{"id":5225,"date":"2012-03-15T09:37:38","date_gmt":"2012-03-15T14:37:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=5225"},"modified":"2012-12-27T13:31:41","modified_gmt":"2012-12-27T19:31:41","slug":"students-usually-hit-the-road-for-trucker-training-in-oklahoma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2012\/03\/15\/students-usually-hit-the-road-for-trucker-training-in-oklahoma\/","title":{"rendered":"Students Usually Hit the Road for Trucker Training in Oklahoma"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Logan Layden \/ NPR StateImpact<\/p>\n

Commerical truck driving students work on parallel parking Central Tech's 80-acre practice lot.<\/p>\n<\/div>

The United States relies on commercial truckers to transport most of its shipments. But there\u2019s a major shortage<\/a> of drivers. Thousands more are needed just in Oklahoma.<\/p>

That shouldn\u2019t be a problem in a recovering economy, but it is.<\/p>

<\/p>

The largest truck driving school in Oklahoma is at Central Tech in Drumright, 40 miles west of Tulsa.<\/p>

The practice course has mock parking lots, straightaways, sharp corners and rows of cargo containers. Orange traffic cones are everywhere. Central Tech certifies about 700 new truckers each year, like Jason Majors.<\/p>

“I just like the freedom of not having a set schedule, somebody not telling me, ‘OK, it\u2019s time for break or it\u2019s time for lunch.’ Basically, I\u2019m my own boss, within limits, of course,” he says.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Logan Layden \/ NPR StateImpact<\/p>\n

Robert McClanahan is the director of Central Tech's trucking program.<\/p>\n<\/div>

Central Tech offers lower tuition than the handful of small, private driving schools, because it\u2019s part of Oklahoma\u2019s state-funded Career Tech system.<\/p>

There are age restrictions for driving across state lines, so for many students, trucking is a second career. The average student at Central Tech is 41. The course is four-and-a-half weeks long. And due to the location, truckers in training usually have to hit the road to take classes.<\/p>

“We are actually living in Guthrie,” Majors says. “We\u2019re staying on campus. My wife is actually taking the course with me, so we\u2019re looking at team driving.”<\/p>

Central Tech is starting four smaller satellite schools in Western Oklahoma, closer to the oil and gas jobs, but the program’s director, Robert McClanahan, says budget cuts have made it hard to meet the demand.<\/p>

“We had to actually lay off some instructors. I\u2019ve lost about four instructors,” he says. “Where we typically have had up to as many as 15, we\u2019re down to about eight right now, instructors.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The United States relies on commercial truckers to transport most of its shipments. But there\u2019s a major shortage of drivers. Thousands more are needed just in Oklahoma.That shouldn\u2019t be a problem in a recovering economy, but it is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":5231,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[301,16],"tags":[328],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5225"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5225"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5243,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5225\/revisions\/5243"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}