Despite the still-high unemployment rate in Ohio and economic fallout from COVID-19, the trucking industry is thriving. Some industry leaders say there is a current shortage of about 50,000 drivers nationwide, exacerbated by the pandemic fueling online shopping. Demand in Central Ohio is so strong, a local truck-driving school expanded with a new campus. “I want to be a truck driver,” Jeremey Jackson said, on break from his classes at Roadmaster Drivers School in Columbus.