OAK CREEK,Wis. -- Educators and community members gathered in Oak Creek on Thursday to discuss ways to help curb a nationwide truck driver shortage.

Officials say the trucking industry is 50,000 drivers short across the country. Meanwhile, Wisconsin expects to be 1,500 drivers short for the next seven years.

One of the reasons for the shortage is the aging population of drivers. Officials say with around 70% of commercial goods being delivered by a truck, a driver shortage could negatively impact the economy.

“If you go to the store there’s nothing on the shelf and management is going to say, ‘well yeah we’re not getting that delivery for three weeks because drivers aren’t available to get the load here,’” MATC truck driving instructor Dan Zdrojewski said.

During the meeting at Milwaukee Area Technical College, the school said its truck driving program has many open spots.