Ground Transportation

What Ground Transportation 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

Ground Transport majors often go into careers in which the following 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 Transportation Major?

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

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
Vocational Education Professors	1.4%	$53,120

How Much Do Ground Transportation Majors Make?

Salaries According to BLS

Ground Transport majors often go into careers where salaries can range from $45,570 to $58,520 (25th to 75th percentile). 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 careers associated with ground transport require an advanced degree while some may not even require a bachelor’s. 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.

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	697
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.