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RED OAK – The coronavirus pandemic has not slowed down diesel equipment work in North Texas.
“The main thing that comes to mind about our program is students who have graduated and were working during this pandemic never lost any wages,” said Matthew Dobbs, lead instructor in Texas State Technical College’s Diesel Equipment Technology program at the North Texas campus in Red Oak.
“They continued to work and provide for their families due to the need for continued trucking deliveries.
“The last thing we needed was for the trucks to not be able to deliver the supplies that we needed to survive.”
More than 500 jobs were advertised for bus and truck mechanics and diesel engine specialists from September 2020 to February 2021 in the 16-county area that Workforce Solutions of North Central Texas serves. Employers with the most job openings during that time were Love’s Travel Shops, Ryder System Inc., Travel Centers of America and Rusk Truck Centers.
There were more than 7,600 bus and truck mechanics and diesel engine specialists in the third quarter of 2020 in Workforce Solutions’ service area.
The mean hourly wage for the workers was $27.04 in 2019, according to the most recent data from the agency.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has estimated that there will be a need for more than 290,000 bus and truck mechanics and diesel engine specialists by 2029.
Timco Logistics has called Waxahachie home for about two decades and specializes in brokerage work, hauling, logistics and trucking. The company is working with the city of Waxahachie and Ellis County in a building expansion project expected to break ground later this year.
The expansion means the company will need at least 15 new diesel technicians to handle an increased workload.
“They are having to outsource some of their maintenance work because they cannot get it all done with the facility they have right now,” said John Dagg, an area certified public account working as a consultant with Timco Logistics.
“It is stretched and not big enough. That costs money when they outsource truck maintenance.”
TSTC in North Texas offers an Associate of Applied Science degree and two certificates in Diesel Equipment Technology - Heavy Truck Specialization.
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