The shortage of workers willing to be truck drivers for a living is well known. But in what now poses an even bigger problem for the industry is a growing shortage of truck and diesel engine technicians. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the trucking industry will need to recruit 67,000 new technicians by 2022 just to meet demand and replace retirees – a number not including the more than 75,000 new diesel engine specialists the agency anticipates will also be needed seven years from now. Thus finding, training and keeping technicians – whose skill set requirements are becoming more intricate due to the growing complexity of trucks and related freight equipment – is going to be one of the industry’s major challenges over the coming decade and will require a range of different solutions, say experts.
