Throughline

Skilled trades

Bus and Truck Mechanic / Diesel Engine Specialist in the United States

49 postings read · sampled 2026-10-01 · source ats · 17 employers · largest 20% of it

What employers actually ask for

Credentials named in the 49 postings we read, ranked by how many mentioned each one.

What it costs

Exam and application fees plus typical self-study hours. Almost nobody needs every credential on this list — start with the top line.

Most-asked-for, on its own
$200CDL-A · ~160 hrs
asked for in 7 of 49 postings — 14%
If you earned all 1 of them
$200
fees checked 2026-08
160 hrs
160 hours — about 16 weeks at 10 hrs/wk

Not in the total: Associate Degree — cost varies by institution.

Lower signal for this role

Credentials that barely appeared in this sample. That is not a claim they are worthless — plenty are valuable for a different job, a different city, or a promotion later. It is a claim that employers here mostly did not ask.

What the official taxonomy says

O*NET surveys people already doing this job. That describes who got hired over a long window, not what employers are asking for now — where it disagrees with the counts above, the counts are the more current answer.

  • Post-secondary certificate39%
  • High school diploma or equivalent37%

Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed. Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.

O*NET 49-3031.00 · pulled 2026-10-01 · percentages are of surveyed workers, each rounded separately, so they need not total 100

What it pays

BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. A different survey from the postings above, so the two do not share a sample.

$44,530
10th percentile
$61,770
median
$88,740
90th percentile

Every credential above costs $200 — less than a day's pay at the median.

Who was hiring

Employers with at least one matching posting in this sample.

Premier Truck Group · Truck Centers Inc · Cogent Talent Solutions · PS Logistics · Saronic · Zum Services · Kodiak Robotics · Nuro · Qualdoc · SpaceX · Atlas Energy Solutions · Charlie's Produce · DeAngelo Contracting Services · Freightliner of Hartford · Lucid Motors · Manitoulin Group of Companies · Scheffer Truck Service

Next

  • Roast and Resolve — Now aim your résumé at this target. Free roast, paid rewrite.
  • Synap — Two-minute daily lessons to drill the skills underneath the credential.