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Training Keeps on Trucking
April 08, 2008
With the U.S. soon facing a trucker shortage, the Oxford Hills Technical School relies on professional certification and a rigorous training program to give its attendees a leg up.
By Ted Cohen
The folks at Oxford Hills Technical School in South Paris, ME, are doing everything they can to maintain a standard of truck driver excellence at a time when government statistics reveal a growing shortage of U.S. truckers. This includes getting a top rating from a nationally prominent professional driving organization and offering 40-plus hours of behind-the-wheel training.
"Demographic trends will turn against the industry over the next 10 years," according to Waltham, MA-based Global Insight, Inc. (GII), which did a report [U.S. Truck Driver Shortage: Analysis & Forecast] on the topic for the American Trucking Association.
The size of the white male population ages 35 to 54—a demographic group that currently provides more than half of all truck drivers—will decline by more than 3 million persons by 2014." Over the next 10 years, economic growth will give rise to a need for a 2.2 percent average annual increase in the number of long-haul, heavy-duty truck drivers, or an additional 320,000 jobs overall, Global Insight said in its May 2005 study. "At least another 219,000 new truck drivers must be found to replace drivers currently ages 55 and older who will retire over the next 10 years and to replace those in younger groups who will leave the occupation."
Combining these two figures gives total expansion and replacement hiring needs of 539,000, or an average of about 54,000 per year, according to GII. "However, this is a net figure. It reflects the hiring of new truck drivers to offset drivers exiting the occupation only on a net basis, and it does not include the substantial amount of hiring trucking companies must do each year as a result of job switching ("churning") within the industry."
As such, "driver recruitment and retention is a top industry issue," according to Bill Graves, a former two-term governor of Kansas who is now president and chief executive of the American Trucking Association.
One way to boost recruitment and retention is certification. Oxford Hills/Buckfield Adult Education's Class "A" commercial driving program, for one, recently received a top rating from The Professional Truck Driver Institute Inc. (PTDI), of Alexandria, VA, which sets the industry’s gold standard for approved truck driver training courses. The Oxford Hills/Buckfield Adult Education program is the only PTDI certified course in the entire New England region. In all, PTDI-certified courses currently are offered at only 66 schools in 28 states and Canada.
With the PTDI certification, "there is an extra level of quality built into the program," says Jane Courcy, director of adult education in this western Maine region. "We have to meet many requirements to get that certification." Offering a certified Class "A" program gives graduates of the course a leg up when it comes to finding jobs, Courcy adds. Employers look approvingly at prospective drivers who have had their training at a PTDI-approved school. "Our students go into the job market with extra credentials," Courcy explains.
Since 1986, PTDI "has been working with the carriers, truck driver training schools, insurance industry, and government to make safety a No. 1 priority in the trucking industry," according to the organization’s Website. "PTDI is the first nonprofit organization to develop uniform skill performance, curriculum, and certification standards for the trucking industry and to award course certification to entry-level truck driver training courses and motor carrier driver finishing programs," the Website reports. "Our goals are to advance truck driver training, proficiency, and professionalism, and to put quality drivers on the roads."
Courses seeking PTDI certification pay $3,295 to be certified, and $750 annually for certification confirmation, so it's clear that programs wanting to be certified are serious about, and committed to, their missions. The certification process generally takes approximately six months before being presented to PTDI's Certification Committee. The certification is good for five years, at which time an establishment can reapply for review.
Besides the PTDI certification and required 109 hours of classroom and lab work, Oxford Hills/Buckfield offers 46 hours of behind-the-wheel instruction. The school uses two 1996 Volvo tractors with sleepers, which is unusual in terms of trucking schools. Many schools use "day cabs," meaning drivers don't get acclimated to driving sleeper-equipped rigs without being able to "peek" over their right shoulder through the window.
The Volvos are powered by Cummings engines with 9-speed and 13-speed transmissions, respectively. Each tractor pulls a 45-foot Great Dane trailer. The school also has a 1970 Heil tanker that students take out on the road. Again, very unusual—few schools are equipped with tankers.
Jerry Verrill, the sole PTDI instructor, is a veteran trucker himself. He has driven big rigs for nearly 30 years, most recently for New England Public Warehouse out of South Paris, ME; and for Stephens Memorial Hospital, based in Norway, ME. "I've driven flatbeds, dry vans, dumps, and logging trucks," says the 47-year-old Verrill. "I've driven cross-country, done a lot 'slip seating,' meaning you drive a different type of truck every night. I've driven all types—Peterbuilts, Freightliners, Kenworths, Macks, Internationals, Fords." He's driven both "cab-overs" and "conventionals."
Verrill, who was looking for a fulfilling way to pass on his experience and skills to the next generation of professional truckers, began teaching 14 years ago to help others discover what he considers one of the best ways to earn a living. Being a safe, professional, responsible driver over the course of hundreds of thousands of miles was tough enough; learning how to teach what he knew to others was even harder, though in a different way, according to Verrill. "It took me a while to get used to teaching, but now I love it," he says."I want to make sure students get what they came here for—to learn the best principles of professional driving. It's their dime, so they deserve to get the best, and we believe we provide that. I came to understand that you have to approach each student as an individual because each person is unique and has different needs."
Colin Micklon of Fryeburg, ME, who just graduated from the course, says Verrill’s personal attention to each student makes the course a winner. "He accommodates us and works around our schedules, which is helpful because many of us work full time," Micklon says. He praises the school’s covering all the bases, including the hours-of-service rules and the important regulations and laws of the road that promote safety first and efficiency.
For more information on Oxford Hills/Buckfield Adult Ed's commercial truck driver training program for Class A and Class B, call Donna Kusheba at 207.743.8842, extension 9525, or visit http://www.sad17.k12.me.us/instruction/adult-education.
Ted Cohen is a Maine journalist, with more than 30 years under his belt as a newspaper reporter. After retiring in 2004 as a staff writer for the Portland Press Herald, Cohen attended "ProDrive Maine," in Scarborough, ME, and achieved his Class A license. He drives the big rigs for Land Air Express of New England out of Scarborough, ME, and FedEx Ground and Garwin Express in Saco, ME. Contact him at tedcohen@hotmail.com.
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