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You all know about the driver shortage.


You know about most of the issues I’ve mentioned already. But if I tell my friends about a big social issue where there’s a 35,000 person job shortage in the US, their eyes open wide.


Ten I tell them it’s in trucking. Tey’re


blown away. None of my peers think about this industry unless they have family or friend ties to it. Since one in 15 Americans are working in the trucking industry, this isn’t all that rare. So if awareness and a new audience is the


desired goal, a new approach has to be made to a new generation. Millennials are a different breed. Born


in the 1980s to the late 1990s, we’ve grown up with helicopter parents aiding our every decision, embracing technology from an early age, witnessing the explosion of the internet and everyone and everything has told us to go to college. In fact, 59 percent of millennials across the US have given college a shot. When it comes to work, millennials have a decreasing loyalty to jobs: only staying an average 2.5 years (still better than most drivers!) Te idea of success has evolved over the


past 50 years and we have to rethink our own approaches to meeting those needs. Fifty years ago, success was a nice house


with a white picket fence, a sharply dressed family that had a nice car, TV and refrigerator. But now, there’s one key thing that matters for success: experiences. To validate this, 64 percent of millennials


said they would rather make $40,000 a year at a job they love than $100,000 at a job they think is boring. Millennials want to develop skills for the


future, have continuous learning opportunities, frequently receive feedback from their leaders and use some form of creativity and innovation in their roles. To test some of this out, I launched a


website, “TravelForAmerica.com” as an experiment to see what sort of audience would be interested in a job where you “make up to $60K a year exploring new places and impact communities nationwide.” Te headline of the site read “Get Paid to Travel.” In the week long experiment, I got


150+ signups from around the country and internationally. Te results: 62 percent


male, 38 percent female, and 12 percent international signups. Tis started to confirm my intitial


hypothesis: millennials want to work with purpose. Tey want to be a part of the bigger picture. We all know the tremendous purpose


trucking brings to the US economy, and it certainly plays a role in the bigger picture of everything we do day-to-day. Tat story has to be told. Te experience


has to be emphasized. Drivers have to be sought out for feedback to not only be engaged, but also as an opportunity to learn how each company can innovate their own operation. Te driver of the future will look different.


She/he may not stay a driver their whole career. It will be a step in their life’s journey. Drivers will embrace experiences, trying new things, supporting causes they care about and often looking to make a difference. To accomplish this, we all have to be open


to rethinking the role of the driver, from the ground up. It certainly won’t be an easy battle, but it’s one that is bound to be fought. Dig in, it’s going to be a long haul. NT


Cornhusker International www.cornhuskerinternational.com


4502 So. 110th Street Omaha, NE 68137 402-331-8801


3131 Cornhusker Hwy Lincoln, NE 68504 402-466-8461


2601 East Omaha Ave Norfolk, NE 68702 402-371-1440


NEBRASKA TRUCKER — ISSUE 2, 2015 — www.nebtrucking.com


2601 Bridgeport Drive Sioux City, IA 51111 712-252-3637


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