Pilot Program Tackles Truck Driver Shortage in Florida's Panhandle

BAY COUNTY, FL - Due to the shortage of licensed truck drivers, business and industry have been looking for options to ease this burden. Currently, to get certified a potential driver must go to South Florida for about six weeks for all day training costing individuals or businesses close to $6000 to train and house a person who may not succeed.

Florida Transportation Builders' Association, FTBA, along with regional organizations have been working to get this training to their counties. FTBA believes companies should have more involvement in the process which includes determining good candidates for CDL and using a company mentor to train these candidates behind the wheel using the vehicles they will drive on the job. The company mentors will then ensure when each candidate is ready to test and drive safely in their company vehicles.

The work has paid off as the Panhandle has been approved to pilot a new program with Bay County being the primary focus.

The test for CDL, commercial driver's license, is extremely hard and somewhat tricky according to the BCCA. To improve the passage of the test, two programs are being offered.

A local business can select an employee and assign a mentor to them. The candidates must acquire a permit to operate a commercial vehicle. They can receive this commercial learner’s permit at the DMV office for $6.25. The company mentor will receive “train the trainer” instructions from FTBA. Candidates then have about two weeks to go through the steps of driving a commercial vehicle and learning the ropes. The mentor will decide if they are ready for the next step.

Part of the process requires passing an Entry-Level Driver Training (ELDT) course with a final exam that is reported to the federal training provider registry.

Mara Golden Harrison has worked with these organizations to develop this new course. As an educational specialist she has applied her knowledge to the development of the course and practice questions.

The course is delivered virtually and can be taken on any device which eliminates the need for classroom instruction and cuts down significantly on the time it takes to finish the process. The course features videos, interviews with actual drivers, and covers all required safety regulations plus real job application. A candidate who completes all these steps is then ready for behind the road testing with a certified 3rd party tester that FTBA will provide.

With this new training, the entire process should take a lot less time to complete and should provide a more affordable way for a company to gain licensed commercial vehicle operators.

Not associated with a business and want to take advantage of this training? Contact: https://c3training.org/ftba/