SIOUX FALLS, SD (KELO) — A Sioux Falls school that trains future truck drivers has reached an important academic mile-marker. The Extra Mile CDL Academy has surpassed 100 graduates from its program that’s helping fill a critical shortage of drivers in the industry. We revisit the academy more than a year after it first opened to see what direction a career on the road is taking these new grads.
Kodie Svatos is one of the newest graduates of the Extra Mile CDL Academy.
“It’s a learning curve not being familiar with the bigger trucks like this, but it’s definitely something I really, truly enjoy,” Svatos said.
Svatos delivers building materials for his job and sees having his commercial driver’s license as a ticket to a brighter future.
“The avenues it opens up for me, being able to advance further in the job I have now, or even opening up other avenues elsewhere, if that were to be the case,” Svatos said.
Extra Mile offers intensive, one-on-one training where the student can earn their commercial driver’s license in just 7-days.
“They show up with a permit and immediately, we just start, so it’s like boot camp,” Extra Mile CDL Academy instructor John Hall said.
Jaden Anderson knows all about boot camps. He served in the Marines before earning his CDL at the academy last year.
“Just being behind the wheel and feeling real heavy while you’re driving down the road, it’s nothing like it. It’s really quite exhilarating,” Anderson said.
Anderson says he’s more of a hands-on learner than a by-the-book person.
“I’ve got more of a, you’d say, South Dakota brain. So John adjusted to me and taught me exactly how I’ll learn best and I picked it up really quick,” Anderson said.
The academy rents space from K & J Trucking here in Sioux Falls. The two are separate companies, but having them both under the same roof has been a big benefit.
“There’s a shop right here. So, just last week we had a valve go out on a training truck, we got it fixed within hours. Otherwise, we’d have to call somebody in and fix it,” Hall said.
K & J has even hired a handful of academy graduates.
“There’s always a need. Right now, it it as bad as in 2020? No. We’re doing a little bit better. A little bit better doesn’t mean good. There’s always a huge need,” K & J Trucking Marketing Manager Dan Schipper said.
Turnover is always in issue in the trucking industry. (skipper) Schipper says sometimes new hires from the academy discover they’re not cut-out to be long-haul drivers, preferring shorter routes so they can spend more time at home.
“I just got married, baby on the way, so I definitely want to be a family man now, not so much chasing money,” Anderson said.
The academy has served as a statewide pipeline to the trucking industry since its opening in the fall of 2022.
“We looked at how many we graduated, how many students we’ve had, it’s been about 16.7-percent of all the new CDL’s in the whole state,” Hall said.
Extra Mile expects enrollment to start filling up heading into the spring and remaining full through the rest of the year. For many of those incoming students, a climb up the corporate ladder starts with a climb into the cab and a journey on the open road.
K & J Trucking is undergoing a large remodeling project that’s given the Extra Mile Academy more indoor space for training, when the weather is bad outside.
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