**Event photos available here**
Arlington, Virginia -- Today, the Workforce Heroes program concluded a week-long tour of high schools in Northwest Iowa, teaching safe driving skills and raising awareness about job opportunities available in the trucking industry.
With an ongoing shortage of professional truck drivers and qualified diesel technicians across the country, the Workforce Heroes program educated students from seven different area high schools about the variety of career paths that can be found in trucking. Students took home a copy of our Workforce Heroes pamphlet to learn more about a day in the life of a professional truck driver, starting salary, CDL requirements and more.
“Through the pandemic, we found different ways to get out and educate our communities. The technology we have today allowed us to keep sharing our message and continue representing the best this industry has to offer,” said Workforce Heroes professional truck driver Randall Luschen of Weinrich Truck Line, Inc. “The goal of our demonstration is to educate current and future drivers on how to safely drive alongside trucks. At the end of the day, we want everyone to get home safe.”
The tour included safety demonstrations using ATA’s Workforce Heroes Mack Anthem High Rise Sleeper and classroom segments that showed the Share the Road Instructional Video. Workforce Heroes professional truck drivers, with millions of accident-free miles, walked students through the blind spots of commercial vehicles and discussed the dangers of distracted driving. The drivers emphasized long stopping distances of trucks and stressed the importance of maintaining safe distances during winter months when road conditions are less than ideal. Students were able to climb into the driver’s seat of a truck to experience firsthand what a professional truck driver can and cannot see while operating a large commercial vehicle.
The Workforce Heroes program is sponsored by Mack Trucks and Utility Trailers and supported by OmniTracs and TA-Petro.
“More and more of our professional drivers are heading into retirement, which is why we are here to explain the career opportunities in the trucking industry,” said Workforce Heroes professional truck driver Bill McNamee of Carbon Express, Inc. “A career as a professional truck driver is extremely rewarding as it allows you to travel all over the country and meet so many different people. We need the younger generation to join our industry so that we can keep moving America forward.”
Below is the list of schools the Workforce Heroes program visited during the tour:
- Hinton High School, Hinton, Iowa;
- North High School, Sioux City, Iowa;
- West High School, Sioux City, Iowa;
- Maple Valley High School, Mapleton, Iowa;
- Storm Lake High School, Storm Lake, Iowa;
- East High School, Sioux City, Iowa; and
- Sergeant Bluff High School, Sergeant Bluff, Iowa