BANGOR, Maine — The City of Bangor is offering two free certified drivers license courses to help solve a shortage of bus drivers for the Community Connector network.
One course will be for those who do not yet have their CDL. This training will begin on Jan. 21 and run for three weeks, Monday through Thursday. The city is hoping for 15-17 students and Bangor will pay $18 an hour during the training.
The other course will be for current CDL drivers who are interested in teaching others how to drive large vehicles.
Laurie Linscott, superintendent of the Community Connector, says she is excited for the courses.
"We needed this. We needed this bad," Linscott said. "CDL driving is kind of a dying breed and we are trying to bring that back around."
In September, Linscott made the decision to suspend Saturday bus services because of staffing shortages. The hope is that CDL students will go on to work for the City of Bangor and fill the vacancies on the bus line.
The two courses are paid for by a $322,000 grant from the Maine Department of Transportation.
Linscott says that the second course, the one to teach CDL instruction, could help the license become a less-scarce skill.
"We don’t have enough instructors in the state to keep the programs alive," Linscott said. “We have to change that, we have to get instructors back in this area,” reminiscing to when CDL was a course she could take in her high school vocational school.
The CDL instruction course will be taught by one of the few instructors left in Maine, Buddy Spaulding owner of Keep Right Inc. driving school. He says that his CDL courses are popular.
"Based on my phone ringing every day and the number of names that go on my waiting list, i would say there is a demand," Spaulding said.
Demand for a skill, Spaulding feels, is an asset.
"I think in the state of Maine," Spaulding affirmed. "Having a commercial driver's license in your pocket, is a really good thing to do."
This is not the first time the City of Bangor has offered a CDL course.
Kyle Thibodeau got his CDL two years ago when Bangor last offered a free training course. Getting his license, he says, is one of the best decisions he has made.
"This is actually one of the first jobs that I have had that I consider a career, and I plan to make it long term," Thibodeau said.
Taking the course is what Thibodeau describes as a "win-win."
"They are going to pay you to sit in a classroom to learn how to drive a bus, they are going to pay you to drive the bus," he said. "And once you get your license, you have a job that day."