P.A.M. Transportation, USA Truck Among Firms Relying on Driver Schools

With a driver shortage gripping its jugular, Arkansas’ trucking sector employs different methods to recruit and train drivers.

It takes 20 days and $1,100-$5,995 to complete a truck driving school in Arkansas and test for a commercial driver’s license (CDL). A first-year trucker earns about $30,000, a spokesman for three trucking companies said.

While some companies, such as flatbed hauler Maverick Transportation Inc. of North Little Rock, require at least one year of over-the-road experience with a good safety record, other companies, such as Continental Express Inc. of Little Rock, take graduates of driver training programs and put them through a six-week training class.

P.A.M. Transportation Services Inc. of Tontitown and USA Truck Inc. of Van Buren use a recruiter that pays the Arkansas Commercial Driver Training Institute at Arkansas State University-Newport to train students.

Brenda Germann, director of the Arkansas State Board of Private Career Education, said the costs range from $1,800 for a 160-hour course at Timberland Tech in Fordyce to $5,995 for a 192-hour course through MTA Schools in Newport.

C1 Professional Training Center and MTA Schools in Newport recruit students for trucking companies from the Commercial Driver Training Institute at ASU-Newport. The school’s 204-hour course costs $1,100. It is the state’s only program accredited by the Professional Truck Driver Institute Inc. of Alexandria, Va. The nonprofit organization developed in 1986 the first voluntary curriculum and certification standards recognized by the industry and government to train entry-level truck drivers.

C1 Professional sends 300-400 recruits for P.A.M. Transportation Services Inc. of Tontitown and 100-150 recruits for USA Truck Inc. of Van Buren through ASU-Newport each year. MTA recruits students for several out-of-state trucking companies and is putting about 10 students a week through ASU-Newport.

ASU-Newport, with seven full-time instructors and five part-time instructors, graduates 600-800 annually, although it can accommodate up to 3,000.

Dale Martin, director of the school and one of PTDI’s six school evaluators nationwide, said the accreditation doesn’t matter one way or another to most trucking companies because they are so desperate for truck drivers.

Joey Walter, director of driver recruiting for Continental Express, offered another reason why trucking companies might not put a premium on PTDI trained drivers. Walter said that to recruit students from a PTDI certified school, a trucking company has to sponsor PTDI or directly pay a student’s tuition.

“Most truck driving schools welcome our recruiting materials, but to have those displayed at a PTDI school, you have to be a sponsor,” Walter said. “And the more money you send in, the more access you get.”

But Martin is a PTDI stalwart.

“I believe in the PTDI standards because we have them. It’s like the North Central Association of Colleges and Universities, without them, who would accredit a college,” Martin said. “It may not be the best way, but it’s a start.”

PTDI requires 104 classroom hours, 32 hours behind the wheel on a course with cones and docks and 12 hours on the highway. Martin said ASU-Newport offers a 204-hour program with 45-50 hours on the course with an emphasis on backing up to docks and running through cones and barrels.

“Seventy percent of the accidents new people have are while in reverse. We take a lot of time training students in backing up so they avoid those fender benders and thereby keep insurance premiums low.”

Martin said ASU-Newport trains beginners, but few companies will turn a new graduate loose.

“We’re not going to make a professional out of anyone in just 20 days,” he said.

To ensure new drivers stay in the field, ASU-Newport said, other schools and trucking companies’ in-house training emphasize budgeting, family management and time management.

“The ups-and-downs and the luck-of-the-draw and being gone two weeks at a time is hard to adjust to,” Martin said. “That’s most of the reason for turnover with new people. It’s the lifestyle most can’t handle.”