TRUCKING - 101: SHAWNEE COLLEGE PROVIDES UNIQUE TRAINING PROGRAM

Student Richard Vaugh of Anna, Ill., practiced shifting the truck at the college during his 10th week in the program.

Instructor Jim Boyd watched over the students on the training lot. Boyd drove a truck for 41 years before becoming an instructor.

ULLIN, Ill. -- Jack Roberts knows the trucking industry very well.

"I was licensed for every type of land-vehicle there was in the Air Force," said Roberts, a Pulaski, Ill., native who spent 20 years in the service. "I had plenty of truck-driving experience, so I decided to stay in the trucking industry when I retired from the Air Force."

Even before entering the Air Force, Roberts drove trucks for a Southern Illinois construction company.

Instead of driving, Roberts now teaches other people about the advantages of the trucking business.

"We teach students how to drive, how to do paperwork connected with the industry and the history of trucking," said Roberts, who is truck-driving instructor at Shawnee Community College near Ullin.

The truck-driving curriculum at Shawnee College has been upgraded since it started more than a decade ago.

The college's program is a member of the Association of Publicly Funded Truck Drivers School. The school ranks among the top 4 to 5 percent of truck-driving schools in the nation.

"It meets all the standards for national certification," said Roberts, who has been at the school since 1993. The 10-week course includes more than 40 hours of actual truck driving around the campus and "some over-the-road" driving.

Roberts said the course includes management and health and safety courses.

Students taking the course are also eligible for financial aid, said Roberts. There are some requirements to be eligible for the program. Students must be 21 years of age, meet vision and hearing requirements, have a high school diploma or GED.

Students also must be able to pass a drug screening test to comply with federal regulations and be free of any convictions of a felony involving the use of motor vehicles. All drivers -- men and women -- must learn how to change tires, oil or diesel filters and do safety checks.

Women, in increasing numbers, are attending the truck driving school, Robert said.

"More and more women are attending truck driving schools across the country," said Roberts. "A lot of trucking companies are putting an emphasis on husband/wife driving teams."

Roberts said a number of "teams" have passed the Shawnee College school.

"We've had husband-wife teams, brother-brother teams, and father-son teams," said Roberts. "And in last week's graduating class we had a mother-son team."

Nine drivers were scheduled to take final tests at the school's testing grounds near Scott City, Mo., last week.

A total of more than 800 new drivers have graduated from the school during the past decade.

Included in last week's graduates were Carolyn Barringer and Peddy Johnson, a mother and son from Dongola, Ill.

Mrs. Barringer wants to join her husband, who graduated from the truck-driving school earlier.

In 1990, there were more than 12,000 women truck drivers on the road, according to the American Truckers Association, headquartered in Alexandria, Va. That same year, hundreds of women graduated from truck-driving schools across the country.

Two decades ago, in 1970, more than 95 percent of graduating truck-driving students were men.

There's not as much resistance to women as truck drivers now as 15 to 20 years ago, said Roberts. Women are proving that they can be good, safe drivers.

And women have to work harder to prove themselves as drivers.

"It would probably be safe to say that most women drivers are better drivers than men," said one veteran truck driver. "They have to work about three times as hard to prove themselves."

A truck-driving couple can make a respectable good salary.

The average for a truck drivers is between $25,000 and $30,000 a year. A recent Bureau of Labor Statistics survey reported that a semi-truck driver in this area earns about $635 weekly. That translates into $33,000 a year.

Not bad for a $2,700, 10-week learning process. Even better, truck drivers are in demand.

"During any given year, there is a need for 200,000 to 250,000 drivers," said Roberts.

The trucking industry employs more than 7 million people, more than any other private industry in the country.

Some 2.3 million of the trucking industry employees are drivers. Other workers in the industry include dispatchers, freight handlers, loading dock and warehouse workers, mechanics and office workers.

No one knows just who manufactured the first truck, but by the 1890s, trucks were being made in the United States. By 1904, the trucking industry had only 700 trucks. In 1918, the number of trucks had increased to more than 600,000.

Today, the trucking industry is a major force in the United States. The nation spends more than $120 billion annually to transport goods by truck. The United States has more than 40 million trucks on the road and some of these trucks have as many as 20 forward gears and four reverse gears.

Trucks are powered by gasoline and diesel fuel. In the United States, truck use more than 55 billion gallons fo fuel each year.

Truckers haul about 75 percent of the nation's industrial products.