Kentucky Trucking Helps Drive the Economy

Kentucky is best known for horse racing, bluegrass music, college basketball, and its infamous fried chicken.13 But if you ask a trucker, they may tell you there’s more to “The Bluegrass State” than meets the eye.

Gazing out of a big rig’s window to enjoy the state’s forests, hills, meadows, rivers, lakes, and swampland is enough to make a driver smile while at work.

And although the horses at the Kentucky Derby get all of the shine when it comes to moving fast to get their job done, I’m sure truckers would insist they do just as good of a job hauling and delivering their loads on time.

But if you really want to get a driver’s gears shifting, ask them who would win in a race between their rig and the Derby horses if the prize was the $6 billion worth of gold stored in underground vaults in Fort Knox, Kentucky.13 Let’s see who outshines who then!

Advocacy

The Kentucky Trucking Association (KTA) provides support, business development, networking, training, education, and leadership opportunities, among other benefits, to its members. The organization addresses state and national legislative issues that affect the trucking industry and the association's members.

KTA has several committees to help support their member benefits and services, including:

• Executive Committee
• Membership Committee
• Kentucky Truck Driving Championship Committee
• Annual Leadership Conference Committee
• Kentucky Trucking Association Education Foundation Committee

Freight Economy

Truckers generate about 5 percent of the American GDP (Gross Domestic Product), and Kentucky’s contribution to the economy and trucking industry deserves some credit.7 Louisville has hosted the Mid-America Trucking Show for a half-century. The show has had over a million square feet of exhibits, a thousand exhibitors, and 72,000 attendees, making it among the largest in the nation.

Kentucky drivers transport products out of the state or within its borders, including:

• Aircraft
• Blood fractions
• Diesel-powered trucks
• Automobiles
• Whiskies
• Artificial body parts
• Cell phones

Access

Kentucky has about 167,000 total lane miles of roadway. The state is bordered by seven other states.10 That’s more than a few access points for truckers! Major interstates connecting to major routes include:

• I-24
• I-64
• I-655
• I-71, and
• I-75

Work and Wages

Kentucky has about 6832 total local truck driver jobs.

The average annual salary of a Kentucky truck driver is approximately $54,134, and in May 2020, the BLS reported a median yearly salary of $47,130.