Topeka ? Business is so good for J&H Trucking that they are having to turn away jobs by the truckloads. The Andover company can’t find enough good drivers to handle to work.

The company is not alone. A recent survey by the Kansas Department of Labor revealed there were nearly 2,000 truck driving jobs available in the second quarter of 2004. Dan Ridder, a vice president at J&H, said the problem was not going away.

“It’s a good problem, but bad because customers demand service and turn to others,” Ridder said. “If they do it better or more efficiently, you don’t get them back.”

J&H has 130 trucks and Ridder said the company could add 25 more drivers without others noticing changes in their loads.

The survey was compiled between April and June as many firms were gearing up for the summer months. Statewide there were 33,600 vacancies at Kansas companies, with an average starting wage of $11.10. Unemployment in Kansas during that time averaged about 68,550, and about 74 percent of the listed vacancies were for full-time positions.

There were nearly 2,000 vacancies for truck drivers during the quarter, with an average starting pay of $18.43 an hour. Food service, nursing aides, registered nurses and retail sales rounded out the top five.

Josh Rosenbloom, an economist at Kansas University, said the survey suggested the Kansas economy was rebounding and that the distribution of jobs was comparable to the demands nationwide.

“What we are seeing now are the consequences of actions taken some time ago,” he said.

Rosenbloom said employee costs had driven up the cost of doing business in the state, along with a relatively slow increase in labor productivity.

Demand for truck drivers is not confined to Kansas. A similar outlook in Nebraska forecast high demand for drivers in the next three years. Nebraska anticipates job growth of between 1.5 percent and 1.7 percent annually from 2005 to 2007, with demand slowing in manufacturing and retail.

With more trucks than drivers, companies have few options to keep people behind the wheel.

Jerry Arensdorf, of Arensdorf Trucking in Medicine Lodge, said there were four jobs for every driver.

Regulations, and the cost of health and vehicle insurance, make it difficult for companies to hire just any driver or expand their fleets, he said.

“We’re in the pickle that we can’t give the driver more wages,” Arensdorf said.

Driver turnover is high and those drivers who stay with one company for a career are getting older, he said. Drivers can earn more than $50,000 a year by age 30, but the long hours take a toll.

Tom Whitaker, of the Kansas Motor Carriers Assn., said the industry was running at capacity and looking at increased shipping costs without additional drivers to carry the loads.

“Some companies have trucks sitting that they would like to put drivers in,” he said.

Former Gov. Bill Graves, president of the American Trucking Associations in Alexandria, Va., said the industry had changed as companies move to full-truckload operations. Drivers are gone for weeks at a time, driving from destination to destination.

“That for many people is not a lifestyle that they are willing to embrace. It puts tremendous strain on families,” said Graves, whose family once owned a trucking firm in Salina.