Arkansas schools are seeing more students who want to be truck drivers. That’s good news for the trucking industry, which is seeing a shortage of drivers and a high turnover rate.
The turnover rate for truck drivers stands at 88 percent for the fourth quarter of 2011, which was down 1 percentage point from the previous quarter, according to the American Trucking Associations of Arlington, Va. But the rate is projected to climb.
See also Driver Shortage Troubles Trucking Firms.
To prevent the driver shortage from becoming worse, the Arkansas Department of Workforce Services in September revived its Truck Driver Training Pilot Initiative after suspending it in late 2009 because of the Great Recession, according to a DWS news release.
“The transportation industry is now experiencing a shortage of qualified truck drivers,” Kimberly Friedman, a DWS spokeswoman, said in the September news release.
DWS has partnered with Arkansas State University at Newport and the Arkansas Trucking Association to start the program, which forgives the student’s tuition and related expenses if the student completes the four-week training and remains in a job for at least a year.
Since the program started, 67 people have graduated. More than 100 trucking jobs still were open as of April 24, Friedman said in the news release.
CalArk International Inc. of Little Rock said last week that it is planning to revive its training program, which had been dormant for more than five years, said CEO Rochelle Bartholomew.
She said she didn’t have a timeline for when the training program would start.
Maverick USA Inc. of North Little Rock sends two recruiters to driving schools looking for future drivers, said Brad Vaughn, director of recruiting. “We found that to be really effective,” he said.
Waiting List
At the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith, classes to become a truck driver are full until the first of July, said Pat Eller, director of the center for business and professional development.
Eller said there’s been more interest and demand for its four-week program in the last year and a half. The program costs $2,400.
“It’s people looking for jobs,” she said. “It’s something they can do in a fairly short time.”
With the commercial license in hand, beginning long-haul truck drivers can earn about $38,000, she said. But those driving in a town will make only about $12 to $14 an hour.
The waiting list at Crowley’s Ridge Technical Institute in Forrest City is about 15 to 40 students, said Jimmy Davis, who conducts the driver’s tests at the school.
The program has six openings for the 10-week program.
Davis said the program is longer so the students can get the feel of what life is like to be a truck driver.
“The student thinks big money,” he said. “But they don’t realize that big money is [long-haul driving], which takes them away from their families. … They’re going to miss anniversaries, Thanksgivings, Christmases.”