A hand at the wheel: newcomers trained as long-haul truckers

Saint John newcomers have been getting behind the wheel of big rigs in pursuit of a new trade: long-haul trucking.

A program to introduce immigrants to the ins and outs of the trucking industry was started by the YMCA of Greater Saint John, the province, and the Saint John NBCC.

More than 20 people applied to the program, but there was only enough equipment to train eight students at a time, said Samantha Wentzell, the manager of the newcomer program at the YMCA.

Students trained so far came to Canada from China, Iran and Lebanon. 

Wentzell said helping newcomers find meaningful employment is important to long-term settlement in New Brunswick.

"There are lots of barriers when newcomers arrive," she said, and the sector-specific training helps lower some of them.  

The YMCA also gives the students language training, and the province provides essential workplace skills to prepare them for working life in Canada.

Then the students move on to NBCC for 15 weeks to develop their trade skills in long-haul trucking.

The first course

Wentzell said the program, which takes about 25 weeks in all, has been successful so far. The students are now on their work placements, getting experience at various trucking companies as part of their training before graduation later in August.

We had started with eight, and unfortunately two, for unseen circumstances, had to step away from the program so we are currently at six," Wentzell said. 

Wentzell said five of the six remaining students will have full-time jobs at the end of the program.

Two of the newcomers were hired by Fero, another two were hired by Midland Transport, and one was hired by Sunbury Transport. 

"We're working with several different options to find the last participant employment as well," she said.

Wentzell said the students' new jobs will require them do cross-border trucking into the U.S. 

Industry problems

This might be welcome news to trucking industry, which is facing a shortage of workers.  Al Whittaker, owner of Try Al's Trucking Company in Saint John,spoke in an earlier interview about the struggle to find truck operators.

"My best driver that I've got right now is 74 years old," he said. "And he runs max hours every week."

The money and the lifestyle are a hard sell, according to driving instructor Brian Callender told CBC News in June.

And for recruiters like Robert Trites, who told CBC News previously that the idea of tapping into the pool of newcomers for drivers is a good idea, as long as they stay in the province after they're trained.

"One of our biggest problems is drivers come in, they stay long enough to get their clearance here," Trites said. "They get their residency, then they take off to Ontario or out west, someplace."