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Walmart announced this week it’s expanding its Associate-to-Driver training program, which touts a salary as high as $110,000 annually.

Unveiled last year, the program has so far trained just 56 Walmart employees from various supply chain roles in the Dallas, Texas, and Dover, Delaware, areas to become fleet drivers.

The expansion opens the program to workers at its stores, distribution facilities, fulfillment centers and transportation offices.

Applicants must work at a Walmart within a 50-mile radius of one of the company’s 25 transportation offices that are offering the 12-week training program. Locally, that includes a location at 13550 Valley Blvd. in Fontana.

Fernando Cortes, Walmart’s senior vice president of transportation, said it gives employees the chance to step up into a higher-paying career.

“Walmart drivers can make up to $110,000 in their first year with the company, in addition to the suite of benefits the company offers,” Cortes said in announcing the expansion. “And that’s just a start. Drivers who have been with Walmart longer can earn even more, based on factors like tenure and location.”

Cortes didn’t say what kind of wage a Walmart driver making less than $110,000 might earn their first year.

Data from Talent.com show truck drivers in the U.S. average $62,454 a year. The average entry-level wage is $48,749 a year, the data tracker said, while experienced drivers can earn a yearly average of $88,392.

Walmart’s program speaks to the growing demand for truck drivers as retailers scramble to fill openings.

The growth of e-commerce and the demand for rapid home deliveries have pushed the trucking industry to remake itself in recent years, putting more long- and short-haul trucks on the road and reducing delivery times, trucking experts say.

A 2022 report from the U.S. Department of Transportation notes the nation’s supply chains have weathered a slew of challenges, ranging from growing freight demand, changing consumer preferences to shop online, attracting and retaining a qualified workforce and increasingly complex, global supply chains where many products are manufactured abroad.

“As e-commerce creates additional demand for warehousing jobs and short-haul freight, long-haul trucking positions may become harder to fill,” the report said. “The growing demand for truck transportation from e-commerce is further exacerbating the industry’s issues with vehicle capacity and truck driver demand.”

Walmart’s Associate-to-Driver training program is open to employees at 439 Walmart locations and select Sam’s Club supply chain facilities.

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The company said it will cover the cost of training, as well as obtaining the necessary commercial driver’s license — expenses that ordinarily could run as high as $8,000, according to the National Sound Trucking School.

U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz. recently introduced a bill that would do away with certain requirements for obtaining a commercial driver’s license. In a campaign video, Kelly said the law would ease America’s “truck driver shortage” and slash costs associated with the transportation of goods.