www.mybaycity.com
December 17, 2004
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Want A Job? Long Haul Truck Driving May Be Your Meal Ticket
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Ron View checks out one of two 67.5 foot Volvo-powered Freightliners at the Mackinaw Road indoor storage facility of West Michigan C.D.L., Inc.
Ron View graduated from Handy High in 1982 and hit the road. He found a career as a long haul truck driver.
After 14 years and about 2 million miles behind the wheel, Ron made a career change, of a sort. He became an instructor at West Michigan C.D.L., Inc., truck driving school in Bay City.
"If you want a job and have a clean driving record we can teach you what you need to know to get behind the wheel with a good job," exclaims Mr. View. "I love this work and especially helping people get qualified for jobs.
"Many of the companies we work with to arrange jobs for our graduates also offer to repay you for your tuition," says Sharlyn DeLong, admissions coordinator at the Bay City facility, located in the former United Technologies plant on Mackinaw Road. The program has been located there about two years and has trained about 150 drivers, Mr. View said.
Average starting salary for a first-year over-the-road driver is $35,000 a year; for a local driver pay averages $28,000 to $35,000 a year. The school stresses that demand for truck drivers is at an all-time high, trucking companies are always hiring and drivers are seldom or never laid off.
Tuition for the two week intensive training program is about $4,000 and there are many financing options, school officials said. These include bank loans, credit cards and a special TARFF loan for rural residents with a co-signer.
What do students learn at truck driving school? Rules for hours on the road, pre and post-trip inspections, parking skills; speed management, highway entrance and exit, city driving, highway driving, trip planning, map reading, route planning, time management, understanding the motor, weight distribution and coupling and uncoupling.
Much of the training is hands-on using one of the two 67 foot long rigs with Freightliner tractors or Volvo engines and cabs at the Mackinaw Road facility. The school has eight rigs at the Grand Rapids facility, which trains about three times more students than at Bay City, officials said.
Applicants need to have a valid Michigan driver's license and Department of Transportation (DOT) drug screen and physical exam costing about $100, according to Ms. DeLong.
A Temporary Instruction Permit (TIP) is available at the Secretary of State license branch. The cost is about $25. A short test is required at the license branch to get the permit and applicants can pick up a CDL manual to study for the test at either the license branch or at the school.
The school has only three students per instructor. "Our low student-to-instructor ratio gives you twice the average driving time, so you graduate faster at West Michigan C.D.L.," says Ms. DeLong, adding: "Eighty percent of the time you spend with us is behind the wheel training. Day, evening and weekend courses let you fit training around your present job. We work with nationally recognized companies to place our graduates in local, regional and national over-the-road jobs."
Among cooperating trucking firms are Central Refrigeration Service Inc., Covenant Transport, CR England Inc., CRST, Gainey Transportation Service Inc., Lisa Motor Lines Inc., Nationwide Truck Brokers Inc., Stevens Transport, Swift, USA Truck Inc., Werner Enterprises, and Wil-Trans.
Contact Sharlyn DeLong at: www.wmcdl.com, 800-280-0411.
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