It is neither fair nor accurate to assume that someone with a CDL necessarily lives in a rural area or is poor, especially the latter.
The easiest / obvious automation candidate is long haul/overnight interstate trucking. That's a shitty, hard job with high turnover that pays well. It absolutely trends that way.
I grew up in farm country and saw it firsthand... all of the farm families and blue collar folks with marginal educations got into construction or drove trucks. Some do construction in the summer and driving in the winter. The alternative is a much lower paying job & poverty.