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Company slashes tuition for Truck-Driver Training

A Trucking company trying to deal with a nationwide shortage of Truck drivers is using a state grant to re-duce the tuition charged for driver training.

Watkins & Shepard Trucking Co. cut the usual $4,000 tuition to $1,000. The company expects students to make an initial payment of $250 and pay the balance through weekly installments of $15.

The reduction follows a $315,000 state grant received by the company, which expects the state assistance to be an incen-tive for the training of 63 new drivers.

Training costs have been a significant obstacle to driver recruitment, said Ray Kuntz, chief executive of Watkins & Shepard, which has terminals in Helena, Missoula and Billings.

Students are screened before they start the four-week training, and they are guaranteed jobs if they complete it success-fully. In 2006, the average first-year pay for a Watkins & Shepard driver topped $43,300.

An American Trucking Association study in 2006 found the country short about 20,000 truck drivers.