The trucking industry relies on diesel technicians to ensure the safe, reliable and efficient operation of its equipment. The trucking industry alone employed 57,300 diesel techs in 2024 – more than any other industry – according to the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data. This represented 4.4 percent of all production and nonsupervisory employees in trucking, making techs the industry’s largest occupational group after truck drivers and warehouse workers.

Demand for diesel techs continues to grow nationwide. BLS projects that, every year for the next decade, 9,700 diesel techs will retire and 15,100 will change occupations – ostensibly requiring 24,800 annual tech replacement hires. In addition to replacement needs, continued growth in tech demand averaged two percent per year, requiring 5,700 new hires in 2024 alone. Thus, the total annual hiring need for diesel techs may be as high as 30,500. (BLS employment projections may overreport or underreport unique employment trends specific to techs. While some industry experts report that the actual shortage of techs is smaller, all relevant data confirms that the diesel tech shortage is both considerable and problematic.)

The number of diesel techs hired each year, however, falls far short of the widespread need for their skills. It’s not so much that there is a shortage of students entering the training pipeline, either. That number has been increasing but the number of qualified technicians to matriculate into the industry has not.

Recognizing the repercussions of the diesel tech shortage throughout the nation’s supply chains, the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) 2024 Research Advisory Committee (RAC) identified the diesel technician shortage as a top research priority. As a result, ATRI, in cooperation with the Technology & Maintenance Council and others — developed a landmark report on the subject entitled, “Addressing the Shortage of Qualified Diesel Technicians,” which collected and synthesized data from surveys of techs, shops, and training programs as well as federal sources in order to document the causes of the diesel technician shortage and identify steps to address it.

Attend this session as we take a deep dive into this report and learn how its findings can help fleet managers improve training, recruitment, retention, and more.