It was only a few years ago that many trucking companies had long lists of job openings but not enough drivers who wanted to get behind the wheel.
But the economy has tilted supply and demand in both directions. The steepest recession in generations has sent thousands of Southern California workers back into the job market, and many who didn't want to drive a truck five years ago are now going after commercial licenses.
Less demand for consumer goods means fewer loads to move. More would-be drivers, many of them former construction or factory workers, are going after the truck-driving jobs they passed on for years, but the catch is fewer jobs.
Ted Honcharik, chief executive officer of Pacific Tank Lines, a Riverside-based company that hauls fuel to gas stations, remembers the shortage of drivers and finds it hard to believe that happened only a couple of years ago.
"We used to have a full-time recruiter just to entice drivers to apply with us," Honcharik said. "Now people are knocking at our door, and my recruiting budget is down about 75 percent."
The shortage of drivers lasted for more than a decade.
In the late 1970s, movies, television shows and country music romanticized driving a big rig.
However, being king of the road is not easy work for many reasons. Truckers in Southern California deal with the same traffic congestion and air pollution as everyone else, only they do it for entire days in a vehicle that's 15 times the size of a Ford Focus.
A trucker with interstate routes may have to sleep in a cramped bunk behind their cabs, use unsanitary roadside showers and eat bad food. They are also away from their families for long stretches.
Scott Briggs, 48, a trucker from Atlanta, said he used to be able to drop freight in Fontana and pick up more within a few miles. "Now I have to drive 150 miles to find a load," Briggs said.
Elvir Hadzi, a 35-year-old driver from Des Moines, Iowa, was at the TravelCenters of America truck stop in Ontario, Calif., recently waiting to pick up a load of food bound for Wal-Mart stores, but he didn't know where he was going or how long the trip would take.
"It's missed time with family," Hadzi said. "You're always on the road. It's like being a soldier."
Tom Butler, 67, of Surprise, Ariz., who just drove down from snowy Montana and Wyoming, said a trucker's life has more amenities now. At one time rigs had no air conditioning or power steering.
"I like the part about being out there, the driving," Butler said. "I don't like the details, the paperwork, and having to make deliveries at 2 a.m."
It's also a heavily regulated industry. The acceptable level of blood-alcohol for a car driver in California is less than 0.8 percent, but 0.4 percent, maybe only one beer's worth for a small-framed person, earns a trucker a DUI citation. Drivers who haul hazardous materials must be cleared by the federal government to protect against security threats.
The influx of people willing to drive trucks is not restricted to former construction workers, said Tina Torrell, office manager of Dootson School of Trucking, which is located in Arcadia. About 20 percent of the students are looking to start second careers, including some with college degrees, she said.
Getting a commercial drivers license is not complicated. Anyone 18 or older can do it in California, although you must be 21 to bring a truck across state lines or carry hazardous materials.
Dale Sorensen, manager of the United States Trucking School in Rialto, said the pace of applicants has picked up sharply in the last three years.
"There's a lot of people in the career-change mode," Sorensen said. "We're finding a lot of people who just got laid off after 20 years of doing something else with the same company."
A research report released last week by an analyst from KeyBanc Capital Markets indicates that trucking companies' demand has fallen by as much as 20 percent since November, which will lead to smaller profits.
That means that, while many firms are still hiring, they may be choosier, said Bonnie Trawn, director of education for the United Truck Driving School, which has locations in Riverside and Temecula.
"It means companies will take a seasoned driver over a new guy," Trawn said. "It makes sense to hire the guy with more experience or the better record."
Trawn said almost everything is delivered by truck, so there will always be jobs, but the focus changes. A weak economy might mean fewer shipments to the high-end stores but more to the discount retailers.
Julie Sauls, vice president for external affairs at the California Trucking Association, said trucking is a service sector job, and she agrees with Trawn: they don't disappear.
E-mail Jack Katzanek at jkatzanek(at)PE.com
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
Must credit The Press-Enterprise of Riverside, Calif.
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