Trucking Hopeful for More Driver-Training Aid as Obama, Congress Look to Expand Programs

This story appears in the Feb. 17 print edition of Transport Topics.

Recent moves by President Obama and congressional leaders to expand job-training programs are raising hopes the government will do more to help individuals learn to be truck drivers, industry officials said.

Obama recently announced he would make $150 million in grants available to expand programs that help the long-term unemployed learn skills employers have an immediate need for. Among the companies that have pledged to work with the administration to expand hiring and share best practices are UPS Inc., PepsiCo Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Lawmakers are considering two bills — one that has passed in the House of Representatives and one under consideration in the Senate — that would fund job-training programs under the auspices of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998.

“WIA is a valuable and significant source of funding for students looking to get trained [as truck drivers],” said Don Lefeve, president of the Commercial Vehicle Training Association in Springfield, Va. “Passage of legislation is a priority for us and our members.”

Lefeve said he welcomes lawmakers’ focus on training programs that target employers’ needs and have a good track record for getting people hired.

“There is a shortage of drivers that we expect to get worse,” Lefeve said. “We want to make sure that trucking is a priority [for job-training funds].”

Lefeve said CVTA-member schools produce about 50,000 graduates a year at 180 locations in the United States and that more than 90% of students are hired in the industry after completing their training.

Lefeve, who joined CVTA in October as the successor to longtime executive director Mike O’Connell, who died earlier in 2013, said he  sees an “uptick” in driver-training programs in response to the growing demand for truck drivers.

Dave Osiecki, executive vice president and chief of national advocacy for American Trucking Associations, said he also is hopeful that the administration’s job-training initiative will draw more people to jobs in trucking.

“Driving is a great opportunity for many, yet our industry has a chronic shortage of qualified professional drivers,” Osiecki said.

Obama said he wants companies to provide more on-the-job training and apprenticeships and to help firms connect with community colleges to design training to fill their specific needs.

“If Congress wants to help, you can concentrate funding on proven programs that connect more ready-to-work Americans with ready-to-be-filled jobs,” Obama said during last month’s State of the Union address.

Meanwhile, under the Workforce Investment Act, which has been extended on a temporary basis every year since 2003, the Labor Department distributes about $3 billion a year for job-training programs for unemployed or disadvantaged adults. Most of the money goes to local workforce investment boards that, in turn, provide grants to individuals and funding for schools and nonprofit organizations to provide training services.

Each of the bills in Congress contains provisions designed to streamline current job-training programs by eliminating overlapping programs and directing more funding to programs with the most success in placing people in jobs.

“Americans can’t afford to waste any time training for skills that employers don’t need,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), one of several sponsors of Senate Bill 1356. “This bill takes a step in the right direction to update our workforce investment programs.”

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), a bill co-sponsor, said it wasn’t clear that leadership in the House or the Senate would make WIA reauthorization “a priority” this year.

Maureen Conway, a workforce policy expert at The Aspen Institute in Washington, said federal spending on training programs has declined in recent years. While driver-training programs may have good placement records, high turnover in the trucking industry could make it more difficult for schools to compete for funding with programs designed to train people for jobs in other industries, such as construction or manufacturing.

“Money is definitely an issue that is not going away,” Conway said. “Truck driving could be a good opportunity. The downside is high turnover rates.”