In a bid to ease the shortage of qualified drivers for the transport industry, Christchurch-based Mainline Driving School has teamed up with the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology (CPIT) to offer a national certificate in goods service (heavy vehicle driver) qualification.
The partnership between Mainline and CPIT takes the truck-driving students from a passenger vehicle licence (Class 1) to a Class 5 heavy vehicle licence in around six months. They also receive dangerous goods and forklift endorsements, and an occupational safety and health certificate.
Students receive their practical training in working trucks from companies such as Cool runnings, Road Metals, Container Transport Services, and TNL.
They receive 12 weeks of practical training, and gain more than 300 hours of experience including nearly 200 hours of one-on-one training with a driving instructor.
Students get three weeks driving a Class 2 truck, and three weeks in a Class 4 truck, before taking the steering wheel of a Class 5 truck for six weeks reports The Press.
Mainline director Shane McQuillan provides the practical side of the career training module while CPIT provides the theory needed by the students who are learning to load, unload, and drive the heavy vehicles.
He says the oldest student currently on the course is a 43-year-old woman who previously worked in telecommunications.
The trainee drivers learn about the special requirements of controlled temperature vehicles used in the retail and food industry, they learn how to operate trucks on unsealed roads, as well as pulling containers in an articulated truck, and also experience the many different styles of gearboxes used by the transport and freight industry.
As the students gain experience they get to drive the trucks unsupervised, and the course culminates with a line haul run from Christchurch to Oamaru and back.
McQuillan says the various freight companies involved in the practical training often want first options on the graduating drivers.
