US needs more truck drivers to assist with supply chain shortage

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Backlogs at ports, empty shelves at stores, and do we really need to bring up the great toilet paper shortage of 2020?

Whether you realize it or not, we've all felt the effects of a disrupted supply chain.

And some, like Demetrious Price, are hoping to get a job out of it.

"The offers and the bonuses that people are offering right now are so high," Price said. "You're making ten times more than you would doing anything else out the gate."

Price is one of a record number of students signing up for Lone Star College's commercial truck driving program.

"There are companies now that are looking to hire our inexperienced, entry level drivers that in the past would have never even considered hiring a student," said lead instructor Martin Molina. "I posed that question to them. Their answer is that there just aren't as many drivers to choose from."

According to the American Trucking Associations, there's a need for about 80,000 more truck drivers to keep supplies coming and going like they should.

There was already a shortage before the pandemic started, but it's up about 30% since then.

"That just opens up the door for me to do pretty much anything without the need for that much experience," Price said. "It helps me out a lot."

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