Inside a High School Truck Driver Training Program

Hear what one high school teacher in California is doing to get more young people interested in trucking in this video episode of HDT Talks Trucking.

With the industry facing a shortage of qualified drivers, fleet managers are faced with the challenge of both retaining CDL drivers, as well as attracting them to their operations. Is one answer to the driver shortage introducing young people to trucking and prepping high schoolers to obtain their CDL early on?

In this special report, Heavy Duty Trucking Managing Editor Vesna Brajkovic talks to Dave Dein, the mastermind behind one of that nation’s first high school truck driver programs and a co-founder of the Next Generation Trucking Association. Learn why Dein is passionate about ushering in the next generation of truck drivers and what he thinks fleet managers can do to make their operations more attractive to incoming drivers.

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⏱ Timestamps ⏱
0:00 Trucking Gave Me a Life
0:42 Introduction 1:30
Overview of Patterson High School Truck Driver Program
4:04 Are High School Driver Programs an Answer to the Driver Shortage?
6:00 What Students Should Take Away From the Program
6:53 Young Peoples’ Perception of Trucking
7:45 Why a Former Trucker is Passionate About Passing on the Baton
10:23 What Fleet Managers Can Do to Appeal to Next-Gen Drivers