Marketing manager Scott McNiel estimates the firm could hire 50 more drivers if it could find qualified candidates. The irony is not lost on McNiel that even in a tough economy in a blue-collar state, truck driving jobs often go begging.
“Everybody wants to have a local job where they are home every night. That's not going to happen.”
If projections are right, the squeeze is destined to tighten in the years ahead. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor, national demand for truck drivers is projected to rise by 330,000 jobs by 2020. In 2012, it calculated there were 1.6 million tractor-trailer and heavy-truck drivers in the United States.