Trucking industry spurs training school

When it opens in February, the Transportation Training Institute will be on track to produce nearly 100 drivers per year initially, all with more than a basic knowledge of driving. Curricula will be based on the Professional Truck Driving Institute’s standards and also will teach driver well-being, nutrition and sleeping habits.

The trucking industry is eager for a qualified crop.

“It’s easy to find drivers,” said Stan Kasterke, director of safety and risk management at TCSI/Transland in Springfield, “but to find qualified drivers is not that easy.”

Jim Towery, chairman of the Springfield Area Motorcarriers Club, estimates that there are more than 7,500 over-the-road trucking jobs in the Springfield area. That employment base is hit increasingly hard by high turnover – 100 percent annually – and inexperienced workers, he said.

Starting up

Towery, on behalf of area transportation companies in the approximately 30-company Motorcarriers Club, approached OTC officials in the fall with the idea for a trucking school. OTC drew up its plans based on input from those member employers, and school leaders began searching for a location that could provide classrooms and driving space.

They found it at Price Cutter Park, the former home of Ozark Mountain Ducks baseball in Ozark. OTC has a one-year park lease for $1,500 per month, according to OTC spokesman Joel Doepker. The lease includes the buildings and 16 acres of land and parking lots, but not the stadium. When classes are not in session, the park will continue to be used for sporting and entertainment events.

OTC estimates it will cost roughly $200,000 a year – covered by tuition – to operate the institute.

Each of the institute’s sessions will run four or five weeks and will have about 12 students. Officials plan to conduct eight sessions per year, and tuition will be about $2,700.

OTC plans to hire two full-time instructors, Doepker said.

Donors

Several trucking companies have stepped up with donations to get the school on its feet.

“We want to invest back into our industry and our community,” said Towery, who also is president of Steelman Transportation.

Steelman Transportation donated a $20,000 tractor truck, TCSI/Transland gave a trailer valued between $10,000 and $15,000, and Trailiner Corp. has offered use of a tractor for at least six months, a value of about $10,000. Truck Sign Design Inc. will install OTC lettering on some of the equipment at no charge, and Kearney Street Truck Wash will detail the Steelman truck.

Ozark Utility will donate a 45-foot van, Roadway has given a 26-foot pup trailer, and O’Reilly Auto Parts has offered to donate a trailer. Cross-Midwest Tire will maintain the fleet’s tires at no charge for a year, and Wick’s Truck Trailer will offer its services to make sure all trailers are roadworthy.

In addition, Prime Inc. has helped develop the institute’s curriculum and testing standards.

“I don’t think there’s a trucking company in Springfield that either hasn’t offered to help or already helped,” said OTC President Hal Higdon.

While many companies have stepped forward with assistance, Phil Davis, director of OTC’s Training Resource Group, which heads the trucking institute, says donations are still welcome.

Enrollment at the institute hasn’t begun, but Doepker says there’s already been high interest, with about 20 people on a waiting list.

There won’t be financial aid available to the institute’s students through OTC, Higdon said, but there should be federal dollars available under the Workforce Investment Act. Higdon also noted that some trucking companies plan to sponsor students by paying their tuition if they agree to come on as drivers for the companies when certified. Other companies have expressed interest in hiring the institute’s graduates and reimbursing them for tuition over time.

‘Trucking Mecca’

Local transportation employers are confident the school will succeed, largely because of its location at the center of the country – a “trucking Mecca,” TCSI’s Kasterke called it.

Steelman’s Towery said southwest Missouri has a strong blue-collar work force.

He added, “Our wages in southwest Missouri have traditionally been depressed compared to the rest of the nation. A truck driver could earn a significantly better wage by being out on the road rather than working in a factory.”

The high salaries – averaging $60,000, according to Doepker – are an incentive, but they don’t always keep drivers in seats.

“A lot of people would rather stay home and make less money than get out there and make really, really good money (driving) and be away from home,” said Gary Martin, director of the C-1 Professional Training Center in Strafford.

Emotional detachment, Towery said, from a family or home life drives away a number of qualified workers. Others are turned off by the profession’s high stress levels, risks and the health problems – hypertension, diabetes and sleep apnea – that could result.

There’s also a need for drivers because of fewer young people entering the industry, according to Sundy Muse-Morton, marketing and recruiting director at O&S Trucking, which provided input for the OTC institute.

“We’re more in the information and technology age,” she said. “Truck driving usually gets left out of there.”

Competition

The demand for qualified drivers is partly met by existing truck-driving schools. Both Prime Inc. and Trailiner operate internal private schools. Martin’s C-1 Professional Training Center is the only independent school nearby.

“It doesn’t concern me at all that OTC has opened up their own school,” Martin said about the increased competition. “There is a tremendous need for drivers. If they can help supply that demand, that’s that much better.”