Where the drivers are — Job application density by state, 2008-2015

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Updated Apr 1, 2017
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Truck driver job application density, per 100,000 population, by state — 2008-2015

The heat maps above show the driver population, measured per capita, by the resident state of CDL-holding driver applicants, according to the BestDriverJobs.com portal and associated network sites. Offering trucking employers access to driver leads to initiate conversations about potential employment, BestDriverJobs and affiliated sites are owned by Overdrive publisher Randall-Reilly.

“We get around 11,000 applications a month,” says Randall-Reilly Digital Services Director Chip Aldridge. Many come from initial points of contact through job searches, ad aggregators such as Indeed.com, Facebook and Google-served ads. Trucking companies then purchase leads based on geographic need or by lane. Customers include many of the largest truckload fleets but also smaller carriers with targeted needs. “We have about 200 clients per month purchasing this type of service,” says Aldridge. “Half of the 200 clients are 150 trucks or less. I’d say 10 percent are in the 50-truck range.”

In the per-capita analysis, Deep-South states show some of the highest densities of CDL holders treading the waters for employment. Mississippi ranked the highest, but Wyoming further afield was not far behind. Vermont and Massachusetts, on the other hand, showed the lowest per-capita density of applicants.

In terms of pure volume of applications, without the per-capita adjustment, densely populated states of Texas, Florida, California and Georgia, in that order, are at the top of the list. The following map shows volume numbers for 2015 alone:

While those 2015 realities have been something of a norm in recent years, other shifts in application densities illustrate where we’ve been over the last near-decade. Run through the video below to see how application densities have changed with regional economies since 2008.