Trucker Shortage Cramps Texas Oil Field Output

One of the most oil-rich places in the United States is the Permian Basin shale formation that underlies large chunks of west Texas and southeastern New Mexico. It’s a huge area, 86,000 square miles, and it’s been producing oil since the early 1920s. The most recent big boom there started in the 1990s, and continued until 2014. Then, for a whole series of complicated reasons, the price of oil dropped 45%. Exploration companies shut down drilling operations all across the Basin and laid people off in droves, including hundreds, probably thousands, of truck drivers.

Now, with oil prices inching back and production in the Permian Basin booming once more, the drillers want the truckers back. The oil business, from well servicing to refinery operations to chemical plants to just plain old hauling oil that won’t go through a pipeline, is totally dependent on tanker trucks and their operators. Goldman Sachs estimates that to keep up with current demand, the area urgently needs another 4,000 drivers. The problem is, they aren’t there; one thing the Permian Basin is short on is towns and people. To bring the big field up to its full production potential, the industry will need to recruit, train, and relocate an entire corps of new drivers.

As most of our readers know, it’s not just Texas with a shortage of truck drivers, it’s the whole country. It’s a real problem: the economy depends on trucking, and trucking depends on drivers. We need better, more modern ways of attracting young people to this profession and training them for it—which is why this company exists. For a number of compelling reasons—cost, effectiveness, and above all superior safety training—simulation is an essential component of today’s trucker training curriculum.