The Good Will in Truck Drivers

This is Andy Thomas from the Masculine Journey Podcast where we discover what it means to be a wholehearted man. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. Welcome to the Christian Car Guy Radio Show. I say this calls for action and now.

This is Bill Nixon. I've got the opportunity to fill in for Robbie Dilmore. Robbie's got that COVID mess, so we'd like everybody to be praying for him. We fully expect him to be back next Saturday.

But, you know, no matter how bad you've got that mess, it's a pain. So if you'll lift him up in your prayers and all the other people that you know are suffering through this, and probably equally as important is all those caregivers that are about ready to strangle, I mean, taking care of the folks that they're looking after. I've got two wonderful guests on the show this morning.

Lena Younger and Tempe Albright. We've got the neatest program here in Winston-Salem that I have been talking up for years and years. Forsyth Technical Community College has a program set up at Goodwill on Coliseum. And I have gone in and I have toured that facility, and it is one of the classiest, nicest, first-class facilities.

It's hard for me to explain to you how nice that campus is on that facility. So I want these ladies to talk to you about some of the opportunities going on in our community. Tempe, thank you for being on. Yes, thanks for having me. Lena, thank you for being on. Thank you for having me.

You know, with this weather, as bad as the roads were supposed to be, my blood pressure has been rather high. Hoping that these ladies would show up, and I'm just so happy that they did. Tempe, tell us about the program at Goodwill. If somebody knocked on the door and said, I'm really looking for a career change, I need help, what would they tell them is offered over at your facility?

I would tell them to give us a call. We have a career coach that can work with them one-on-one, and we have a new class that we built to meet people's needs. It's called the Career Launch. It helps you dive in to see where your skills are and how best to match up with the high-demand occupations in the area. It used to be, I know that I've sent lots of folks to Forsyth Tech's west campus to get help trying to find jobs. A career center where they've got a specialist to help you get on the right search engines to put your name out there to help you with resumes. You've got something similar there, too, don't you?

Yes, yes. In fact, the Career Launch covers all that, too. We do have all kinds of skills classes in healthcare, service industry, office tech, and trade skills is a huge one.

We've got people on waiting lists for HVAC 1 and 2. Now, I have heard it said that you've got, here in Winston, on Colosseum, one of the first-class, top-rated welding programs in the state. Yes, it's awesome, and our instructor, well, the Forsyth Tech instructor is awesome.

He's always looking to do more hands-on for the students. You're going to find out Goodwill is big on hands-on training. Even our call center training, they actually work in a call center.

They make calls for the Better Business Bureau. So we're all about hands-on, learning what you can. I say that because of COVID, we dipped more into virtual training, which is great for some folks, and the others we're able to do in class. Now, they're still offering the welding program. Is that up and running with the COVID?

Yes, it is. In fact, it's probably one of the safest places to be in the community. We've got an air purification in that lab, and you've got the welding hoods, is what they call it. I call them helmets. So you're as safe there than anywhere else. I figured all those little pieces of electricity probably fry all those COVID bugs anyway.

Yeah, they don't like the heat. I've got a good friend whose son went over to your program. He had looked at Forsyth Tech, and he decided to go to the program over on Coliseum. Graduated, had a great job in welding, worked up and up and up.

And a few years later, it was just a launching point for an extremely great career for him. How many people go through your welding program at a time, roughly? We are limited to 12 in the class because of how many units we have. And how many different sessions? You have four a year or 12 a year? We typically have, you're making me do math in the morning. Well, the estimate's good.

We won't double check you. We typically do eight to ten. We've got the industrial welding, which you do the MIG art, TIG welding, blueprint rating. It's great for anybody that's wanting to go work in manufacturing or start their own business. In fact, we have MIG welding, TIG welding. And we have a gentleman that completed our training in industrial welding. And he has his own business, decided he was doing it on the side, and decided, well, I'm making more business doing this, quit his other job, did that. And now he's also an instructor for our evening class.

Wonderful. So you've got at least 120 people that go through that one program a year. More or less. Numbers have been, because of COVID, we have limited the numbers in the classroom. So if things don't change, as of right now, if somebody said, I really want to get in that program, they're almost guaranteed to get in in the next six months, and they got a fairly good shot of starting it in the next three.

