Motorists looking to get on the road after a snowstorm may soon face serious delays due to a shortage of snowplow drivers, according to a report from the American Trucking Associations.

State transportation departments across the country — including Washington state, Pennsylvania, Montana, and Wyoming — are having trouble recruiting plowers, the AP reported.

“We want the traveling public to understand why it could take longer this season to clear highways during winter storms,” Jon Swartz, the maintenance administrator for the Montana Department of Transportation (DOT), which is down 90 drivers, said, according to the AP.

The job — which requires a commercial driver’s license, or CDL —  comes with odd hours, low pay and often dangerous conditions. And state DOTs face competition for CDL holders from private trucking firms, which have been raising pay and boosting benefits to fill out their ranks.

Pennsylvania is down 270 permanent and 560 temporary roles, state DOT rep Alexis Campbell told the AP. “Our goal is to keep roads safe and passable rather than completely free of ice and snow,” she said.

Washington state’s transportation department is down 151 winter operations workers due to higher salaries from competitors and a COVID-19 vaccine mandate, Barbara LaBoe, a rep for the agency, told the AP.

Motorists in the pacific northwest can expect some roads and mountain passes to be less plowed or fully closed longer than usual, LaBoe added.

“If we have a series of storms over several days or if it hits the whole state at once,” she added, “[the shortage] is going to become more evident because we don’t have as deep a bench.”