New research released today shows 65.5% of trucking maintenance shops are understaffed by technicians, and have an average of 19.3% of positions unfilled.
The American Transportation Research Institute’s new research on causes and solutions for the current gaps in diesel technician training, recruitment, and retention also found:
- 61.8% enter the career without any formal training, requiring an average of 357 training hours and $8,211 in trainee wages to prepare them
- 30% of training program graduates were unqualified in 20 core skill areas, according to diesel shops
- In 7 of these core skill areas, each additional hour of training improved tech qualification by more than 16 percent
- In 6 core skill areas, however, each additional hour of training improved tech qualification by less than 8 percent, highlighting the need for critical curricula upgrades
- 29% said the most common barrier reported by techs at the start of their career was the high cost of acquiring their own tools
- 28% said a lack of prior tech knowledge was also a barrier
- 16.1% said insufficient pay was a barrier
- 10.8% cited poor shop mentorship
Almost half — 44.4% — of trucking techs were considering other tech jobs, with automotive and agriculture the most common alternative industries, according to ATRI.
Dissatisfaction with pay, interactions with management, and variety of work were the aspects of employment that had the most statistically significant association with techs choosing to look for a new job versus staying at their current job. The research also evaluated techs’ perspectives on other industries to identify how trucking’s comparative strengths and weaknesses match up to techs’ varying priorities.
“With a lack of qualified techs and stiff competition from other industries, tech employment in the trucking industry is not keeping up with demand, especially when it comes to retaining entry-level technicians just entering the workforce,” said Robert Braswell, Executive Director of ATA’s Technology & Maintenance Council. “ATRI’s report helps trucking shops identify not only where they and their training program partners can improve but also how to better leverage our industry’s existing strengths.”
