WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — The Central Georgia Technical College truck driving program is about to get bigger.
Coca-Cola Company partnered with the Technical College System of Georgia to donate $1 million to the foundations Commercial Truck Driving Program. Central Georgia received about $200,000 that will be used to hire more truck driving instructors.
"Last year, we had over three to 400 applications and we can only take 20 to 25 students in a class," said program chair Tim English.
Before becoming a truck driver in 2013, English was in the Air Force. He came to CGTC to get his commercial drivers license (CDL). After driving for about six years, he made the switch to being an instructor. English says adding more instructors would help tremendously.
"When I graduate my instructor told me one day if I got tired of being over the road, I should try and come back and be an instructor, so that's what I did," English said.
According to the Georgia Department of Transportation, truckers move 430 million tons of goods across the state each year. Dean of Aerospace, Trade & Industry Michael Engel says adding more instructors will help the truck driver shortage.
"That's going to fund three new full-time faculty positions for us. Each of those equate to about 28 students a year more that we can take, so we are looking at increasing the number of licensees that we put out a year by 78 students."
Other schools who received the grant included Southern Regional, Savannah and Athens Technical College. In total, 22 technical colleges received a split of the $1 million. Coca-Cola and the foundation hope that adding more Georgia truck drivers will reduce the current shortage.
"We're shining a light now specifically on the trade and industry types of jobs things like commercial truck driving to try to just to let people know what great career opportunities these are," Engel said.
English says that if you want to become a driver and get your CDL, you must have a clean driving record and "your driving history is pretty much your resume."