Truckers wanted: Daytona State College, FleetForce continue expansion of CDL training

A Sarasota-based truck-driving school has partnered with Daytona State College as part of a massive statewide expansion to expand commercial drivers' license training.

FleetForce will start at DSC's Advanced Technology College in Daytona Beach on April 10 with a cohort of eight students. The school will ramp up to start training new groups each week with plans to train more than 200 students in the first year.

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DSC President Tom LoBasso touted career opportunities for people with commercial drivers' licenses.

"The trucking industry offers starting salaries at $80,000 a year. ... You can go from a minimum-wage job to four weeks later making $80,000," LoBasso said.

The American Trucking Association estimated in 2019 that the industry would need 1.1 million new drivers over the next five years because of industry growth, retirements and natural attrition.

Florida has been "woefully underserved" by truck drivers at a time when its population has been growing, said FleetForce President Tra Williams, who was in Daytona Beach on Tuesday to announce the partnership.

There is demand for truck drivers by employers and demand for CDL training by would-be students, Williams said.

"The only constraint is my ability to find quality CDL instructors. There is enormous demand from employers," he said. "We bring on students at the speed of need."

FleetForce has expanded from four locations to 10 and has designs to add another two locations in Florida.

The partnership is the result of $8.2 million in state funds for five state colleges included in Gov. Ron DeSantis' 2022-2023 budget.

It was the third consecutive year of state-funded CDL expansion.

“We have now increased our CDL training capacity at state institutions from less than 1,000 prior to 2019 to more than 3,500. These investments are driving the growth of our rural communities and state as a whole,” DeSantis said last September.

Daytona State College received $1.3 million, some of which went into preparing the Advanced Training Center to host the truck-driving school's classrooms and offices and modifying the parking lot driving pad to accommodate semi-tractor trailers, said Daytona State College President Tom LoBasso. Also, some of the state funding will be used to cover a portion of tuition for qualified students in the first year.

FleetForce lists its tuition for a four- or eight-week, 160-hour program at $6,995.

LoBasso said Daytona State will act as more than a landlord to the trucking school by helping with enrollment and admissions.

An increase in the availability of driving labor could portend local expansion of transportation businesses, Williams suggested.

"Daytona Beach is geographically positioned to be a community of high demand for trucking because of access to I-4 and I-95," he said. "Because Florida is growing so quickly, we're going to need drivers for years and years to come. ... It's hard to overstate the need for drivers."

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: DSC partners with truck-driving school, expanding access to licenses