Yes. And we have a great partnership with our different partners, Foresight Tech, TransTech. And while we do scholarships, we also look to see which scholarship or sponsorship would be best for the student. And right now, Foresight Tech has a lot of really good scholarships that pay for the training and other stuff, while we just pay for the training.

So we're always looking what's best for the student. Well, you mentioned TransTech, and Lena's right here. We started this whole process trying to get her own, and then we were lucky enough to get Tempe to come on, too. Lena, tell us about the truck driving school across the state. We broadcast across North Carolina.

So where are some different places that somebody can get hooked up to a truck driving school? OK, so TransTech, we currently have, I'm like Tempe, you're going to make me do math. We currently have 11 locations. So of course, we have the location here in Winston at Goodwill. We also have a Greensboro location, and we partner with Goodwill there as well. Our corporate location is in Newton, North Carolina, Hickory, Conover, that area. We have Charlotte, Asheville, Rutherfordton, Greenville, North Carolina, Ahoskie, Roxboro. And forgive me if I've left any off. So we have several across the state.

Now, I'm getting a little old, and I think I may have skipped over. What we're talking about is long-haul trucking and other large trucking. So all those different locations are places that somebody can go to become a truck driver.

Absolutely. Now, it's amazing to me. I'm driving down the highway, and the side of these trucks, about every fifth truck's got a sign on it that says, you need to call this number. We're in dire need of hiring you. And then the next truck will say, we're going to pay you more than all the other trucks that you're seeing.

And the next truck will say, we have the friendliest, nicest, most wonderful people. You need to come work for us. So I sort of get the impression that if you can learn how to become a truck driver and you've got a driver's license, a CDL, it's not too hard to find a good job. If you don't find a job, it's because you don't want a job. There's a driving job for everyone that holds a CDL license, truly. Well, I've had the pleasure of doing a good deal with the Forsyth Jail and Prison Ministry and Samaritan and other organizations. And I've told folks, if you need to find a job, why not go and get a good job? And if you're going to get a good job, find a job that's not too terribly difficult or time consuming to get into it.

And if you've got a good driving record and you don't do drugs and you drink reasonably, then, you know, long haul trucking is a great way to make some money, even if it's just to make money so you can go to a higher education down the road. And when we come back, we're going to be talking more. Welcome to the Christian Car Guy radio show.

I say this calls for action and now. Well, I hope our audience is back with us. Pimpi, you still with us? Pimpi, you there? I am.

Wonderful. Now we're a call in show. So those of you that are listening, if you'd like to call in and ask some questions. That's 336-896-0830. And Lina, tell us if I've got a CDL, but I've got it for driving church buses. And I have I have actually called and talked and gotten information about getting the the regular CDL. It's one of those jobs that I'd love for six months. I got this long list of jobs that I'd love to do for six months, but I'm not sure I'd like to do any longer.

But long haul truckers way up on the top of that list. If I call the phone number or how do we get your your phone number? Well, I work remotely, so I work from home. My best contact information is my cell phone number. That's what someone would that's the quickest way someone could could get me. And that number is area code 336-682-5997.

That is the easiest and quickest way to reach me. Now, right now, if things don't change, what's the waiting period to start a course? Right now, we're scheduling out about a month and a half. Currently, my next available is late March.

March 28th is the exact date that we're scheduling for. We do have small classrooms, so we only take about five students per class. And we do start a class once a week.

But those seats fill up very quickly. Now, I have on many occasions sat down and talked with somebody and said, you know, there's no excuse in Forsyth County in Winston-Salem not to be able to get ahead because you can go to Goodwill. And if you've got a high school degree or you've got a high school equivalency, you can get into about 12 different careers. And in less than six months, walk out and have a very, very high probability of having a good paying job, at least one that will pay you enough money to finish your four year degree online somewhere. And Bill, we can actually help them get that high school diploma. We have the Access Center that we do in partnership with Forsyth Tech that will help them get a high school diploma.

And it's at no cost. Now, my understanding is you reject almost nobody. Yes, we're always looking. They might not, like for a nurse's assistant, let's say you have a violent crime in your background. We can't put you through nursing assistant.

