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Trucking: `the best blue-collar job'
14 Nov 2009
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Dominique Penen swung her petite frame up into the cab of a big-rig truck, flexing arm muscle and biting her lower lip. Once settled in the driver's seat, Penen, 47, of Hallandale Beach turned and beamed.
``My kids are not at home now; it's time for me to enjoy work, enjoy my life.''
Penen, who currently works in customer service for T-Mobile, is training for her certified driver's license at The Commercial Driver's License School in Miami. The school has been training drivers since 1963. President and director Albert Hanley boasts a diploma from his school is ``a license to work.''
Penen said she sees long-haul trucking -- delivering loads to 48 states -- as a way to see the country and get paid while doing it.
Hanley said she isn't alone, although women make up less than a third of the country's big-rig truck drivers. His school is seeing a growing number of female truckers and other nontraditional students, such as husband-and-wife teams of retiring boomers who are selling their possessions and becoming driving teams as a way to see the country.
Unlike most other fields in the current economy, trucking is healthy. Truckers are in demand, Hanley said.
``It's a very secure industry, not one that is going to be outsourced,'' Hanley said. ``Fewer and fewer goods are produced locally, so there is a demand for transport.''
There is a ``fundamental shortage of people in the industry,'' Hanley said, attributing the decline to career truckers retiring and the education system encouraging young people to pursue college and white-collar jobs.
Tuition at CDL is $5,995 for 3 ½ weeks of training. Trucking companies that hire drivers frequently offer a tuition payback program for students, Hanley said.
BASIC REQUIREMENTS
Truck driving has no real educational requirements, he said. Many of his students may only have a GED or high school equivalency. What is required: a healthy body, a relatively clean driving record and ``you have to be physically fit and pass a DOT physical test because you need to be able to couple and uncouple a trailer,'' Hanley said. ``For that, you need to have some arm and upper body strength.''
Those who don't qualify: Type 2 diabetics on insulin, recent heart surgery patients, those who suffer from epilepsy and people with other ailments that could present a safety risk.
Students take a written exam determined by the license classification they're seeking. They also must take a driving test.
Drivers frequently are hired before they complete half of their 180 hours of training. They can expect to earn between $35,000 and $45,000 their first year on the road, Hanley said.
``For a lot of people in this economy, and for those who lack education, it is probably the best blue collar job in America that's left,'' Hanley said.
Herb Schmidt, president of Con-way Truck Loads in Joplin, Mo., has a fleet of about 2,750 trucks, 500 of which are manned by teams. The company claims about 3,000 drivers on its payroll, with the average salary at $55,000 a year. Salaried drivers have full benefits packages.
``We get all ages -- it's amazing, the diversity we have in our fleet,'' Schmidt said. ``We have retired college professors, retired dentist wanting to see the country; we have career truck drivers and then we have farmers and people with other interests that just want to drive eight or nine months out of the year.''
Con-way hires long-haul, regional and local drivers and is hiring in Florida. ``My advice to potential drivers is to talk to one of our drivers at a truck stop,'' Schmidt said.
Army veteran Jason Benyue, 30, of Fort Lauderdale is one of CDL's success stories. Benyue graduated in February and has been driving since early March.
``I kind of always thought it would be pretty good career, I don't mind driving,'' said the former Yellow Pages salesman, who was laid off when Yellow Pages closed its South Florida offices.
QUICK HIRING
Con-way hired Benyue before he finished his training.
``I finished Feb. 28 and that next Monday, I left for the company,'' Benyue said. ``With this company, I don't touch the freight. I basically back into a dock and they load it or unload it for me and, while I am not home every night, I don't feel I am working nonstop because I take breaks when I want.''
If he has his way in 18 months or so, Benyue will leave the nation's highways for a more regional or local job. (He has a fiancée who would like to see him home more often than once every 10 days or so.)
``There are a lot of local companies that aren't hiring drivers unless you have two to three years experience, but the over-the-road companies will hire you right out of school,'' he said.
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