Georgia lawmakers grapple with truck driver shortage

Georgia Piedmont Technical College broke ground on a 24,000-square-foot Regional Transportation Training Center in Stonecrest.

The facility should open to students in the fall of 2024. With this addition, officials said the school has room to double its commercial truck driving program enrollment.

Lawmakers allocated $5.8 million in the fiscal 2022 budget for the project. However, the project's cost has ballooned to $12 million.

"This cutting-edge training facility is an important step in further growing and supporting Georgia's transportation and logistics sector," state Sen. Emanuel Jones, D-Decatur, said.

"Additionally, the new RTTC will be critical in mending the worker shortages afflicting the truck driving industry," Jones added. "Breaking ground on the construction of this center is the culmination of many years of hard work and planning and I am eager to see this project come to fruition."

The move comes as state officials grapple with how to address a nationwide truck driver shortage.

During a Senate Study Committee on Truck Driver Shortages hearing, Ed Crowell, president and CEO of the Georgia Motor Trucking Association, estimated a shortage of 80,000 drivers nationwide.

"These are good jobs we're talking about, and it's to the benefit of all of Georgia for us to get more people involved," Crowell told the committee.

Additionally, state Sen. Greg Dolezal, R-Cumming, urged lawmakers to look at the industry through the lens of future technology.

"One thing that's worth diving into [is] what the role of autonomous vehicles will be," Dolezal said during the hearing. "I do not believe that in 25 years, the vast majority of our trucks will be driven by humans. I want to ensure that Georgia is ready for it, both on the regulatory side [and] having the lane capacity to handle those and having the infrastructure ready to support that industry as it grows."