. They estimate nearly one million drivers will need to be hired over the next decade.
"Truck driving runs in my family," said Matthew Mangum, who is training to be a driver with Estes.
"Driving in general, actually, happened a little bit after my daughter passed. I was looking for a career change and ended up working two jobs from 1 a.m. in the morning until 6 p.m. at night to save up the money to get into truck driving," Mangum said.
Over the program's nearly 20-year history, they've trained more than 2,000 drivers. It costs the company about $16,000 per employee.
"It's a big investment but if we take good people and make good drivers out of them, safe drivers, that's what counts right now," O'Ham said. "Just know that you can do this job. It's tough, but it can be handled," he said.