Truck driving class in demand
The school moved from Middletown to Trotwood in July.
The move of a 50-year-old Ohio truck driving training school to Montgomery County is already boosting interest in a program that’s been growing in recent years.
Ohio Business College moved its Truck Driving Academy Campus to Trotwood in early July from Middletown. The 5400 Salem Ave. location was formerly the Montgomery County Board of Developmental Disability Services transportation center, but regulation changes required they phase out the services, leaving the lot vacant.
“I don’t believe there is another school in Montgomery County, a truck driving school,” said Melissa Warner, vice president of human resources at Ohio Business College. “So we get a majority of our students from the Montgomery County area and the surrounding counties. We worked with the county for years and with our relationship with them we just felt that it was a better service for our students to move into the area where they’re com
ing from.”
Students can pick up the school every two weeks if they choose the four-week, Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. program, Warner said. There’s also a 10-week weekend program running about the same hours on Saturday and Sunday that picks up every eight weeks. At any one time the school usually has around 35 active students in different phases of training.
After finishing the course, the students can also take their commercial driver’s license test with the school’s third-party testing site in Middletown. The school helps with job placement and will try to make space for extra practice for students who want it before the test or who may need to retake the test, Warner said.
All tuition, fees and cost for CDL are included in the overall school cost of $5,200, Warner said.
Going through a program like Ohio Business College isn’t a requirement right now, but it does make it easier to get a job. It’s become more expensive and rules have changed, so most smaller trucking companies no longer train on site and send their employees to schools like the truck driving academy, said James Chambers, training manager.
But come February, it’s likely even more students will be coming through Ohio Business College’s program, Warner said. A rule change to the minimum entry-level driver training standards for obtaining a CDL will require drivers to complete a prescribed program of instruction that is accepted by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Training Provider Registry.
Ohio Business College already meets the qualifications to join the registry and is taking the steps to officially be listed, Warner said, but she isn’t sure if the truck driving companies that train in house or other schools will take those steps.
There’s been a movement by industry leaders to delay the new rules that are expected to take effect in February because of technology glitches, but official delays have yet to be seen, Warner said.
“We are pushing forward because there’s so much you have to do for this, that we’re just planning for it to go into effect,” she said. “If it does go into effect there’s a lot of things that have to be done — some people might be caught off guard.”
The number of students in the program has already grown, and sometimes future drivers who want to start a weekend class have to wait up to two cycles, or 16 weeks, to get in. Part of that growth is because people are realizing that the skilled jobs can be high paying, especially for the quick training available, Chambers said.
“Trucking companies right now are paying really more than they ever have for experienced drivers because they have a 100,000 driver shortage,” Chambers said. “Some people are leaving $30,000 jobs to come to the trucking industry and make $60,000 to $70,000 in their first year.”
The number of jobs that allow drivers to drive daily but stay home, rather than be on the road for days at a time, have also grown, Chambers said.
“We see the current and expected need for logistics,” said Judy Dodge, a Montgomery County commissioner. “The Dayton region is uniquely situated...with over two-thirds of the nation’s population and over 60 percent of our country’s manufacturing employment within a 600 mile radius from right here.”