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Photo by: Austin Hornbostel / Journal-World
Peaslee Tech Posted on Wednesday, October 5, 2022.
America experienced a severe shortage of more than 80,000 truck drivers last year, according to the American Trucking Association, and the only commercial driver’s license instructor in Douglas County, Paisley Tech, hopes to help fill that gap.
The technical school was selected in July as one of 14 outside agencies to receive America’s Savings Plan Act funding. Peaslee Tech was awarded $190,750 to expand its CDL training program, which will cover the cost of purchasing two used cars, expanding the training fleet to four vehicles, renovating and expanding the training parking lot, and hiring a full-time CDL coordinator.
The result? Paisley Tech’s training capacity will increase compared to the 60 individuals we trained for commercial driver’s licenses in 2021.
“We’re going to triple our capacity,” Paisley Tech CEO Kevin Kelly told the Journal-World on Wednesday. “We will have the capacity to work 150, 180 people.”
Photo by: Austin Hornbostel / Journal-World
Peaslee Tech Posted on Wednesday, October 5, 2022.
Photo by: Austin Hornbostel / Journal-World
One of Paisley Tech’s two new used trucks is displayed in the school’s main parking lot on Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022. The two trucks were purchased in July with funds from the America’s Savings Plan Act to allow Paisley Tech to expand the school. Its commercial driver’s license training capacity is nearly three times what it was last year.
The Paisley Tech CDL program has come a long way since it started five years ago in December 2017 with just one car. The school got off to a slow start in its first year, training only 20 to 25 drivers, Kelly said, but the numbers quickly ballooned.
“We were having someone pass the test every five or six days to meet our needs,” Kelly said. “Now we go down every two and a half days. On average, twice a week we have someone get their license.
Kelly said there is no evidence that demand for new drivers is going anywhere. In fact, the American Trucking Association predicts that the driver shortage will exceed 160,000 drivers by 2030. That’s due to a number of factors, Kelly says, including the average age of current truck drivers and the Covid-19 pandemic.
With that in mind, the money couldn’t have come at a better time, Kelly said. Additionally, the federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration passed new entry-level driver training regulations in February. Until then, any company can train its employees for CDL certification, but the new rules require instructors to provide a safety course, not just driver training, and it must come from an FMCSA-registered provider. Peaslee Tech is the only FMCSA registered instructor in Douglas County.
Kelly said that means employers who want to provide that training will have to do it through Paisley Tech, which has mostly been the case since February, or else they’ll have to start driving their own schools to get certified as instructors. Local employers like Douglas County Government and the City of Lawrence previously provided their own CDL training to employees, but now go through Paisley Tech.
Photo by: Austin Hornbostel / Journal-World
The parking lot used for CDL training will be repaired and expanded starting Monday.
But more rigorous training is a good thing for the industry, Kelly said.
“Whenever you increase the level of education in any field, it helps his professionalism,” Kelly said.
Andrea Chavez, Paisley Tech’s executive director of support and administration, said much of the work to spend the ARPA dollars has already been done, or at least will be in the next week or so. The CDL coordinator was hired at the end of September, and the two additional trucks for the training fleet are parked outside Paisley Tech. Paving work began Monday and will be completed in two days, Chavez said, with the new lot ready to be used for classrooms within a week.
One of the two remaining steps is to register the newly purchased trucks, which Chavez said should be done by the end of October. Welding students at the technical school are working on another phase – installing gates on the east and west sides of the building to keep trucks out, which should be completed by the end of the month.
“By the end of October, we will complete the grant,” Kelley said.
Moving forward, Kelly said he sees plenty of room for more additions to the CDL program. Peaslee Tech has already added weekend classes, for example. Down the line, adding lighting to the training parking lot could be a way to further expand the school’s training capacity.
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