SIMON WILSON FOR THE TORONTO STAR Trucking student David Hill ponders his new career from the cab. “There are a lot of opportunities,” he finds, as do others entering the business. But driver turnover is high.

Transportation reporter Kevin McGran wants to hear what you think on this subject and any transportation related issues. You can send him your thoughts via our Talk to us about transportation page.

Alex Garcia left his dead-end job for the open road. 
The 41-year-old former business analyst with the Royal Bank has quit the close-quartered corporate world to take a run at work where he can make a decent living and be his own boss as an independent trucker.
"I wanted to do something different," says Garcia, who's in the middle of a six-week truck driver training course. "I always wanted to drive one of these big rigs. And I really want to do something where I can be my own boss. I come from the corporate world, and I don't want to be doing that anymore. 
"There is good money (in banking), but there are a lot of things you have to put up with. I want to be my own boss. I didn't want to have someone looking over my shoulder all the time. I figured this is something I always wanted to do, so I figured maybe this is the time."
Indeed, there may never have been a better time to become a trucker. The trucking industry needs truckers. Desperately. That means Ontario, with 80 per cent of its trade and 46 per cent of its gross domestic product dependent upon trucking, needs truckers. 
"If anything could leave freight sitting at the dock, it's the shortage of drivers," said David Bradley, president of the Ontario Trucking Association. "The trucking industry is at full capacity. The economy both in the United States and Canada is picking up. We're at a point now where if you wanted to add trucks to your fleet, you'd have a helluva time filling the seat with drivers."
A study produced in June for the Canadian Trucking Human Resources Council estimates the industry needs nearly 224,000 new drivers — 37,000 annually — over the next six years to satisfy the demand resulting from economic growth, combined with attrition from the industry.
In Ontario, that translates into a need for 89,560 new drivers during that time period, or nearly 15,000 during each of those years.
"These numbers are rather staggering and clearly point to the major challenge the industry is going to have in keeping up to the demand for freight in the future. If the study estimates are even half-way right, we are still talking some very big numbers," Bradley said.
The Canadian lumber industry is experiencing problems getting goods to market, says Peter Butzelaar, market consultant for B.C.-based R.E. Taylor and Associates. 
"It's all points where the trucks are required," says Butzelaar. ``It could be moving logs to the mill or moving the lumber to the market.'' And it's not good, he finds, pointing out there is already a rail shortage problem; when all modes of transportation running with excess demand there are bound to be serious ramifications, Butzelaar said.
Truckers are among the oldest workers in Canada, with 40 per cent of the workforce over 45 years of age, compared with 34 per cent for all other industries; with 13 per cent older than 55, compared with the national average of 11 per cent.
This means transportation will lose workers to retirement faster than most other industries, and it hasn't exactly done a great job attracting new, young truckers. And for the ones that it does attract, it has a hard time keeping them on the job.
"(Newcomers) figure because there's so many openings, there must be some sort of job security," says Darryl Strudwick, president of the Truck Training Schools Association of Ontario "It's true in a sense. If you keep your driving record clean, you'll always have a job. But people get into this business not realizing what it's all about.
"It is a high-demanding job. Especially if you've been sitting in an office job from 9 to 5 . 9 to 5 goes away, especially if you have a family." 
The driver turnover rate is estimated at 36 per cent, well above the Canadian average. About 70 per cent of the turnover is attributable to truckers quitting their jobs — some are quitting the industry, others are joining new operations."We're creating industry suicide because we're not paying enough attention to the shortage," said Kim Richardson, owner of Kim Richardson Transportation Services in Caledonia, Ont., which runs year-round training programs for new drivers. 
"The industry thinks there's a shortage now, wait five years. When you take a look at the average age, and the industry growth and how we're going to be doing business, it's going to astronomical if we don't pay attention to it."
Richardson is part of a core group in the trucking industry looking for progressive ways to recruit, train — and retain — young drivers. He said 97 per cent of his graduates get jobs in the industry, but that's the easy part. "What's important is retention and making sure these guys get with the right carrier."