Editor’s note: This is the last in a three-part series on Riverland Community College.

A shortage of truck drivers is helping Riverland Community College’s truck-driving students find jobs but could hurt businesses.

“We have so much need for trained truck drivers to take the jobs locally for all these local companies,” Dean of Career and Technical Education at Riverland Steve Bowron said. “We just can’t produce enough truck drivers in our program to fill that need, and we need more students to do that and it’s a real challenge.”

Bowron said he believes that nearly 95 percent of their graduates from the truck driving program have found jobs in the industry in the last five years.

“Our truck driving students are finding jobs basically right away,” said Tricia Whalen, director of placement and graduate services at Riverland.

According to Terry Bue, one of two truck driving instructors at Riverland, one reason for this is shortage is the nature of truck driving jobs, where drivers often travel long distances and are away from home a week or two at a time. And, truck drivers can often work 60-hour weeks.

“For good truck drivers there have always been jobs,” Bue said. “I started in 1968 — never had to worry about getting a job. Since 1993, there’s been a growing and growing shortage of truck drivers. There’s plenty of trucks. There’s plenty of loads. There’s just a shortage of truck drivers getting bigger and bigger each year.”

This current shortage of truck drivers may not be improving anytime soon. According to Bue, part of the reason for this need is an older population of truck drivers that is retiring.

Because of this shortage, companies have looked for other ways to entice drivers.

“Wages have doubled in the last few years,” Bue said. “This shortage is really affecting some companies. They’ve got to load their trucks. They’ve got to find drivers. They just keep paying more and more.”

This need for truck drivers has affected the quality of the job market. Bue said many of Riverland’s students start out making $40,000 a year and some earn as much as $70,000 a year.

“We have students, when they’re ready, send out five job applications,” Bue said. “Most of them will get four acceptances, maybe five. They get their choice of jobs. Probably half of our students go long distance, coast to coast. There’s a little more money in that.”

Many companies even give tuition reimbursements to their employees. And, in the long distance field, companies are offering unique hours for drivers.

“There’s such a driver shortage, that companies are bending over backwards,” Bue said. “A couple companies are offering seven days on, seven days off. They’d actually only work about 26 weeks a year. A couple of companies work 14 days on, seven days off.”

But not all the students go to long distance jobs. Bue said some of their students go into regional trucking, where drivers are typically out two or three nights at a time. Others are home every night in local driving.

The program

Unique opportunities for truck drivers have not been limited to companies, the Riverland program also presents unique opportunities.

“One of the unique aspects of our truck driving program is we start classes every month,” Bowron said. “New students can come in at the beginning of every month and start the program, and it’s only 16 weeks and they’re done.”

Currently Bue said theyhave eight students training in Austin. He said they used to have students coming from up to a hundred miles away to class, but that’s no longer the case, partially because of high gas prices.

Before students can finish the 16-week program, they must pass a driving test with the state of Minnesota and a test given by an employer before they can be hired.

“I think a lot of people see those trucks driving down the interstate and they just think that the driver just jumps in his truck and just takes off with his load,” Bue said. “That truck driver has law enforcement officials, shippers, safety department, weigh stations — all kinds of people. You think a driver’s alone out there, he’s not.”

Bue said the laws are constantly changing, and former students contact him often to check on these changes.

Outside of driving lessons, students are taught a 109-point vehicle inspection, and hours are spent learning to proper log books, which students must maintain.

“I had a student call from a student in New York State that had just finished,” Bue said. “He got caught in a department of transportation inspection out there. The person checked him out and complimented him on his log book.”

In both driving and preparation, safety is key. So Bue said safety is taught in every aspect of the program both in the classroom and behind the wheel.

“Safety. It’s continual,” Bue said. “On the road driving safety, things you learn when you’re 15 years old in drivers school and forget to do.”

These students that are able to quickly attain these skills have a unique opportunity to finish the program after 12 or 13 weeks, but only if they’ve completed all the requirements and have a job waiting.

Before completion of the program, students will leave the class room an on campus training area, and when they’re ready, 800 to 1,000 miles of city and freeway driving with an instructor.

“The main thing is that people can change their lives in 13 to 14 weeks change and change their lives and their family’s lives,” Bue said.