Training Grant Delivers the Drivers

Cynics might have been skeptical about a program to transform displaced factory workers into truckers because of the difficulty of keeping new drivers in the industry.

But former factory worker Joe Childress got his commercial driver license in March through the private-government collaboration, and he and the other 29 graduates of the program are still laying down the miles.

When the program was launched in November, it teamed the U.S. Department of Labor, American Trucking Associations, the Pennsylvania Motor Truck Association, the Tennessee Trucking Association and the Professional Truck Driver Institute. A $1.2 million federal grant was funneled through the ATA Foundation to government job training and placement centers in two pilot states — Pennsylvania and Tennessee.

The Labor Department hopes the retraining project becomes the model for a nationwide effort (3-29, p. 1).

The placement centers find laid-off workers who may be right for a job in trucking and use the federal cash to pay for their tuition at PTDI-certified schools. Once they have graduated, students sign on with participating members of the trucking associations in their respective state.

Many see the retraining effort as a scenario that holds benefits for all involved. Training schools get students; the unemployed receive free training for a new career; and trucking makes a small dent in the driver shortage, estimated at 80,000 a year over the next six years.

For the full story, see the August 23 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.