Hiring Heroes and Solving Problems
New program matches unemployed veterans to driver-seeking carriers
By Bethany May Contributing Writer
With some teamwork and fancy
technology, carriers may be able to fill open driver positions with a cohort of hardworking, safety-minded individu- als—veterans. Jim Ray, ambassador for Hiring Our Heroes an initiative to help unemployed veterans find civilian jobs, tells how a group of carriers who are normally “pretty fierce competitors” are working together for the benefit of the industry as a whole. The industry faces the driver short-
age, a complex problem, while veterans, especially from recent conflicts face the opposite problem. However, Jim Ray believes that carriers and veterans can tackle these problems together, despite the scary numbers. The numbers behind the truck
driver shortage are scary. The American Trucking Associations estimates carriers will need to hire 96,000 new drivers to meet the demands on the industry. The explanations offered for the shortage vary: driver pay, regulations, demo- graphics, aging drivers’ retirement and positions that demand time away from homes and families. Meanwhile the Bureau of Labor reports that 6.6 percent of veterans are unemployed. As men and women transition out
of military service, they face the chal- lenge of finding a position that values the experiences and qualifications they have. There is opportunity in the truck- ing industry to help veterans overcome this barrier. “We carry glass on our trucks; we don’t install them on our ceilings,” Ray said in July at the open-
ARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT | Issue 4 2014
“WE CARRY GLASS ON OUR TRUCKS; WE DON’T INSTALL THEM ON OUR CEILINGS.”
—JIM RAY, HIRING OUR HEROES
ing of Maverick’s new training facility where he spoke about the Hiring Our Heroes initiative and Maverick’s part- nership with the program. Hiring Our Heroes is the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce’s nation- wide initiative to help veterans and their families transition into civilian careers. The initiative began in 2011 with public-private sponsorships, job fairs and free online career tools. The result was companies from various
industries hiring more than 250,000 military professionals through the job fairs, a mentorship program and digi- tal resume-building help. Hiring Our Heroes invites diverse employers to post open positions and attend veteran job fairs to recruit new hires, but the ini- tiative also targets specific industries with special hiring needs. Currently, there is the Entertainment/Media
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