U.S. trucking company receives approval to import foreign drivers

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (June 30) — How bad is the driver shortage in the United States? Citing Missouri’s low unemployment rate, one St. Louis-based trucking company lobbied successfully for the U.S. government to allow the carrier to import 75 to 100 drivers from the Caribbean island nation of Barbados.

The recruits for Hogan Transports Inc. will work on temporary visas that can be renewed each year at the discretion of the U.S. Dept. of Labor.

Their starting salaries will be about $30,000 a year, according to a company spokesman.

The company had to prove to Dept. of Labor officials that it could not fill the jobs with local workers before getting approval to bring in drivers from abroad. Missouri’s unemployment rate is about 3%, below the nation’s 29-year-low of 4.2%.

The Barbados recruits must complete 174 hours of independent training, then will get 94 hours of hands-on training at a trucking school. They must pay for their own training.