Omaha-based trucking company finds creative way to deal with labor shortage
OMAHA, Nebraska – Like most industries across the country, trucking is facing a labor shortage. Truck drivers are in high demand and in short supply. Therefore, Hill Bros. Transportation in Omaha took matters into their own hands and set up their own driving school.
Amber Floyd is a recent graduate of Pro-Fleet, the CDL driving academy created by Hill Bros. The single mother of three is a former nurse who has decided to trade her clothes for a big set of wheels.
“I just wanted to try something different. I have been a nurse for over 10 years,” she said.
CEO of Hill Bros. Robert Sauer says that finding and retaining qualified drivers has long been a challenge, and it has gotten worse during the pandemic.
“It was a challenge,” he said. It really limited our growth over the past five years as we tried to find the talent for it.”
Adding fuel to the fire, Sauer says the industry will lose even more workers.
“Now the age of our drivers is really increasing,” he said. “Many of them have been in the industry for a long time and the age continues to grow and more and more of these people are retiring.”
Sauer says that over the years Hill Bros. added incentives such as higher pay and flexible hours. However, he knew that the company needed to switch to a higher speed and open its own driving school.
“When we looked and saw that there would be even more of them in the next 10 years, we just realized that we needed to attract and attract more people to this industry,” he said.
Floyd is proud to be in first grade of 2023. She hopes that her new career will lead her on a long and lucrative path.
“It means a lot to me to earn more than I did as a nurse,” she said.
Sauer says truck drivers can earn up to $100,000 a year.
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