It seems almost every industry out there is feeling the anxiety of what automation will mean for their profession. This is, and has especially, been true for the trucking industry. For years now analysts of the trucking world have talked nothing but gloom and doom. They say driverless trucks will devastate the careers of hundreds of thousands of drivers. Nevertheless, there’s one start-up who argues it’s possible that automation could have the opposite effect.

TuSimple, a company founded in 2015, is determined to not only develop technology that autonomous trucks will require to operate, but also to train auxiliary human employees that the business will need.

Let’s face it, trucking is dealing with an ever-increasing labor crisis. In fact, the turnover rates for the industry are alarming as they’ve reached a record high in the last few years. Unfortunately, the labor shortage in the field could surpass 170,000 drivers by the year 2024. This data is based on a 2015 study from the American Trucking Associations.

Right now there is roughly about 1.8 million heavy truck and tractor truck drivers. Plus, there’s about 1.4 million delivery truck drivers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

New Certificate Programs

TuSimple’s optimist approach to the future of trucking positions involves their own efforts. See, they’ve started a one-of-a-kind, never been done before, certificate in autonomous truck management. They created the program with the help of Pima Community College in Arizona.

The program started its first classes this past fall and is intended for people who are already certified commercial truck drivers. During the course, students will be schooled in remote truck navigation. Furthermore, they will be coached on how to serve as a test driver for training autonomous trucks’ artificial intelligence.

Any students who earn a certificate will then get preferential hiring at TuSimple.

Robert Brown, the head of government relations and public affairs at TuSimple said, “We really think this is an opportunity to upskill truck driving and bring tech into it.”

Brown added, “There’s a lot of limiting factors that technology can’t do. It can’t go into urban areas, it can’t do customer service, it can’t do certain rescue operations. There’s a lot of new jobs being created every day, not just by TuSimpe but by the whole sector.”

Companies with this kind of vision are definitely making the outlook for truckers less bleak. But do you thing programs like this will make a difference in the overall trucking jobs future?