GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) — Wisconsin 8th District Congressman Mike Gallagher spoke at a roundtable discussion with officials from the local trucking industry at the Schneider Trucking Training facility, discussing the workforce challenges facing trucking.
Gallagher is rolling out new, bipartisan legislation that aims to get more drivers in the workforce. The bill would provide tax credits for certain truck drivers establish incentives for trucking apprenticeships.
“We need to reinvigorate the apprenticeship model to show kids in Northeast Wisconsin that there are other options available to them other than the typical four-year college route,” Gallagher said. “There’s still a long way we need to go towards celebrating the apprenticeship and trades path and not stigmatizing those who go down that path.”
The hope is that the bill could do something to bridge an extremely noticeable gap: the 80,000 truck driver positions across the country that remain unfilled. It comes at a time of high demand, too.
“So you have the ongoing retirement, you have demands that are at really strong levels, you have supply chain challenges because of other constraints on the bottleneck.” said John Bozec Schneider’s senior vice president of operations.
Gallagher says increased unemployment payouts did serious damage to the industry.
“If you’re making $55-60,000 a year doing nothing, what’s your incentive to go out and make $70-90,000 a year doing something?” asked Gallagher. “There’s a complete imbalance.”
The bill, called the Strengthening Supply Chains Through Truck Driver Incentives Act, faces an uncertain future in congress, but Gallagher remains hopeful that it will spur a larger discussion around the industry and its crucial role in the supply chain.
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