That would not, you wouldn't be able to find a job. That's just not. But you've got other opportunities for that same person. Yes.

Yes. We're always looking at other ways to help the person. Now, with the truck driving, sort of walk somebody through the what they've got to do and how long it takes to, from the time they call you to the time that they are going to get a paycheck. OK, so our program is four weeks. It's about one hundred and sixty hours, which will be changing effective February 7th because of there are some new federal state laws that are going to require that time to be a little more extended. But nevertheless, it's still going to be that four week time frame. They would so they call me and like I said, I'm scheduling out about a month, a month and about a month and a half out or so.

So it's going to be a little while for them to wait. There's once they get with me and we've screened them screening, i.e. they have their license. They can pass a drug screen.

You know, you might want to highlight that again. They can pass a drug screen. If you use drugs, this is not this is you counseling to somebody and saying, I got an idea for you. You need to make sure you're saying only for those people that don't use recreational drugs.

Only, only, only for those people who don't use drugs. If you have participated in that in your past life and you really, really want to make a change. And one thing about CDL is it is not a job. It is a career. And you want a career to be able to provide for your family and make a very, very decent living, a very, very good living. Now, $50,000 a year is not not unreasonable. That is that is not unreasonable. And honestly, that is on the lower end for a commercial driver. First year, 50, 60,000 easily, easily.

So, you know, I always tell people that I'm speaking with it's literally a life changing event. I mean, you know, where can you go? And so our price is about thirty one hundred dollars. Thirty one hundred dollars. Thirty one twenty five.

But where can you go? Thirty one twenty five, four weeks and come out making sixty thousand dollars. Well, I tell you, if my kids were twenty five, living at home, I'd find the money for them. Now, you know, if I don't have that money, I understand that there's some other options. One is that you've got some scholarships and grants for part of that. And the other is that you can agree to work for a company.

So I promise to come work for XYZ for either 12 months or 24 months. And they would pick up the cost. Right. Absolutely. And when we get back from the break, we're going to talk about the money part of this a little bit.

What's what it costs and the likelihood of being able to get that covered. But I'd like everybody in the audience to be praying for this program and be praying about folks that you can help by sharing the information that's available at the Coliseum, Goodwill and the Career Center. We appreciate you tuning in to call in show. Three three six eight nine six zero eight three zero three three six eight nine six zero eight three zero. Give us a call. You're listening to the Truth Network and Truth Network dot com. She's real fine, my four oh nine.

She's real fine, my four oh nine, my four oh nine. Welcome to the Christian Car Guy radio show. I say this calls for action and now. Well, we want to welcome everybody that came back. We were, you know, sometimes the conversations during the commercials that you can't hear really, really neat. We got to figure out how to take those and then play it back.

Let's see if I can remember some of the things we were saying. One is you got to pay attention to that driving record. If you've got DUIs, if you've got reckless driving, maybe the welding program might be a better way for you to go. But if you've got a good driving record, you don't use drugs, you don't misuse alcohol, then this is an awesome opportunity to get ahead in life. There are not too many places you can go in in six months.

Be pretty sure you're going to be making fifty thousand dollars a year. Now, what type of driving? I mean, there's long haul trucking. There's short haul trucking. There are jobs where you get to go home and spend the night at your own house every night. There are those great big trucks with eight wheels on the back, but the front doesn't pivot.

What type of jobs are you helping folks find in this area? So when someone comes through the train, and so as a new driver, I always advise most new drivers are going to start out over the road. So that's long haul. It's very unlikely that a new driver is going to get a job where they're home every night. It's not impossible, but it is certainly the exception, not the rule.

So we do like to make sure that potential students do have the expectation that the job offers that they get will probably be long haul job offers for that first year. Well, that's if it's an 18-wheeler. I would think there are a whole lot of opportunities out there for people that don't actually have to have the CDL, but that a furniture company would much rather hire a driver with a CDL to drive that.

What do you call a truck that doesn't pivot on the front? You've got those really big trucks that the moving companies use and the food delivery companies use that are always looking for drivers, but it opens up a lot of doors. So what's the likelihood if I come in that you can find me a company that's willing to pay for my education?

