BAKER CITY — Baker Technical Institute is starting a truck driving and logistics school that will help students prepare to obtain a commercial driver’s license.

The first four-week course starts March 8 at BTI’s main campus in Baker City.

“Having your CDL is key when you’re working in the construction trade, running heavy equipment, but you have to haul the heavy equipment there,” said Sandy Mitchell, BTI’s marketing and program coordinator. “It could do a number of different jobs, it is not tailored only for long haul trucking. There can be so many things done in our agriculture communities that you would need a CDL for.”

BTI President Doug Dalton in a press release said BTI during the past two years worked with an advisory board of industry leaders from Oregon and the Professional Truck Driving Institute to understand the need.

“They are the experts, and we wanted to listen to industry and build a school that reflects what they need,” Dalton said. “One of the biggest things that came from these listening sessions was their focus on producing higher quality drivers than they have traditionally seen from schools, and we’ll do this by giving them a more diverse experience.”

The course, which costs $5,900 per student, will include a driving simulator that allows students to practice a variety of scenarios.

“It trains people in efficiency with shifting, we can change the climate, we can put the driver in this virtual reality simulator in a windstorm or we can put them on snowy or icy roads,” Mitchell said. “So their responses are registered and calculated on the computer system and it feeds back what they could’ve done, what they should’ve done and it allows a level of training that you just can’t get by getting behind the wheel.”

The course will total about 160 hours of training. Students will have 101 hours of classroom lab time, where they work with instructors and spend time in the simulator.

“We strive to do hands-on learning, so whatever we do we want to be in the classroom with the student, present an element of training, then take that element out to a truck that is actually what we call a land lab, identify the part, how it works,” Mitchell said. “So it’s not sitting in a classroom learning, it is actually learning a practical application and going and doing it on the truck.”

Along with the class time, students will complete 44 hours of individual driving time, working one-on-one in a truck with an instructor.

Prospective students who have a learner’s permit will start March 15. Those who don’t have a permit can start March 8 and, for an additional $500, obtain the permit needed to take the course.

“We will walk them through the process to get their learner permit, the knowledge they need to pass their written test and be ready to go on the land lab and drive truck,” Mitchell said.

Space is limited, but BTI will add future courses based on demand.

“Our goal here is to have people walk away with a Class A CDL without restrictions,” Mitchell said, “with quality drivers that are confident, competent and capable to operate as a commercial driver.”

Though the BTI course is hands-on, it also will address COVID-19 precautions, with health and temperature checks, face masks and 6-foot spacing.

“We monitor heavily, and we maintain all the required protocols for COVID-19, and that goes down with disinfecting and sanitizing all surfaces between people,” Mitchell said. “That is why our class sizes are smaller, they are more one-on-one because the cohort of people that are going to come are going to be together, and there won’t be a whole lot of interactions with others.”

Once students receive their permit and complete the course, they will be able to pursue their basic Class A CDL with an ability to pick up different endorsements, such as hauling hazardous materials.

Like BTI’s other training programs, such as welding and heavy equipment operation, the truck driving school is to give students skills they need to qualify for a variety of jobs. Courses will run Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

More information will be available soon on Baker Technical Institute website, bakerti.org/school-of-trucking-and-logistics/.