business backgrounder | economy
“ The industry is so understaffed that our class graduates on a Friday and I can almost guarantee all of us will be working Monday .”
— Wes Hartwell , CDL student
The WA CDL funding will allow GHC to : increase the number and size of cohorts ; offer specialized training including logging , school bus driving and HAZMAT ; restore aging equipment ; fund a full-time instructor ; upgrade their mobile trailer classroom ; and replace training equipment that was sold .
“ With the grant , we can bring it back full bore and really try to increase the number of graduates we ’ re putting out into the work force ,” said Reimer .
Kirk Church , CDL instructor at the Grays Harbor College training grounds at the Satsop Development Park in Elma , started driving 16 years ago , joining generations of men in his family in the industry . He noted that investing in educational programs to build Washington ’ s trucking workforce makes sense because trucking is a highly skilled area of work . Before taking the CDL test , just some of the areas his students cover include : seven different types of pre-trips ( operational checks of the truck and its components ); use of a Diesel Exhaust Fluid ( DEF ) system ; five different types of truck transmissions ; and the Entry Level Driver Training ( ELDT ) which became a requirement in February 2023 . Church noted the licensing requirements change so often they have even seen them change in the middle of a course and the cohort members had to adjust their training .
“ When I first took my pre-trip ( test ) 16 years ago , it ’ s totally different now ,” Church said . “ We just have to keep changing it . It ’ s constant continuing education .”
Robert Coate of Grayland , a student in the CDL program at Grays Harbor College , discusses a vehicle pre-trip inspection checklist with Kirk Church , a CDL adjunct instructor .
“ When I first took my pre-trip ( test ) 16 years ago , it ’ s totally different now , We just have to keep changing it . It ’ s constant continuing education .”
— Kirk Church , CDL Instructor , Grays Harbor College training grounds at the Satso Development Park in Elma
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