Marion offering CDL training to employees

Marion offering CDL training to employees

City partnering with ASU Mid-South to offer driving class

news@theeveningtimes.com

Marion will be partnering with ASU Mid-South to offer a Commercial Drivers License (CDL) class to its employees in the Road Department.

Road Department Supervisor Gordon Floyd told the City Council they are still working out the details, but he expects to have at least ten workers sign up for the class.

“Everything looks really good,” Floyd said. “We met with the college and they are working on a package that I can present to you and the Council to see if you want to do it.”

Floyd said the class is similar to one that Crittenden County offered last October as an incentive to get more of its workers in the Road Department to obtain their CDL.

The county offered to pay for the class and even boosted the pay an extra two dollars an hour to $13 for those who obtained their CDL. At the time, only two out of 15 workers had their CDL.

State law requires workers to possess a CDL to operate any equipment that is over 26,000 pounds such as a dump truck, garbage truck, or clam shell truck.

In order to obtain a CDL, a driver must pass both a written and road test requiring them to learn about driver safety, cargo safety, equipment basics, traffic rules, inspection procedures, and hazardous materials.

Floyd said the class requires about 16 hours of classroom instruction and another 12 hours of instructor time in a truck.

“It’s all done on Saturdays,” Floyd said. “I think it’s like four or six Saturdays.”

Floyd said there may also be grant funding for the program which would lessen the cost to the city.

“There is a grant available that they have that may pay for a good portion of our guys to take it,” Floyd said. The city will have to provide its own truck for the road training, he said.

“The only thing we will have to do is we will need to bring one of our trucks to drive around the parking lot for teaching purposes,” Floyd said. “They used to have a truck driving program but they dropped it. It’s a program they are trying to get back.”

Mayor Frank Fogleman asked when Floyd expected to hear back from the college.

“It may take a couple of weeks,” Floyd said. “They have to find new instructors. The instructors they were using have real jobs and they don’t know if they will come back and do these classes on weekends like they did before. But she said we would be the first ones that she will work with.”

Fogleman said the classes will be a big benefit to the city.

“I think it sounds good,” Fogleman said. “I don’t see that being a problem.”

By Mark Randall