Have truck, will travel: People looking for career change are filling trucking classes

On a Friday morning, Larry Arnold watches as one of his students tries to back up a semi-truck into a simulated docking bay marked by orange cones.

The driver turns too tight, forcing the truck to jack knife. Arnold teases the driver by shouting, "Rookie!"

The 34-year-old former delivery truck driver is overseeing a practice course in a dirt parking lot for Advanced Truck School at Carson City's Western Nevada College. He and four students spend their mornings maneuvering a decommissioned Mervyns California semi-truck through an obstacle course as part of their month-long, $1,800 class.

Despite a turbulent 2009 that forced trucking companies around the nation to decrease their fleets, Arnold said he's bullish on the industry. After all, he said, the more the national economy improves, the more demand there will be for truck drivers.

"Everything you buy, any store you go to," he said, "everything has to get there by truck."

Alex Raj, who runs Horizon Commercial Truck School in Sparks, said he's seen a change in clientele since the recession started.

Instead of former construction workers making up the majority of his students, Raj said he's seeing former social workers, loan officers and attorneys enroll in his school.

"Today, most individuals have sought a career change," he said.

Many of Arnold's students were unemployed before deciding to sign up for the course. Others had jobs and wanted a change.

Clint Malone, 27, found work with a company that fights wildfires. After one season with the company, Malone said he decided to obtain his commercial driving license to help his career.

"I knew that with the recession and everything going down, I did the research on the Internet and found that trucking is the way to go, the industry is skyrocketing right now," Malone said. "So in order to feed my family I'm going to have to become a truck driver."

In fact, about 400,000 jobs are expected to open up in the trucking industry over the next two years, according to a recent report by the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals and Penske Logistics.

Arni Ares, 68, who opened the trucking school at WNC in May 2009 with his wife Smokie, is a long-time trucker with more than 40 years in the industry. Since opening his school last year, Ares said he has expanded to three WNC locations and now has four student trucks.

As for those industry openings, he said many will be for long-haul jobs that usually start around $32,000 a year. Meanwhile, he said the industry is rapidly changing as new laws force truckers with bad driving records off the road while many older drivers begin to contemplate retirement. It's a good thing, he said.

"The days of the cowboy trucker are over," Ares said. "(Truck driving) is a skill."

But there is still a long road ahead for trucking companies in Nevada.

While the level of goods hitting the road nationally has increased nearly every month this year, according to the American Trucking Associations, times are still tough for the trucking industry in Nevada, said Paul Enos, the CEO of the Nevada Motor Transport Association.

"Nationally they're up, my guys aren't really feeling that too much yet," Enos said. "Where we've seen a lot of lag has been in your flat-bed guys, those are guys who move construction equipment."

State lawmakers are studying how to improve Nevada's logistics and distribution market, which in turn would create more demand for truck drivers.

An interim committee released their recommendations on Monday, which included designating U.S. 93 that runs between Reno and Las Vegas as the future Interstate 11, providing financial incentives for logistics companies to move here and pushing the completion of state route 805 to connect Interstate 80 to U.S. 50, which would benefit the sprawling Tahoe Reno Industrial Center.

Before opening the trucking school, Ares owned his own semi-truck, which he would use to drive loads around the West Coast. His specialty was dirt hauling. But fuel spikes in recent years made it harder to keep the business afloat.

"It's slowly dripped away," he said, adding he regrets selling the truck because of his love for the industry.

"If you like being your boss, that's what a truck driver is," Ares said. "It's the ideal job for an independent."