You would think that last week's news of the demise of Consolidated Freightways would ease some of the driver shortage pressure in the trucking industry,
which claims there are currently 80,000 truck driver openings in the United States.
Last week -- on Labor Day -- 15,500 Consolidated Freightway drivers found out they were out of work. Industry officials say they expect competitors to grab up these former drivers quickly, especially in areas of the country where the Vancouver, Wash.-based Consolidated was strong.
But Richard Mora, campus manager for Western Pacific Truck School in Modesto, Calif., said the shutdown of Consolidated won't flood the local market with experienced drivers, nor will it affect his school's recruitment and enrollment.
In fact, he said, even if every former Consolidated employee is hired by another company, the industry would still be short tens of thousands of drivers.
"There's still a big demand," Mora said.
Meanwhile, Kansas-based Yellow Transportation has already added nearly 300 Consolidated employees to its work force of 22,500, according to the Modesto Bee.
In all, Yellow has received more than 1,500 applications from former Consolidated drivers since the company shut down on Labor Day, and Yellow human resources managers are now processing them.