A Conversation With ... Carrol Alumbaugh

It was set up by the transportation (companies) in the Springfield area. March was our first class. The gentlemen and ladies at the trucking companies felt that there was a great need for good drivers. They set this up with (OTC), and donated equipment to get it started. Right now, I have two tractors and two trailers that have been donated by different trucking companies.

I’m an instructor, but I also handle personnel. I have one instructor who works with me and two adjunct professors who are part-time. We’ve had about 25 students so far.

What does the program teach?

We go through the Missouri Commercial Drivers’ License manual … so they can feel comfortable going down and taking their test (to get) their permit. Then, they come back and we have the tractors and the trailers out here … and we have 15 acres of asphalt here at Price Cutter Park (in Ozark, where the class meets) and we drive them around first to get their shifting, and then we do the backing. Then we take them out on the street and out on Interstate 44 … to get their driving experience.

The daytime class is a full-time class, and it’s five weeks, 8 a.m.–5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Then I have an evening class (that meets) Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays (for 10 weeks). We have several trucking companies that come out and recruit students.

Tell us about your professional background.

I actually worked up on the pipeline in Alaska for nine and a half years as an office manager, and then came to Springfield and started driving a truck with Prime. That’s where I learned, and then I also went into the training portion at Prime, and trained other folks there.

I was an owner-operator and had my own truck. … Then I went to IWX and was a solo driver there, and I worked at Trailiner as well. I drove for about 12 years.

Why did you choose trucking?

When I moved back to Missouri, I found that financially, even an office manager was only going to get paid $7, $8, $9 an hour back in the 1990s. I just kept looking around, and it was either transportation or hospitals – the two best-paying (industries) in town.

I had been working with men out in the field up in Alaska, so I decided that (trucking) would be appropriate for me and I went that direction.

But it’s not just a man’s field anymore, is it?

No. We’ve trained … wives or girlfriends whose husbands or boyfriends are already out there driving, and they want to get their CDL so they can team drive. It’s always a lot more fun if you have somebody out there with you.

Financially, it is one of the better-paying positions that a woman can get if she has a desire to do that – but you’re going to get dirty, too.

What challenges do truck drivers face today?

To be able to log legally is probably the most difficult because the (rules) are generated from the federal government and mandated. Federal rules (are) that you can drive for 11 hours, and sleep for 10. You have a 14-hour day, and you can only drive 11 of those hours. … Then, you have a rule that says there’s a 34-hour restart if you drive for 70 hours in a week. There are a lot of state (rules). Every state has its own qualifications and standards, different speed limits … and you have to be familiar with each one that you have to go through.

Right now, the institute’s focus is on truck driving, but could that change?

I just went and got my passenger endorsement and bus endorsement as well, so that we could actually instruct in passenger vehicles and buses a little later. We have a proposal in with one of the (trucking) companies to (train) for package carriers and those kinds of trucks. That is in the planning stages at this point.

Tell us about your family and what you do in your free time.

I have a daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren who live in the Nixa area. I enjoy spoiling my grandchildren. I like to bowl … and I’m volunteering at Central Assembly to drive a church van.

Interview by Features Editor Maria Hoover. You can e-mail her with suggestions for future installments of this feature at mhoover@sbj.net.