{"id":5109,"date":"2012-03-08T11:37:21","date_gmt":"2012-03-08T17:37:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=5109"},"modified":"2012-12-19T15:01:47","modified_gmt":"2012-12-19T21:01:47","slug":"in-oklahoma-and-around-the-country-the-open-road-is-always-hiring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2012\/03\/08\/in-oklahoma-and-around-the-country-the-open-road-is-always-hiring\/","title":{"rendered":"In Oklahoma and Around the Country, the Open Road is Always Hiring"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Joe Wertz \/ NPR StateImpact<\/p>\n

Jonathon Stevens drives a truck for Glass Operating Group in Newkirk, Okla.,which delivers flour to bakeries around the state. Stevens, who's been a commercial driver for 20 years, says the job brings steady pay and family difficulty.<\/p>\n<\/div>

Being a truck driver isn\u2019t easy, but becoming one is relatively simple in Oklahoma.<\/p>\n<\/div>

State unemployment is nearly double what it was before the recession, but motor carriers here are almost always hiring.<\/p>

Where did all of Oklahoma\u2019s truckers go?<\/p>

<\/p>\n

Most adults in Oklahoma are a four-week course, a commercial driver\u2019s license and a clean drug test away from an interview with almost any motor carrier in the state.<\/p>\n<\/div>

Pay for entry-level truckers is good \u2014 up to $40,000 a year, which is well above the state average.<\/p>

The shortage isn\u2019t limited to Oklahoma. Throughout the United States, there\u2019s a growing gap between cargo demand and the supply of commercial drivers. With the growth in freight expected to quadruple<\/a> driver growth, researchers estimate the shortage could reach 300,000 full-time positions this year.<\/p>\n

Oklahoma Commercial Driver’s Licenses 2007-2010<\/h4>\n
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Source: Oklahoma Department of Public Safety<\/p>\n

The number of commercial driver's licenses has increased steadily in recent years.<\/p>\n<\/div>

In Oklahoma, the number of truckers is decreasing while the number of potential truckers is rising. According to Department of Public Safety data, the number of Commercial Driver\u2019s Licenses<\/a> has increased in recent years.<\/p>

But the number of delivery, light, heavy and tractor-trailer drivers in Oklahoma is going down, data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show.<\/p>\n

Truck Drivers in Oklahoma 2007-2010<\/h4>\n
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Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics<\/p>\n

The number of truck drivers in Oklahoma is declining.<\/p>\n<\/div>

So why are there more seats than drivers?<\/p>\n

ENERGY<\/h3>

Energy is booming, here in Oklahoma and throughout the region. And almost everything that comes in and out of a drilling site is carried on the back of a semi-trailer.<\/p>

The oil and gas industry needs a lot of trucks and drivers, which is good for the trucking industry. But the energy boom is also soaking up a lot of the driver pool, Oklahoma motor carrier owners say. That\u2019s a good thing if your trucking company is contracted by an oilfield services company like, say, Halliburton, for a Chesapeake Energy drilling operation.<\/p>\n

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Joe Wertz \/ NPR StateImpact<\/p>\n

A driver for Glass Operating bangs on the side of his trailer with his hammer to determine how much flour has been unloaded.<\/p>\n<\/div>

But what if you haul flour?<\/p>

That\u2019s the bulk of the business at Glass Operating Group in Newkirk, Okla., which hauls flour to bakeries around the region and state, including Wonder Hostess in Oklahoma City and Bama Pie Company in Tulsa.<\/p>

\u201cWe\u2019re short three guys right now,\u201d says Ike Glass, the company\u2019s president, mirroring a need shared by every one of about a dozen Oklahoma trucking companies StateImpact contacted for this article.<\/p>

As it is in other industries, energy jobs are often the best jobs \u2014 even when it comes to trucking.<\/p>

\u201cWe\u2019re short on drivers anyway, and there\u2019s a tremendous oil and gas play in Oklahoma, and they need a lot of drivers,\u201d says Dan Case, executive director of the Oklahoma Trucking Association<\/a>.<\/p>

Energy companies often pay drivers more, Case says. \u201cPeople are going to go where the money is,\u201d Glass driver Jonathon Stevens says while unloading whole-wheat flour at an Oklahoma City bakery.<\/p>

On the national level, drilling jobs in places like North Dakota have attracted truckers with the lure of better pay, says Daniel Murray, vice president of research for the American Trucking Research Institute<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Joe Wertz \/ NPR StateImpact<\/p>\n

Steven's dog rights shotgun in the cab of his tractor-trailer.<\/p>\n<\/div>

But the real perk, Stevens says, is the distance, or, rather, the lack of it.<\/p>

In Oklahoma, most energy industry trucking jobs are regional, not cross-country. The routes are closer to home, which means more family time \u2014 the lack of which is probably the No. 1 complaint among truckers.<\/p>

\u201cWe need the energy sector \u2014 we\u2019re all glad for it,\u201d Glass says. \u201cBut they\u2019re taking our people.\u201d<\/p>\n

REGULATION<\/h3>

In December 2010, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration rolled out Compliance Safety Accountability<\/a>, a program of new federal safety rules that profiles motor carriers and drivers according to compliance.<\/p>

Officially, the federal government\u2019s CSA program was designed to better identify safety problems and high-risk crash behavior. Ultimately, to reduce the number of deaths, injuries and large truck and bus crashes.<\/p>

Practically, trucking companies say the new regulations have helped further drain the increasingly shallow pool of commercial drivers.<\/p>

The CSA is data-driven and relies upon inspections. Some of the metrics are behavioral: limiting the amount of driving time to cut down on driver fatigue, for example, which has an obvious link to highway safety. Others \u2014 like vehicle and cargo maintenance rules \u2014 are more complicated, truckers and motor carrier owners say.<\/p>\n

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Joe Wertz \/ NPR StateImpact<\/p>\n

Steve Nettleingham, operations manager for McCorkle Truck Lines in OKC, says federal regulations shrink the already limited pool of commercial truck drivers.<\/p>\n<\/div>

Motor carriers don\u2019t want to employ unsafe drivers, but now trucking companies are effectively scored on how clean their drivers\u2019 records are.<\/p>

Motor carriers are effectively ranked by their CSA scores, which are the first thing a company looks at when it\u2019s soliciting bids for a trucking contract, says Steve Nettleingham, operations manager for McCorkle Truck Lines\u2019 Oklahoma City hub.<\/p>

And while major violations \u2014 crashes, speeding tickets, unsafe and fatigued driving \u2014 are part of those scores, so are things like improperly inflated tires, broken marker lights and inadequate windshield wiper fluid.<\/p>\n

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