Southside Virginia Community College (SVCC) recently attended the 2017 Truck Driving School Advisory Board meeting hosted by Schneider. One of the nation’s largest truckload carriers, Schneider regularly invites top truck driving schools to attend its biennial event. This year, 11 schools were selected to attend.

The event provides these top producing truck driving schools and Schneider senior leaders a two-day forum to exchange ideas and best practices in areas such as safety, training, regulatory compliance and technology – with the end goal of setting up graduates for success as professional truck drivers.

“We view this event as critical to our collective success in ensuring graduates are prepared for new careers as professional truck drivers,” said Rob Reich, Schneider’s senior vice president of equipment, maintenance and driver recruiting. “It is vital to our industry that new drivers are prepared for today’s trucking and the information and learning’s exchanged keep us all abreast as to what trends we are seeing to ensure graduates’ expectations are met.”

The U.S. has been plagued by a driver shortage for years. According to the American Trucking Associations, it is estimated that the industry is currently short 100,000 drivers and the gap is expected to grow to 160,000 by 2022. This creates great, lucrative opportunities for those interested in joining the industry as over 70 percent of all the freight tonnage moved in the U.S. moves by truck.

“The experience we had with the Schneider team during the two-day meeting was invaluable,” said C. Duncan Quicke, coordinator of the truck driver training school at Southside Virginia Community College. “We have worked hard in our 21 years of existence to make the transition from school to employment as seamless as possible, and even though Schneider is the largest carrier that hires our graduates, they are able to offer those personal amenities that helps to make their drivers know that they too are an integral part of the trucking profession.”

A focus item at this year’s event was making it easier for those interested in attending a truck driving school. Schneider offers a $7,000 tuition reimbursement program to new hires and regularly attends the schools to present career opportunities and conduct interviews.

Another focus was learning about improvements in career opportunities for graduates. Items that Schneider shared were its shift to automated transmissions, driver pay increases in 2017 and new work opportunities that provide more home time for drivers. Over 75 percent of Schneider drivers get home weekly or more frequently.

For more information about professional driving positions with Schneider, visit www. schneiderjobs.com. Information about Southside Virginia Community College’s Truck Driver Training Program is available at www.southside.edu.

Schneider is a leading transportation and logistics services company providing a broad portfolio of premier truckload, intermodal and logistics solutions and operating one of the largest for-hire trucking fleets in North America.

Southside Virginia Community College is dedicated to the belief that all citizens should be given an opportunity to acquire an educational foundation that develops and extends their skills and knowledge. The college’s goal is to provide diverse instructional programs ranging from developmental studies to associate degree curricula in academic, technical/ vocational, lifelong education and workforce development. Through various activities, to include distance learning, students will also have the opportunity to develop their roles and responsibilities as participants in a changing society.