Published July 2002

Truck school meets demand
for big-rig drivers

By John Wolcott
Herald Business Journal Editor

In the wake of the bursting dot-com bubble, where have all the techies gone? Well, some of them have left their high-pressure professions for the open road — driving giant Kenworths and hauling flatbeds and freight trailers instead of piloting high-powered, galactic-speed laptops.

“We get former high-tech people, lawyers, psychologists, retired military and a lot of people who want to make a major lifestyle change, see the country and do their job without the boss looking over their shoulder,” said Jim Layne, Manager of the Everett campus of Western Pacific Truck School.

In the wake of the Boeing Co.’s massive layoffs in recent months, former aerospace workers are also knocking on the truck school’s door, he said.

Others eye the driver’s seat in the big rigs as a way to get off welfare rolls or to start a new life in America after leaving their native land. The truck school has trained arrivals from Ethiopia, Russia, Mexico, the Middle East and Asian countries.

“Employment agencies refer people here because they know when we train people they will nearly always go to work,” said Todd Bronson, the school’s Director of Admissions. “Entry-level drivers earn $30,000 or more to start, and many companies who send recruiters here will even reimburse students for their $4,295 tuition. For those students, the course is free.”

One of the big attractions for students is that there is a huge shortage of big-rig drivers. More than 80,000 new truckers are needed each year in this country to replace those who retire or leave their jobs, as well as meeting the demands of a growing industry.

“Doesn’t matter what product you talk about or whether it gets shipped or flown, before it gets to its destination it’s going to be on a truck,” Layne said.

For those seriously interested in maneuvering a 70-foot-long, 100,000-pound tractor-and-trailer 3,000 miles a week through forests, wheat fields and desert on long-haul routes, with Willie Nelson’s “On The Road Again” vibrating through the cab’s speakers, Western Pacific Truck School could be the start of a great new career.

But Bronson warns that trucking also means much more than open-road cruising. Drivers also need to know how to ease through big-city traffic jams, turn corners without wiping out traffic signals or curbside pedestrians, and back up to loading docks — and leave them intact.

For some who earn their commercial driver’s license in the school’s monthlong course, short-haul jobs for local firms have more attraction, offering more time with families than those who drive a week or more at a time on cross-country trips.

“It’s not for everyone,” Bronson said, “but we invite people to visit the school, find out what we do and see if there’s a fit there. You can’t tell that with just a phone call.”

Once students graduate, Western Pacific’s placement service finds most of them employment with carriers that provide four to eight weeks of paid training on the road with their experienced drivers.

The Everett campus’ placement representative, Sammy McAfee, spends much of her time talking with carriers and working with state WorkSource offices. Companywide, 95 percent of all graduating students find jobs.

Western Pacific Truck School — headquartered in California with three schools in that state and two in Washington, at Everett and Tacoma — is highly visible in Snohomish County. Drivers roll their rigs through Highway 99 traffic, along Marine View Drive, up steep hills at Clearview and around curving county back roads, all part of the road work that follows classroom studies.

Now celebrating 25 years of putting skilled drivers on the road, the truck school is the largest on the West Coast, respected by the carriers who regularly scout its students. It’s one of the few truck-driving schools certified by the Professional Truck Driver Institute, a member of numerous professional trucking associations and a pipeline supplier of drivers to such firms as Covenant Transportation, Gordon Trucking, Knight Transportation and Werner Enterprises.

“A large part of our continued growth and success comes from hiring some of the best trained drivers available today. I find these drivers at Western Pacific Truck School,” said Werner’s Driver Development Director, Ken Mizelle. “The training … is among the finest for entry-level drivers.”

More information about Western Pacific Truck School is available at its Everett campus, 9901 Highway 99, by calling 425-438-0593 or on the school’s Web site, www.wptruckschool.com.

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