Filling truck seats with driver talent is a constant hot topic in the trucking industry. Even recruiting diesel techs is regularly talked about. But attracting tech talent is often overlooked.
Several transportation industry professionals gathered recently during a webinar hosted by Optym to discuss best practices for implementing technology and the increasing importance of onboarding the right people in the IT departments of trucking organizations as technology in the industry is quickly evolving.
The industry has long been known for antiquated tech stacks – something that could deter young tech professionals exiting college and entering the job market. But trucking companies need fresh talent to take on the wave of technology being thrown at them, from artificial intelligence and machine learning to autonomous and electric vehicles to the much more common challenge of upgrading to more modern operating systems.
Southwestern Motor Transport operates on the “tried and true” database of the IBM AS400, but Vice President of IT Robert Bernal said it’s far from outdated because the use of APIs allows them to integrate with newer technologies. And when it comes to who’s operating that system for SMT, he said he’s simply looking for passionate IT people. His pitch to attract younger professionals to IT in trucking involves getting them excited about the industry’s importance to the country.
He said he learned at a cybersecurity conference that the top industries attacked in the U.S. are hospitals, followed by financial institutions, followed by transportation and logistics – because if trucks are stopped for three days, grocery shelves are empty.
“Yes, maybe transportation and logistics could be boring, but you’re in an industry that keeps this country running, and we need smart people – young and old, doesn’t matter – to keep that moving,” Bernal said.
Nate Johnson, CEO and founder of management and technology consultancy GLCS, said the logistics and brokerage side of the industry is doing a good job recruiting younger people because they have deployed new technology solutions, but the asset side – with some of its more modern systems still 20 or 30 years old – is not. Why?