Highly, highly likely. If you meet those metrics with your driving record being decent, background being decent, then we have partnerships with several companies that will pay for your training, and then you would agree to go and work with them. Some of our contracts have a 12-month contract, some of them have a 24-month contract, so it varies. We also have programs, government programs that we work with. NC Works has funding that could potentially assist. We work with a few community action agencies, ESR. These are all different pockets of money she's talking about. Yes. So if someone wanted to come through the training and they did not have the $3,125, we have different opportunities for them to find funding.

You know, there are a lot of people that go to a four-year college and end up owing hundreds of thousands of dollars wishing they were going to make $50,000 a year. I know that the goodwill on Coliseum is on the main bus route. Is the other lot on the maiden bus route? Point being, if I don't have a car, is there a way to make this system work as long as I've got a roof over my head and I own the city bus route?

More than likely there is. Our training yard is not necessarily on a bus route. You're going to have to do a little walking, but because we start out as a collective group in a classroom setting, people get to know each other. And if someone doesn't have a car, we've often had other students that will offer to take them to the training yard or something like that.

But there are ways to get around that. And we've had that before, so we don't have a problem with people getting to the training yard because there is a little walk from the bus stop, maybe, I don't know, maybe half a mile. Now, pre-COVID, I know that I had a lot of folks I talked to and said, if you set up at Samaritan, you don't have a home, you get in Samaritan, you walk up to Coliseum, you enroll in one of these courses, you walk back to Samaritan with proof that you've enrolled in one of those courses.

I've known them to make an exception and let somebody stay until they graduated. There are ways to help folks just by providing a little bit of information. Prayer, a hug, and you know, why don't you go up and just knock on the door at the Coliseum Goodwill and take a tour of the facility. Now, quite frankly, if you're around, you live in Winston, I highly recommend you go over and just do a tour of that facility just so you can talk about it. It is hard for me to explain to you how impressive it is if you go in. Timpy, tell us a little bit about the campus.

Yes. Like you mentioned, we are like another campus for foresight tech. We do have other training programs that are not foresight tech, like our forklift training.

Once again, that's hands-on. Downstairs, they actually work on a sit-down forklift, and they go to the foresight tech transportation center and use the cherry picker we have over there, even though this is one of the trainings that's not foresight tech. We have that kind of partnership. We have several nurses' assistant labs.

These are in partnership with foresight tech. We do the nurses' assistant one and nurses' assistant two. We've got medical office, pharmacy assistant, veterinarian assistant, and like I said, we have two different labs. Downstairs, we have our welding lab, which we talked about, top of the line. And then we have our trade skills lab, where we do the basic construction, HVAC one and two, intro to electrical, facility maintenance tech, which actually just got approved to be part of an apprenticeship program. So we've got a lot. You sure do.

I mean, it's amazing to me. I remember reading a story that said that the kids growing up in East Winston had a better opportunity, a better chance of getting ahead if they were born in an Indian reservation than they did getting out of the poverty in our city, which blows my mind because we've got so many opportunities. But then you talk to folks and so few of them know that the opportunities are there.

We need to share this information with the folks in our Sunday school classes, the folks in our small groups, the people that we come in contact with. There is a first class, a number one opportunity to get out of a difficult life just by going up to the Coliseum and Goodwill and touring the facility and finding one of the programs that that fits you. And understand you might only be doing it five, six, seven years. It's a great step way into all kinds of other opportunities.

I think we get hung up on this. If you're not able to get into a four year college, you should just give up. And there are a lot of really great jobs that you come out ahead going through the technical college route than you do if you spend four years, especially with a history degree or political science degree or some of those others. Yes, many of our trainings will get people on the pathway, as we say it, like nurses assistant one, for example, we have a bunch that took that. And as nurses assistant to went to work and continue to go into getting their nursing degree, which now they're making real good money. And we're always doing the short term high demand training, and those that will get people on the right route.

Thank you. Yes, this is just a neat, neat opportunity. I have thought about just going over and signing up for some of the courses.

It would just be wonderful to spend a little bit of time and have some more skills. Tell me a little bit more about the truck driving. We talked during the break about how hard it is to get a driver's license, and it seems like it's a whole lot less complicated going through you than it was for me to just get renewed. And I'm going to warn you, we got our break.

