With new truck, SUNY Canton looks to expand CDL training program

CANTON — With a new truck to use, SUNY Canton’s commercial driver’s license (CDL) program is ramping up to train even more people to receive their licenses. With a $50,000 gift from the Garrett Family Fund, the school was able to purchase a 2016 Freightliner Cascadia 125 truck and new trailers for the program. Along with being a new addition to the program’s fleet, the truck also offers new opportunity, says Elizabeth Brown, executive director of the SUNY Canton Center for Workforce, Community and Industry Partnerships. The program began in 2019 and has been offering training since then on a manual-transmission truck, Brown says. However, the new truck expands that to an automatic transmission model. That’s important as the popularity of obtaining a CDL for automatic transmissions increases in popularity. “In recent years more trucks have been moving over to automatics,” she says. “By getting this new truck in automatic, it gives students more options now.” Having an automatic truck has also opened the program up to people who previously wouldn’t consider it because they either struggled to learn on a manual transmission or simply didn’t want a career driving a manual-transmission truck, Brown adds. Currently, the program can train about 25 drivers a year doing about five sessions annually with five students per session, the maximum it can accommodate with just one instructor in order to get in all the required class time and driving practice, she says. Each session runs between eight and 10 weeks. Everyone needs to take all the required classroom instruction. Students going for their Class A CDL must have 40 hours of driving time, while those seeking their Class B CDL need 30 hours or driving time. The program also added a new track for those who already have their Class B license but would like to obtain their Class A license. Now with the new truck, Brown says she is hoping for even more interest in the program and “we’re hoping that opens the door for us to bring on another instructor.” The program got its start when employers and municipalities reached out looking for trained drivers. The next closest program is in Watertown, Brown says, but it’s not really a program that’s conducive to traveling back and forth. With employers like Pepsi Cola in Ogdensburg, “especially up here in the North Country … there was a huge need,” Brown says. The CDL program costs $7,000 for a Class A license and $5,600 for a Class B license, and SUNY Canton is working to get people through the program at no cost to the student. One thing that has helped is the state’s recent shift to a SUNY-wide initiative that offers tuition assistance for part-time students including those in non-credit workforce development programs. Students who meet eligibility requirements may be eligible to receive part-time Tuition Assistance Program funds, which can cover about a third of the program cost, Brown says. The college also works to find funding sources from various places including the St. Lawrence County Industrial Development Agency. Some employers are even willing to offset part of the program cost, she noted. Recently, Cornell Cooperative Extension of St. Lawrence County received a grant that enabled 10 farms in the area to send one employee through the program so that each farm had one employee with a CDL license. A commercial driver’s license is required to operate large or heavy vehicles including tractor trailers, dump trucks, plow trucks, and buses. A Class A license is required to drive tractor trailers. The CDL program isn’t the only way the Center is working to turn out the workforce North Country employers need, Brown notes. It will soon hold a drone-training program that will prepare students to apply for their Federal Aviation Administration flight license and a pre-apprenticeship program that will provide students with three credentials that qualify them for various manufacturing jobs. “We’re trying to see where the needs are and how we can meet those needs,” Brown says. The Center for Workforce, Community and Industry Partnerships develops programming for SUNY Canton and the greater North Country including micro courses, microcredentials, and workforce-training programs.