Ground Transportation

Types of Degrees Ground Transportation Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many ground transportation graduations there were in 2020-2021 for each degree level.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Basic Certificate	17,116
Undergraduate Certificate	652
Associate Degree	125

What Ground Transportation Majors Need to Know

In an O*NET survey, ground transport majors were asked to rate what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important in their occupations. These answers were weighted on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the most important.

Knowledge Areas for Ground Transport Majors

According to O*NET survey takers, a major in ground transport should prepare you for careers in which you will need to be knowledgeable in the following areas:

• 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

ground transport majors are found most commonly in careers in which the following skills are important:

• 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 a ground transport major, you will find yourself needing the following abilities:

• 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 Transportation Major?

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

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
Bus Drivers, School or Special Client	5.4%	$32,420
Bus Drivers, Transit and Intercity	9.0%	$42,080
Crane and Tower Operators	8.5%	$54,140
Dredge Operators	5.6%	$45,260
Earth Drillers, Except Oil and Gas	19.9%	$44,430
Excavating and Loading Machine and Dragline Operators	8.1%	$44,270
Extraction Workers	14.3%	$54,840
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
Highway Maintenance Workers	6.9%	$39,690
Light Truck or Delivery Services Drivers	6.5%	$32,810
Operating Engineers and Other Construction Equipment Operators	12.3%	$47,810
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
Rail-Track Laying and Maintenance Equipment Operators	8.6%	$56,930
Subway and Streetcar Operators	4.7%	$68,170
Vocational Education Professors	1.4%	$53,120

How Much Do Ground Transportation Majors Make?

Salaries According to BLS

Average salaries range from $45,570 to $58,520 (25th to 75th percentile) for careers related to ground transport. This range includes all degree levels, so you may expect those with a more advanced degree to make more while those with less advanced degrees will typically make less.

To put that into context, according to BLS data from the first quarter of 2020, the typical high school graduate makes between $30,000 and $57,900 a year (25th through 75th percentile). The average person with a bachelor’s degree (any field) makes between $45,600 and $99,000. Advanced degree holders make the most with salaries between $55,600 and $125,400.

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to Ground Transportation

Some degrees associated with ground transport may require an advanced degree, while others may not even require a bachelor’s in the field. Whatever the case may be, pursuing more education usually means that more career options will be available to you.

Find out what the typical degree level is for ground transport careers below.

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 Transportation Programs

In 2020-2021, 291 schools offered a ground transport program of some type. 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)	54	1
Certificate (2-4 Years)	3	0
Associate’s Degree	17	0
Bachelor’s Degree	1	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

Is a Degree in Ground Transportation Worth It?

The median salary for a ground transport grad is $54,300 per year. This is based on the weighted average of the most common careers associated with the major.

This is 36% more than the average salary for an individual holding a high school degree. This adds up to a gain of about $288,000 after 20 years!

Majors Related to Ground Transportation

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

Major	Number of Grads
Air Transportation	9,984
Marine Transportation	1,203
Other Transportation & Materials Moving	4

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.