Published May 20, 2020
The Dodge City Community College (DC3) Board of Trustees have approved the purchase of two blue 2015 Freightliner Cascadia day-cab semi-tractors from Truck Center Companies (TCC) for $46,000.
The purchase of these trucks will allow DC3 to double the size of its commercial driver’s license (CDL) program over the next year, Dr. Clayton Tatro, DC3 Vice President of Workforce Development, said.
“In order to accommodate the growing need for CDL training in the area, additional equipment was needed to train students in a timely manner,” Tatro said. “Before this purchase, DC3 had only one semi-tractor for use in the program.”
That first truck, a 2007 International day-cab, was purchased in 2013 when the college launched the CDL program. It will be now be used for additional skills training such as backing maneuvers, Tatro said.
“Industry has begun to shift toward automatic transmission trucks, which is why this bid was for two semis,” Tatro said. “This way, we have one with a manual transmission to allow students to get a full Class A CDL without restriction. We can use the other truck, with the automatic transmission, to give our students additional real-world driving experience.”
The purchase of these trucks is right in line with DC3’s college-wide focus on increasing course offerings, programs and services, Tatro said.
“With one truck, we were greatly limited with our class sizes and testing abilities, due to the fact that only one student was able to drive at a time,” Tatro said. “Because CDL class sessions are currently set at eight-week intervals, having one truck made it really difficult to get students through the program in that amount of time, especially if we experienced mechanical issues with the truck.”
Tatro said the 2015 trucks will be serviced locally by TCC, a Freightliner dealer and service center, and in-house by the DC3 diesel technology program.
By Lance Ziesch