Ground Transport

Types of Degrees Ground Transport Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many ground transportation graduations there were for each degree level during the last year for which data was available.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Basic Certificate	23,176
Undergraduate Certificate	842
Associate Degree	97

What Ground Transport Majors Need to Know

O*NET surveyed people in occupations related to ground transport and asked them what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important for their jobs. The responses were rated on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being most important.

Knowledge Areas for Ground Transport Majors

This major prepares you for careers in which these knowledge areas are important:

• Transportation - Knowledge of principles and methods for moving people or goods by air, rail, sea, or road, including the relative costs and benefits.
• Public Safety and Security - Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
• Mechanical - Knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repair, and maintenance.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.

Skills for Ground Transport Majors

When studying ground transport, you’ll learn many skills that will help you be successful in a wide range of jobs - even those that do not require a degree in the field. The following is a list of some of the most common skills needed for careers associated with this major:

• Operation and Control - Controlling operations of equipment or systems.
• Operation Monitoring - Watching gauges, dials, or other indicators to make sure a machine is working properly.
• Monitoring - Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
• Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
• Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.

Abilities for Ground Transport Majors

As you progress with your ground transport degree, there are several abilities you should pick up that will help you in whatever related career you choose. These abilities include:

• Control Precision - The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
• Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
• Multilimb Coordination - The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
• Far Vision - The ability to see details at a distance.
• Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).

What Can You Do With a Ground Transport Major?

People with a ground transport degree often go into the following careers:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
Bus Drivers, Transit and Intercity	9.0%	$42,080
Crane and Tower Operators	8.5%	$54,140
Dredge Operators	5.6%	$45,260
First-Line Supervisors of Transportation and Material-Moving Machine and Vehicle Operators	6.6%	NA
Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers	5.8%	$43,680
Light Truck or Delivery Services Drivers	6.5%	$32,810
Paving, Surfacing, and Tamping Equipment Operators	12.1%	$39,780
Pile-Driver Operators	13.5%	$58,680
Rail Transportation Workers	4.3%	$55,410
Rail Yard Engineers, Dinkey Operators, and Hostlers	4.5%	$52,630
Vocational Education Professors	1.4%	$53,120

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to Ground Transport

Some degrees associated with ground transport may require an advanced degree, while others may not even require a bachelor’s in the field. In general, the more advanced your degree the more career options will open up to you. However, there is significant time and money that needs to be invested into your education so weigh the pros and cons.

How much schooling do you really need to compete in today’s job market? People currently working in careers related to ground transport have obtained the following education levels.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
Less than a High School Diploma	12.6%
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)	62.6%
Post-Secondary Certificate - awarded for training completed after high school (for example, in agriculture or natural resources, computer services, personal or culinary services, engineering technologies, healthcare, construction trades, mechanic and repair technologies, or precision production)	12.7%
Some College Courses	5.7%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	3.1%
Bachelor’s Degree	1.4%
Master’s Degree	1.2%
Post-Master’s Certificate - awarded for completion of an organized program of study; designed for people who have completed a Master’s degree but do not meet the requirements of academic degrees at the doctoral level.	0.1%
Doctoral Degree	0.2%

Online Ground Transport Programs

The following table lists the number of programs by degree level, along with how many schools offered online courses in the field.

Degree Level	Colleges Offering Programs	Colleges Offering Online Classes
Certificate (Less Than 1 Year)	0	0
Certificate (1-2 years)	59	0
Certificate (2-4 Years)	2	0
Associate’s Degree	17	0
Bachelor’s Degree	0	0
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	0	0
Post-Master’s	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	0	0

Majors Related to Ground Transport

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to ground transport.

Major	Number of Grads
Air Transportation	10,445
Marine Transportation	1,173
Other Transportation & Materials Moving	18

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• College Scorecard
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers First Quarter 2020

More about our data sources and methodologies.