In 2022, over 8 million people were employed in jobs that related to trucking activity and 3.54 million truck drivers were employed in 2022, a 1.5% increase from 2021, according to data from the American Trucking Association.
Trucking specifically, he said, allows a certain level of freedom because truckers don’t have to go to the same place or into an office every day.
“The pay is also great,” he said. “A big benefit is you technically don’t have to pay for housing because your company will supply the semi-truck. I just drive the truck. My company bought the truck. If anything breaks on the truck, I call them, they pay to repair it.”
“So there’s that level of financial freedom that you’re setting yourself up for, as a benefit,” he added.
He did admit that there can be downsides to the job, especially if a trucker has a family, since they will be away so much. But, Alex said trucking is a “golden ticket job” for someone in their early 20s, like him.
“By the time you’re 30 with no mortgage, no rent and you’re in a high-paying job, you’re building yourself to be in a great position,” he said.
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The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics listed the mean annual pay for heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers at $53,090 as of May 2022. However, that was significantly down from 1980, the New York Times noted, as one analysis found average pay was roughly double that at the time when adjusted for inflation.
