A new piece of equipment will let Aims Community College's commercial truck-driving students get the feel of driving on the open road without leaving the classroom.

The school recently added a Commercial Drivers License simulator to the Fort Lupton campus, part of an effort to meet the demand for new truck drivers shortage.

"The simulator is a great tool, in addition to being behind the wheel of an actual truck, " said  Martin Rubalcaba, Aims Community College Program Director. "It gives the student confidence, knowing that they can drive a virtual truck; we see it as a tool, instead of damaging existing equipment when they don't know how to shift the truck properly."

Rubalcaba has been teaching for a year but was a truck driver for 14 years.

"They will be able to learn digitally. Hopefully, by the time they get in the truck, they will be more polished and ready for the actual truck."

Before she got into the program, Lynette Peppler was a stay-at-home mom raising her family for 25 years. Now she has her CDL career driving semis.

"I've had my CDL for about four years and have been CDL training all aspects of the program, classroom, backing maneuvers on parking, teaching shifting, and on the road driving," Peppler said.

Peppler said the program began sometime in the 1990s. The school also trains students on backhoes and forklifts at some point in time. There are jobs for all kinds of heavy equipment operators, she said.

 "There have been lots of changes to management, to employees and the demand and supply of students and drivers over the years," Peppler said. "We have equipment now, a lot better parking lots for training, and we have a lot of business partners that are ready to help get students their first job out of school."

Rubalcaba said the program will have about 54 students total this quarter and nearly 200 students in the CDL program by the end of the year.

"It's a three-week program, sometimes it will run four weeks, depending on the student. After three weeks, it's an accelerated career placement program. We test them in-house on our own equipment. They always train and test in the same equipment," Rubalcaba said.

Once a student is certified, the school helps them with job placement through various local partners in the area.

The Aims CDL program offers certification in CDL Classes A and B. While a Class A license allows drivers across all types of large trucks including tractor-trailers, a Class B license is more limited and covers single-vehicle trucks like garbage trucks and cement mixers.

The training is a combination of classroom instruction and hand-on-the-road training with instructors who have experience in the industry.

In addition to learning about the trucking transportation industry, the student also learns safety requirements and receives a learner permit and hazardous material endorsement to gain knowledge in a field that offers a good income.

Drivers needed

According to the American Association of Truckers, The trucking industry is currently short an estimated 78,000 drivers and 41,000 technicians. Over the next decade, trucks will transport 2.4 billion more tons of freight than they already do today.

"The last time I checked the data by the year 2030, the truck driving industry will be short by about 1 million drivers, " Rubalcaba said.

"There are many causes of the truck driver shortage. There are several primary reasons the industry is suffering, " said  Jeremy Kirkpatrick, vice president of digital and advocacy communications for the association.

 Kirkpatrick said age is a factor. The median age of over-the-road truck drivers is 46. Some sectors within the trucking industry require a higher median age. The private fleet drivers have a median age of 57 years old.

"The current age requirement to drive a tractor-trailer across state lines is 21. This means that interstate motor carriers miss out on the population between 18 and 21, "Kirkpatrick said.

"Often, these individuals, at least those that don't go to higher education or the military, obtain employment in construction, retail, or fast food industries so they can start their careers at a younger age. The average age of a new driver trained is 35 years old."

Kirkpatrick said women are a new targeted segment for the industry. Women now make up nearly 47% of all U.S. workers but only comprise 6.6% of all truck drivers, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

"The share of female drivers has remained fairly stagnant, between 4.5% and 6.6% since 2000," Kirkpatrick said. "This is a large, untapped portion of the population for the industry. Some trucking companies have put an emphasis on female drivers, but the highest percentage of female drivers we have seen is around 20% for those fleets."

The lifestyle of being on the road, Kirkpatrick said, plays into the shortage, especially when a trucker is new to the industry; many drivers with assigned routes are on the road for extended periods – typically a week or two – before they return home.

"Therefore, it is not just a career but a lifestyle that does not fit with everyone's desires or needs," Kirkpatrick said. "Eventually, drivers will move into regional or local driving positions with tenure. It's another reason to consider drivers under 21 years old. That is the age when, in many cases, a person wouldn't mind being on the road before starting a family."

Kirkpatrick said regulations that impact the industry, such as changes to truck driver hours-of-service, reduce industry productivity.

"Reduced productivity exacerbates the driver shortage as it requires more trucks, and more drivers, to move the same amount of freight," Kirkpatrick said.

For more information about the CDL program at the Fort Lupton campus, visit https://www.aims.edu/locations/fort-lupton-campus or call 303-857-4022.