How Do Truck Drivers Impact the Economy?

How do truck drivers impact the economy? Truck drivers are a critical part of the national and global economy. The truck driving industry provides millions of jobs, delivers necessary goods to both individuals and businesses, and adds a great amount of revenue to the US gross domestic product (GDP).

Read on to learn more about how necessary truck drivers are for the US economy. 

How Do Truck Drivers Impact the Economy?

In 2019, the US trucking industry was a $791.7 billion industry. As a billion dollar industry, trucking is clearly vital to our country’s economic infrastructure. But how exactly do these billions of dollars generated by the nation’s hard-working truck drivers affect the economy? 

1. Helping Other Businesses

When it comes to supporting non-trucking businesses and other industries, how do truck drivers impact the economy? Turns out that truck drivers are vital to the operations for companies across a wide range of industries. 

Think about all of the products you might see when you go into a supermarket, from perishable food to toiletries. Consider too all the materials that support the store’s function: the freezer aisles, the store shelves, the cash registers. Now think about the raw materials needed to build the store. Chances are high that all or nearly all of these goods arrived at the store location thanks to the trucking industry. 

Every day, millions of truck drivers are entrusted with moving fresh food, consumer packaged goods, raw materials, and more across the country. In just 2019, US trucks transported over 11.84 billions of tons in freight, or 72.5% of all the freight moved across the country that year. 

Grocery stores, small businesses, corporate warehouses, and many other places depend on truck drivers. Without reliable transportation for their goods, these businesses often will not have products to sell, or the necessary raw materials to create their products and manage day-to-day operations. 

Truck drivers are essential to many industries during both good and challenging financial times. But the current recession brought about by the pandemic has made other industries rely on truck drivers even more. Many businesses have had to pivot to or increase their online presence, resulting in a surge in requests for faster shipping rates and larger shipping volumes. 

2. Support Individuals

It’s not just other industries that need truck drivers for their financial and business operations. Individuals, their families, and their communities also need truck drivers. About 86% of communities in the US rely on the trucking industry for everyday goods such as food, drinking water, and toiletries. Given how the pandemic has increased the number of people regularly using shipping services, that percentage is likely far higher at the moment.

What would happen if truckers were not able to help out these families and communities as much as they do? Let’s hope we never find out for sure. But experts at Time magazine believe ATMs would have no cash within just a few days, perishable food would be in short supply after three days, and drinking water would be unavailable in two to four weeks. Truck drivers are crucial to helping millions of people across the country live and enjoy their daily lives. 

3. Provide Employment

The trucking industry provides livelihoods to millions of Americans and their families. There are around 7.4 million people with jobs in the trucking industry. That’s equal to about 5.8% of all full-time jobs in the US. A little more than half of those individuals, or approximately 3.5 million, are truck drivers. 

Without US trucking jobs, there would be huge job losses across the country. Fortunately for both the trucking sector and the national economy, the number of available trucking jobs only continues to grow, even during the current global recession. From April to June, available truck driving jobs increased by over 10,000. 

Meanwhile, amidst a recession worse than the Great Depression, unemployment rates remain at record highs, with the hospitality and leisure industry being among the hardest hit. Trucking jobs provide stable employment, replete with dependable salary and benefits, for millions of individuals even in times of economic turmoil.

4. National Revenue

How do truck drivers impact the economy in terms of dollar signs? The short answer: a whole lot. 

As we mentioned earlier, the trucking industry is a billion dollar industry. When people think about billion dollar industries, they tend to think of industries related to technology, such as IoT or cloud computing. But it’s important not to get swept up in the tech-craze and forget about sectors, such as trucking, that many more people depend on for their daily existences. 

Just last year, the trucking sector was a $791.7 billion industry. To put that in perspective, that means that the US trucking sector earned a higher revenue than the gross domestic product (GDP) of over 150 nations. If America’s trucking industry were considered its own country, it would have been ranked number 31 for total GDP.

TDI Can Help You Be An Essential Worker In Our Economy

How do truck drivers impact the economy? The trucking sector has a huge impact on the national economy by providing necessary goods to people and businesses across the country. And despite the fact that over 3.5 million truckers are currently employed in the US alone, there is still a huge shortage of truck drivers.

The necessity of truck drivers to our economy, coupled with the national truck driver shortage, makes truck driving the perfect job opportunity. If you’re looking for a well-paying and stable career that’s vital to your nation’s economy, look no further than trucking. 

Here at TDI, we can help you hit the open road of your truck driving future with incredible speed and efficiency. Our school’s job placement program has an 86% success rate because trucking companies know that we’re in the business of training safe and reliable truck drivers. Contact us today to learn more about how to kickstart your trucker career with TDI.