Try to think of something you eat, wear or work with that didn’t move at some time on wheels.
Even if you eat nothing but vegetables you grow yourself, there’s a good chance that your garden tools and fertilizer traveled on trucks.
The complex system of motorized transportation is the pulsing lifeblood of the economy of every modern nation. Many of imports come to America by ship or airplane, but the final miles to the local stores were covered by trucks.
“You can’t name anything you’re wearing, and every package arriving at your home, everything we touch or use is at some point moved by truck,” Peggy Arnold says on McMinnville Public Radio this week.
Arnold has logged some 3 million accident-free miles as a professional truck driver but is now sharing her expertise and experience as an instructor in the new Commercial Driver License (CDL) program at the Tennessee College of Applied Technology (TCAT) in McMinnville.
Her enthusiasm for teaching and trucking was on display in the interview recording set to air today [Wednesday, June 11] and again Saturday, 9:00 am both days, in the INSIGHTS discovery session on WCPI 91.3 FM.
“You can train in weeks and make a living wage,” but it gets better from there, Arnold assures prospects students. “With two years of experience you can be looking at $80,000 a year plus.”
The main reason for the high earning potential is the looming shortage of qualified drivers.
The American Trucking Association, a leading industry research and support organization, predicts that the shortage of drivers “could surpass 160,000 as soon as 2030,” just five years away, according to an April 2023 release from CDLjobs.com.
“Trucking never slowed down, not even in Covid,” Arnold observed. “There is a demand because there is a shortage.”
The TCAT CDL program is open to students, including new high school graduates, who meet the minimum age requirements and obtain a Commercial Driving Permit (CDP) from the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security. Information is easily available by calling the local TCAT at (931) 473-5822.
The installation of the CDL program here responds to industry needs, said Daniel Bratcher of the TCAT McMinnville staff.
Students can complete training in a matter of weeks rather the months or years required in many other TCAT programs, Arnold said. The minimum requirement of 222 hours can be satisfied in as little as six weeks, according to Bratcher.
Business interests ranging from agriculture to manufacturing and construction, from retail distribution to live entertainment, all depend on the big rigs, the massive tractor-trailers that can haul up to 80,000 pounds across town or across the continent. Without exception, all of those businesses are focused on making sure that American trucking can deliver the goods.
