Trucking Expected to Benefit From New Job-Training Law

This story appears in the July 28 print edition of Transport Topics.

President Obama signed into law a measure that provides new funding for job training and encourages local and state agencies and schools to work with employers to train workers for jobs in transportation and logistics and other industries.

Trucking leaders offered praise for the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, which drew support from Democrats and Republicans in Congress.

“This law helps ensure workers can obtain training funds to enter in-demand professions like commercial truck driving,” said Don Lefeve, president of the Commercial Vehicle Training Association in Springfield, Virginia.

CVTA-member schools train about 50,000 students annually at 180 locations in 41 states. Many of the schools rely upon grants and loans to help students pay for training, which can cost several thousand dollars.

Robert McClanahan, executive director of the National Association of Publicly Funded Truck Driving Schools, said he expects the law to increase the number of individuals who enroll in training programs.

“We applaud the signing of this bill and expect increased funding for entry-level driver training,” said McClanahan, who also works as director of Central Tech, a driver training school in Sand Springs, Oklahoma.

Lefeve said that he also continues to lobby Congress to look into delays in scheduling skills tests to issue new commercial driver licenses. In some states, that delay is up to 45 days.

On July 8, a group of 22 House members asked the U.S. General Accountability Office to assess the cost of delays and to examine issues, such as the use of training schools to conduct testing.

Under the new job-training law, local and state workforce investment boards must develop plans to focus more training on skills needed by industries facing labor shortages.

“This is a new strategy that we think will lead directly to more middle-class jobs,” Vice President Joe Biden said at the bill-signing ceremony July 22 at the White House. “These actions are going to help promote partnerships between educational institutions and workforce institutions. They’re going to increase apprenticeships, which will allow folks to earn while they learn. And it will empower job seekers and employers with better data on what jobs are available and what skills are needed to fill those jobs.”

President Obama asked Biden in January to lead a comprehensive review of job-training programs and recommend changes.

“There was a clear consensus,” Biden said. “We must rethink how we train today’s workers so that our programs are job-driven, teaching real skills that employers need.”

Secretary of Labor Tom Perez said the department will award $2.4 billion in competitive grants to schools and employment agencies that develop “job-driven” industry partnerships over the next two years. In addition, $100 million will be available for grants to help workers participate in apprenticeships.

Some in trucking have suggested allowing individuals as young as 18 to work as truck drivers as part of a closely supervised apprenticeship.

One of the problems for training schools in the United States and Canada is that truck driving is not considered a high-skill position, which makes it more difficult to compete for job-training funds.

Canadian trucking industry officials have expressed concern over a proposal by federal employment minister Jason Kenney to scrap a program that allows employers to hire foreign workers to fill temporary jobs.

“Companies that utilize the program to fill truck driver vacancies will be impacted,” said David Bradley, president of the Canadian Trucking Alliance in Toronto. “It’s not an ideal program, nor is it a solution to the shortage of qualified truck drivers. But it’s all that is available to fill some seats on a temporary basis for those who choose to use it.”

Bradley said the industry does not expect government to solve the driver shortage.

“When it comes to issues of compensation, lifestyle and training, the responsibility rests with the industry,” he said.