NORTH CLARENDON — On the windowsill of a classroom inside the Vermont Wood Pellet Company lies business card after business card. They represent major trucking companies from across the country that Stafford Technical Center students can apply to after they graduate the Stafford Driving Training School for commercial driver’s licenses on the pellet company’s North Clarendon lot. The cards represented connections, made along the way by trucker-turned-instructor Tim Maxfield.
According to educators and local work force leaders, the school offers a whole new world of employment opportunities for high school and adult students in what could be one of the most dangerous, demanding but better-paying professions — truck driving. After receiving a Class B or Class A license from the Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles, unemployed Vermonters or those looking for a career change can find themselves on the road — driving school buses, hauling cars on the back of tow trucks or carrying 80,000 pounds of freight through rural country sides or on lonely interstates.
That’s where the new school comes in, according to classroom instructor Jim Patry. “There’s a lot more to the trucking industry that you have to get implanted in your head than you get through the state manual (alone),” Patry said. “The feds are leaning toward people not being able to just go and get their license by sitting next to a licensed driver and doing a quick manual study. “ Anyone can take a CDL test at their local DMV if they bring along a vehicle to test in.
But a federal law called the Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1986 requires states to abide by minimum national standards when licensing commercial drivers, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. ”The Act corrects the situation that existed prior to 1986 by making it illegal to hold more than one license and by requiring states to adopt testing and licensing standards for truck and bus drivers to check a person’s ability to operate the type of vehicle he/she plans to operate,” and in some cases states had to upgrade their licensing standards, according to the department.
A little more than a year in the making, the training school’s purpose is to make it easier for Vermonters untrained in driving big rigs, loaders or other commercial vehicles to be better prepared to take the DMV test. There’s the classroom training room, a 200-by-100 foot driving field behind the pellet company, and a practice dump truck and 14-wheeler with specially-installed pedals for the instructor. The infrastructure for the program came courtesy of Act 46 — a work force development grant adopted by the state’s Legislature last year with the intent of promoting job growth, said William Lucci, Stafford’s assistant director for Adult Technical Education. And there are job prospects — Casella Waste Systems, Inc., of Rutland has added money to the program in hopes of recruiting new employees straight out of high school — having first dibs on any number of the 10 Stafford students that get accepted into the Class B commercial licensing program for free and pass.
For adults, the training school’s seven-week, 74-hour Class B program for dump trucks and school buses costs an estimated $2,500. The Class A and Class B licensing program combined costs $5,000. That program requires 154 hours or about four months and students who obtain a license can drive commercial liners.
The Vermont Department of Labor and Vermont Student Assistance Corporation have financial assistance available, Lucci said. All students are required to take a physical and drug test, the cost of which is reimbursed by the school if passed, he said. The majority of training is done in the classroom rather than on roads and highways — a curriculum designed by the state Department of Motor Vehicles, Lucci said.
Current students range in age from 21 to their mid-40s — some women, some students wanting a job after their senior year and some men searching for a new career after being let go or making the decision to do something new, according to Lucci and Patry. The job market in trucking is hopeful and the new school picked up where commercial licensing schools in Pittsford and North Springfield left off after shutting down, according to Nancy Burzon, executive director of the Rutland Region Workforce Investment Board. ”(Commercial licensing) takes a flawless driving record and the training is expensive, contributing to an insufficient number of drivers,” Burzon said. ”In this economy, people are interested because the training doesn’t take that long, it’s in demand and (CDL licenses) are hard to come by in this area. “ For more information on the Stafford Driver Training School, call Lucci at 770-1032 or for more information on CDL licensure, visit www.aot.state.vt.us. [email protected]