That is particularly true of the trucking industry. The industry is so young and started out in such a basic manner that there was little formalized training available for persons who wished to engage in it.
Wide Selection Now Available for Special Training
That has greatly changed, and now more than 648 schools offer courses in motor transport or in some form of traffic and transportation that have special application to a motor carrier career. A directory of colleges and universities offering transportation courses can be obtained by writing Public Relations Department, American Trucking Associations, Inc., 1616 P Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036.
It is possible to take special "short courses" at some state colleges or at local vocational schools for training as a truck driver, and many companies insist that applicants for driver positions take such a course. The schools also help place a driver in a company. As in all such training, there are good and bad schools. A list of requirements of a good school and what to look for in a school is also available from the American Trucking Associations.
Although some students pursue the normal four-year course programming sales meetings, meetings and events for customers, and staging "open houses" for shippers.
For a job in public relations you will need to write clearly and effectively, know something about photography and magazine layout and printing, as well as radio and television communication.
Much personal satisfaction may be found in doing a good public relations job, and the opportunities for public relations jobs in trucking companies are increasing. Job titles include secretary, assistant editor, editor, public relations manager, and public relations and advertising director.
Summary
Not all trucking companies are organized in the same manner --far from it. Not all of the jobs described above will be found in every company, but the jobs are typical of those to be found in a motor carrier firm. In addition are the regular jobs of clerk typist, receptionist, switchboard operator, etc.
In some companies, one person may hold the responsibility of two or more of the positions described.
However, it is easy to see that there is enough variety in the careers offered in the motor carrier industry to make it one of excitement, challenge, and reward!
Junior College Training Offers Stepping-Stone
Because the majority of trucking companies are small and the ranks of actual executives thin, there is sometimes little room to bring in a college graduate as a management trainee. That is changing, however, as companies grow and become more complex.
Therefore, many motor carrier companies prefer to hire the graduate of a two-year junior college, place him in a lower or middle management job, and then make it possible for him to complete his remaining two years of college by taking night courses at a local college or university.
That has some advantages in that the student can earn while he learns, and his courses, which are job-related, can help him in his work right away; and because he is deeply engaged in trucking, he finds the courses more interesting than would a student who is in a mere academic situation.
Courses are to be had that are beneficial for almost every department of a trucking company. Even an extension course by mail or at a local school in supervisory techniques or "human relations" can be of help to a dock foreman or a dispatcher or a driver-trainer.
Many Basic Courses
Many courses that are basically at the college or university level are highly desirable for a student planning to enter any phase of motor transport. Those courses are basic to all departments and form a general educational background for a person contemplating a career in trucking.
The courses include: Economics of Transportation, Public Utility Regulation, Motor Carrier Transportation, Transportation Accounting, Traffic Management, Rates and Tariffs, Insurance and Claims, Materials Handling and Warehousing, ICC Law and Procedures, and Business Management.
Here are additional courses that will prove beneficial in various departments within a motor carrier company:
Sales and Marketing
Principles of Salesmanship
Sales Management
Principles of Marketing
Industrial Marketing
Principles of Advertising
Economics
Public Speaking
Sales Management
Accounting
Cost Accounting
Intermediate Accounting
Auditing Systems
Motor Carrier Education Opportunities
Corporate Finance Statistics
Public Finance and Taxation Data Processing Operations
Materials Handling
Warehousing
Typing
Motion and Time Study
Foremanship Training
Production Control
Data Processing
Personnel and Employee Relations
Personnel Administration
Job Evaluation
Incentive Methods
Industrial Psychology
Collective Bargaining
Labor Law
Tests and Aptitudes
Safety, Claims, and Insurance
Principles of Insurance
Accident and Casualty Insurance
Fire Insurance
Safety Engineering
Business Law
Warehousing and Packaging
Traffic
Rates and Tariffs
Physical Distribution
Economics of Transportation
Principles of Accounting
Business Letter Writing
Engineering and Maintenance
Mechanical Engineering
Machine Shop Physics
Foremanship Training
Industrial Management
Metallurgy
Purchasing
Industrial Purchasing
Financing Business Organizations
Principles of Salesmanship
Contract Law
Business Law
Public Relations
Economic and Business Journalism
Public Speaking
Advertising
Typing
Radio-Television Techniques
Layout and Copy Writing
Commercial Art
Creative Writing
No single school, college, or university will offer all of the courses listed, and course names will vary from school to school. In some schools several areas will be incorporated into one course.
However, motor carrier executives and educators agree that the courses listed will adequately prepare a person for a career in trucking.
In-Service Management Training Programs
Many motor carrier companies conduct their own management training programs. The programs are carefully developed, often in cooperation with leading educators or educational institutions to assist the company in developing the kind of executives and management skills needed for its particular type of operation.
Despite the long list of technical and transportation-related subjects listed, many companies prefer that a trainee have a good general liberal arts or business administration education and learn applications to the trucking industry while working for a company.
College majors seem to play a smaller role in the qualifications of an applicant so long as the course of study is not extremely specialized. It might be difficult for a person who has majored in the "History of Art" or the "16th Century Novel" to be readily accepted into a trucking company! That would be an example of being too specialized.
The training programs conducted by motor carriers vary in length from six months to more than a year.
Companies with management training programs seem to prefer an applicant with grade averages between 2.3 and 3.5 in a 4-point system.
The applicant who has a broad schedule of extracurricular activity and who also has worked part-time during school or during vacations is especially attractive material for a motor carrier company.
The student who achieves more than just good grades usually has the stamina and drive to make a good executive, according to recruiters.
Students interested in management training programs should contact the largest trucking companies serving their area or those with which they would like to affiliate. It is the larger companies that are more easily able to develop and sustain training programs. Small companies also hire trainees, but most do not have a formal in-service training program.