Driving school helps fill demand for truckers

Tandy Noeller and her Wichita Truck Driving School have experienced better weeks. Over Easter weekend, somebody stole one of three tractor-trailer rigs that the school uses to train drivers.

“By now it’s probably in a chop shop or Mexico,” Noeller said, shaking her head. “I just couldn’t believe it.”

Nevertheless, a thick binder full of handwritten endorsements from former students convinces Noeller that she made the right decision to start the school four years ago. The letters thank Noeller and the school’s instructors for things like taking extra time with students, instilling students with confidence and helping them find good-paying jobs. To date, just over 500 students have graduated from the school.

“I’m really happy that we’ve got good drivers out there,” she said.

Noeller, who’s also a family nurse practitioner, said she got the idea to open the school while giving truckers physicals required by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

“I got really interested in it,” she said. “Being a nurse, I wanted to have safe highways.”

Noeller said she also had helped treat injured motorists brought to hospital emergency rooms.

“It just kept eating at me: ‘Let’s get safe highways.’ ”

So Noeller put up a big chunk of her own savings, got bank loans for the rest and opened the school in February 2011. Although she obtained her own commercial truck driver’s license, she says she leaves most of the classroom instruction and all of the actual driving practice to experienced truckers. She has five instructors on her staff.

“They know how to do it,” she said. “I hire only the best.”

According to media reports, the nation is experiencing a shortage of truck drivers. Average pay is about $40,000 a year, although some drivers earn considerably more. That makes it an attractive first career choice or “fall back” for people whose occupations make them subject to layoffs, Noeller said.

Noeller said it takes 200 hours of instruction to graduate from her school, which is regulated by the state. Those hours can be earned over five- or 10-week terms, with classes held day and night.

She limits class size to a dozen students. The workload is split evenly between classroom instruction, including a driving simulator, and on-road practice.

Noeller recently moved the school from Park City to South Broadway. The tractor-trailers are parked in a large lot on South West Street. Students practice backing, shifting and other maneuvers there before taking the trucks on the road with instructors. Noeller said they start on quiet rural roads before gradually gaining experience on busy highways and city streets. Noeller said learning to back up the big rigs is definitely the most difficult part of training.

The school is approved for job training by the U.S. Veterans Administration and Kansas’ Workforce Centers, Noeller said. Tuition is $2,987.

Noeller said about 95 percent of her students go on to get their commercial driver’s licenses. Many are working for one of the nation’s major carriers. She enjoys it when former students pop back into the office to say hello. She said instructors have also occasionally received calls from former students who are “on a city street in New York and they don’t know how to get out of this.”

Noeller recently brought in a Spanish-speaking instructor to offer classes for Spanish-speaking students.

She said only about a half-dozen students have failed to complete the course.

“We want everybody to pass, as long as they care and they want safety.”

This story was originally published April 8, 2015 at 12:47 PM with the headline "Driving school helps fill demand for truckers."