ITS boosts driver training initiative

A program started six months ago to groom new big-rig truck drivers has resulted in more than a dozen new hires for ITS Logistics, and President and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Lynch says the company's driver-training program could become it's best resource to overcome an industry-wide driver shortage.

Nationwide, the trucking companies say they are short at least 20,000 drivers, and Nevada companies share in the pain.

In ITS Logistic's six- to 12-week Driver Finishing Program the company pays for some candidates to attend truck driving school and earn their commercial driver's license a savings of several thousand dollars for the candidate.

The company provides candidates who have recently graduated from a truck driving school with additional training. Driver trainees, for instance, spend several days working alongside ITS Logistics mechanics to learn the essentials of truck and trailer maintenance. They also spend two to three weeks driving local routes, learning to backing skills and learning to drive on congested roads.

Finally, they complete crucial over-the-road training on long-haul routes with a trainer.

Length of the program varies depending on a candidate's background, experience and overall confidence in handling a big-rig in a variety of situations.

"So far it is bringing in lot of new applicants and new candidates that we didn't tap beforehand," Lynch says. "We are trying to get a pipeline from the schools to the finishing program to keep a good number of candidates."

The over-the-road training varies from most trucking companies, Lynch says, because ITS Logistics pays a much higher wage than other trucking firms. Drivers that undertake supervised training typically earn about 16 cents a mile, or a few hundred dollars a week. ITS Logistics pays about $450 a week during the supervised long-haul training period.

In addition to the 12 drivers ITS Logistics has pulled from local driving schools, it's also trained six more drivers in-house.

"It has become a good base for finding drivers," Lynch says. "There just are not enough drivers in our industry."

ITS employs 130 big-rig drivers, as well as another 20 owner-operators and smaller carriers. Most drivers work West Coast routes, but a few make cross-country runs. New drivers who log 1.5 years of service can earn annual wages in the mid $40,000 range, Lynch says.

ITS is working with all local truck driving schools to position their new graduates. The Driving Finishing Program has proved popular with many new grads, Lynch says, because they can work locally and earn a fair wage while the ink dries on their commercial driver's licenses.

ITS previously wouldn't consider hiring drivers with less than two years of on-the-road experience.

"We are looking at turning it into our main source of new drivers, and we are excited about the program," Lynch says. "We will continue to invest more funds, time and energy into the schools. We have to get creative as an industry, and this is one area for us."