![[Valid Atom 1.0]](valid-atom.png "Validate my Atom 1.0 feed")
TRUCKERS' JOBS * USA - Heartland hits the road with truck driving school
Matching work force needs with trained workersBloomington-Normal,IL, USA -The Bloomington Pantagraph, by Michele Steinbacher -4 Oct 2007: -- Heartland Community College leaders see the startup of its two-month-old truck driving school as a perfect fit for one of the college’s goals... And students involved are excited about a short-term program that opens the road ahead... In one typical session Jim Turnbull, a veteran driver with 25 years on the road, sat on the passenger side while student June Harris practiced shifting gears and driving on Bloomington’s outskirts...
As a woman, the mother of seven represents a changing demographic among the drivers. Women no longer are a strange sight in the seat of an 18-wheeler, said Turnbull... Harris, who is a nurse, is engaged to fellow student Hornbeck... Turnbull said people interested in becoming commercial truck drivers vary in age. His youngest student was 18; the oldest was a 72-year-old retired U.S. Navy veteran who previously commanded a battleship... Of Heartland’s first seven students, two are women... In the past, drivers might be out on the road three or four months before getting a visit home. But companies now work to get drivers home, sometimes even weekly, said Turnbull... That factor makes Bloomington-Normal an attractive base for truckers using interstates 55, 74, 39 and 57... “It’s phenomenal. This is a main artery here,” he said... (Photos by STEVE SMEDLEY/Pantagraph - Above: June Harris of Pontiac spoke about her experience in taking a class to learn how to drive a semi tractor trailer between sessions of hands-on driving outside the Interstate Center - Below: Truck driving student June Harris, left, is coached by training coordinator Jim Turnbull as they drive a semi tractor trailer down Mitsubishi Motorway on the west side of Bloomington-Normal)
Labels: truckers' jobs
posted by Unknown @ 7:17 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home