SALISBURY, Md. - Coming soon to Wor-Wic Community College, a new tractor-trailer simulator classroom to bolster the school's CDL driver program.
With a $120,000 grant from the Perdue Foundation, Wor-Wic will provide a safer driving program for aspiring drivers.
"They're driving vehicles that are sixty five feet long," said Kelly Carey, director of the Transportation Department at Wor-Wic. "They're thirteen and a half feet tall, and they weigh upwards of forty to fifty thousand pounds, so it's a very dangerous vehicle."
A set of new tractor-trailer simulators will allow drivers to get a feel for how a big rig drives before they get behind the wheel and practice driving the real thing.
Rich Hernandez, vice president for Perdue Foods Transport Division, said that this program will reduce the time drivers need to get behind the wheel.
"With a program like this and working with Wor-Wic directly, now we have a 90 day training program where you go with our driver-trainers when you finish, and they you're able to start on your own working as a full time driver working for Perdue;" said Hernandez. "We're averaging right around $80,000 a year for our beginning drivers."
Previously, to drive for Perdue, a driver needed two full years of truck driving experience.
For Paul Webster, of Powellville, Md., that's an attractive option.
"Well, I think if I was a young person and I knew I could be making eighty grand driving up and down the East Coast, I would be tickled to death to give it a go and see if I could get a job and get the training I need," Webster said.
The simulators don't just simulate the driving experience. They can also simulate varying loads, weather, and traffic conditions.
The simulator classroom will be part of the new Patricia and Alan Guerrieri Technology Center, which is scheduled to open in 2023.
