Trucking Jobs in Bakersfield, CA

Bakersfield is one of the few American cities where oil rigs and agricultural fields exist side by side. Kern County produces more oil than any other county in California, with thousands of wells dotting the landscape between rows of almond trees and grape vines. This creates a dual freight economy — tanker trucks hauling crude oil to refineries share the roads with reefer trucks carrying table grapes to cold storage facilities. Grimmway Farms and Bolthouse Farms, both headquartered in the Bakersfield area, are the two largest carrot producers in the world, and their combined output fills thousands of reefer trucks annually. The CA-58 corridor over the Tehachapi Pass is a critical freight bottleneck — virtually all truck traffic between the Central Valley and Southern California that doesn't use I-5 through the Grapevine must cross this pass, where high winds regularly cause truck rollovers. The Tehachapi Wind Resource Area's thousands of turbines also generate maintenance and replacement parts freight. Bakersfield's cost of living is notably lower than other California metros, giving drivers access to California wages with more manageable expenses.