With the goal of meeting the demand for truck drivers, the Permian Strategic Partnership dedicated more than $3.5 million to expand the Odessa College Truck Driving Academy.
The funds are going to hire additional staff and provide $2 million in scholarships.
The Permian Basin is facing a significant shortage of Commercial Driver’s License certified drivers, with the Department of Public Safety estimating 65% of commercial vehicles in the Basin are out of compliance, according to the PSP website.
In 2022 alone, 4,000 new CDL job postings were created in the region. PSP’s partnership with OC will support 94 additional students annually by providing scholarships and adding trucks, trailers and instructors to the OC campuses in Odessa, Pecos and Andrews.
“We have an online application for students to apply. You can get there by logging on to the Odessa College website and searching for truck driving,” Vice President of Advancement, Business & Governmental Relations Jacqui Gore said.
You can find more information about the Truck Driving Academy by visiting tinyurl.com/2p97ut58.
“The class is a five-week course that includes classroom instruction, basic street driving, and application of skills used in the operation of a tractor trailer. The classes consist of up to 200 hours, including classroom and behind-the-wheel instruction. Students who successfully complete the course will receive a certificate of completion and they will be eligible to test for their Class A commercial driver license, or their CDL. So they complete the course at Odessa College and then they go to the Department of Public Service to take their CDL license exam,” Gore said.
Church said the students work their way up to driving with a trailer and are assessed constantly by the instructors.
The cost of the program, which includes a pre-employment screening, a drug screening, a moving violation report and a CDL, is $4,150.
“We’re now enrolling students in the class that begins Aug. 28. These classes fill up quickly. It will run from Aug. 28 to Sept. 29. Those are during the week, so an individual would go to class from 8 to 5 Monday through Thursday and 8 to 1 on Fridays,” Gore said.
The OC-PSP partnership is to help students who don’t have the funds to pay for the class, or maybe feel like they can’t take off work to do this.
“The scholarship will possibly help them finally have the opportunity to go through the class and get their CDL. We encourage individuals to apply. Once the application is processed, then the financial aid department will reach out. In addition to completing the scholarship application online, the student also needs to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, the FAFSA, because then the financial aid department will look at their financial need. A student could get a full scholarship, or they could get a partial scholarship, depending on what their FASFA results are. The scholarship will be awarded based on the student’s estimated family contribution,” Gore said.
Students must complete and pass a drug screening prior to receiving the scholarship. The PSP scholarship is a “last-dollar in” scholarship, so if the student has other funding, the PSP scholarship will pay last, she added.
Students must live in certain counties of the Permian Basin and Southeast New Mexico.
These are counties within the OC service area and beyond.
If a student happens to not qualify for the PSP scholarship, Gore said there are others available through Workforce Solutions.
“The financial aid department, along with our continuing education department, they’ll work together. If a student absolutely doesn’t have the funds we have other opportunities for them. But to date, we’ve had 127 scholarship applications and eight students have completed their FAFSA and been awarded,” Gore said.
Funding from PSP allowed Odessa College to expand its trucking program. They already had a truck driving academy in Pecos, but this will expand the capacity.
They will also add the program in Andrews.
“Odessa College has campuses in both communities, so we’ve added the Truck Driving Academy and then we’ve expanded the program here at the Odessa campus, which is located on Eighth Street at our Sewell Auto Tech,” Gore said.
She added that PSP has been really pleased with the CDL exam pass rate.
“We have a 99% pass rate when they go and take their CDL exam. William Church, the director of our Truck Driving Academy, he is very detailed and makes sure that the students are very well prepared to go out and be a safe driver. We just had our first student who was scholarshipped by the PSP. Last week, he went and passed his CDL and he’s 19 years old,” Gore said.
She said they currently have five students on the PSP scholarship. Out of those five, three are taking the class currently at the Pecos campus and two are taking it at the Odessa campus.
The funds from PSP will enable OC to cover two staff members. Gore said they have hired one and the second position is posted.
“In addition to the staff, we were able to purchase five 2023 Peterbilt trucks. There’s a long lead time on those. We ordered those back in February and they will be delivered in February of 2024,” she added.
“We already purchased three belly-dump trailers that have arrived, and two flatbed trailers, which will be delivered in the fall,” Gore said.
Church said there are three automatics and seven manual transmissions.
There are 11 students in the academy, including Pecos.
He said the scholarships should add to those numbers. There are three students in Pecos and all of them are using the PSP scholarships.
Church said they can tell after the first week if someone is going to pass the test on the first try.
“We go into detail with the instructions to make sure they firmly grasp the content of what we’re teaching them and letting them know this is not just for you just to pass it, but also for when you get out there in the real world and have your own truck or are driving for someone, you need to pay attention to details,” he added.
Technology has really advanced in the trucking industry over the past 15 years.
“They came up with this system. It’s called the ELD, electronic logging device, that tracks the drivers’ hours. Before, you had to write it on a paper log. But now it’s generated into the system that a person can check the hours by the cell phone or they have a little dash compartment in their trucks,” Church said.
When he was with Schlumberger, they had a program that could track if a person was speeding, if they hit the brakes too hard, or if they were oversteering.
“All this is generated from the engine from the truck, goes into the system and it would display it,” Church said.
He was in charge of tracking that, so he could see all these things.
Church added that this is for the safety of the driver and the people around them.
It’s still good to be mechanic savvy, but that’s what pre-trip inspections are for — to prevent anything bad from happening. This is one of the things the OC program focuses on.
If a driver sees a leak, they put it in a driver vehicle inspection report and it is sent to a mechanic. If the leak is severe, the truck will be taken out of service, but if it’s not, the driver could still operate it and come back and get it fixed.
He added that you should never get too comfortable driving a big rig.
“That’s when mistakes will happen. So whenever you drive even … when I’m driving, I never feel too comfortable. You’ve always got to be alert. … I remember when I got my CDL license 11 years ago, I remember I was taught the right way — hands and the three and nine on the steering wheel. Check your mirrors every five to eight seconds, sit upright in your seat. To this day I do the same thing. I keep the habit. It’s a good habit and I’m looking around and because you never know,” Church said.
Church has been with the truck driving academy for five years.
“It’s a blessing how far we came and we’re not finished yet,” he said.
Church said he doesn’t want to get complacent because that’s when things happen and eventually you won’t enjoy what you do.
He said he doesn’t even call his job a job because he’s so happy to be there.
“Every day when I come here … it’s like a first day of work for me. (It’s been) almost five years and I haven’t lost that passion. I try to preach that to the students and also to instructors,” Church said.
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