So right after the break, we're going to talk a little bit about how complicated it is once you get in the course to be able to actually start driving. Remember, we're a call-in show, 336-896-0830. She's real fine, my 409. She's real fine, my 409, my 409. Welcome to the Christian Car Guy radio show.

I say this calls for action and now. Well, we want to welcome all of you that came back. We've had just a wonderful time talking about the different opportunities for folks at the Goodwill Career Center.

We've got Lena Young and Tempe Albright with us. And we want to talk just a little bit more about how complicated it is to get that driver's license to get that. I know when I went in to get my driver's license renewed and I had to make an appointment, it was one of the most. But I understand it with your help. It's not as complicated as I thought it was.

That is right. So at the beginning of the program, we will make the appointment for the students to go in to get their permit because that is something that they actually have to go into the DMV for. But at the end, we don't have to make those kind of appointments because we have our own examiners. So once they complete their four week training with us, we have our own examiners that can test them and get their scores in so they can get their CDLs. And then at that point, they can just walk into the DMV and pick up that license so they don't have that all that waiting months and things like that because we can do that for them. Now, I do some with the Foresight Jail and Prison Ministry and it would just sort of amazed me how many people in this day and time have some things on their criminal record. I just want to make sure that everybody understands Tempe, it really doesn't matter if you've got anything on your criminal record, does it?

No. We'll work with you. We'll figure out what your skills are, what your interests are, and head you in the right direction so you can be successful. The other thing I want to make sure I get in is that you've got a career, but you can't find that job. You just moved to Forsyth County and you really want help finding a good job. You can go to the Goodwill and you can say, I want some help.

I don't want to take classes. I just want help finding the right job. And you've got, talk a little bit about that skills, that job placement specialist and the help you provide. We have a career connection and you can go in without an appointment. They'll work with you. If you need to set up a resume, your own email.

A lot of times folks need that. They need to come take advantage of our computer so they can be online. They can set you up an email. They can help you with a resume. They're always posting jobs, I can tell you right now. We're always hearing from employers that are needing people. So we're always looking for good folks for the businesses in our community. Yeah, I've talked to so many people that says, you know, I've gone and I've applied 5, 6, 7, 12 times. Nobody ever calls me back.

I just don't understand what, you know, and it sort of makes me scratch my head. I tell them if you've tried to find a job and you've been applying and nobody's getting back to you, maybe you're not doing it right. Maybe you need to go to one of the two facilities and get a little advice and a little bit of help. What timeframe, when's the best time for somebody to come by for that type of assistance? Do they need to call ahead first? How does that work? Always calling ahead first is awesome nowadays.

You'd be surprised how hard it is to find a live person when you call. But the Career Connection is open to the public. They are looking at keeping the numbers down in the room because of COVID and everybody has to be masked up. So what days and hours are they open?

Do you know? From 8 to 5. 8 to 5, Monday through Friday.

And Friday might be 8 to 4. And if they call the main number at Goodwill, of course, if you call the store, they'll transfer you. But if they call the main number, do you know what they've got to do to get to the right person?

I don't think you can hit zero and that do any good. Yeah, I don't know their extension by heart, but just call the main number 336-724-3621 and let the operator head you in the right direction. What exactly should they say? What department are they trying to get transferred to? Career Connections. Career Connections. And, you know, if you drive them by the Goodwill and you pull in and you go in the front door, you can introduce yourself and you can say, look, give me a card. Is there an opportunity now or can I schedule something? And they're very friendly.

They're just overworked. If you're looking to change, if you're looking to find a better job, if you've got a child that really needs to be out on their own, if you know a neighbor that's got some difficulty, go online and look at all the courses they offer. But if that's a little frustrating, go over and take a tour of the facility. You will just be absolutely amazed at what's available. If you want to get into truck driving, you need to, Lina, what's the phone number again?

My phone number is going to be 336-682-5997. You know, there are folks that we come in contact with that we need to say to them, you know, you got to look for something to find it. You got to expect to find it when you're looking for it. You got to believe there are people out there that would love to help you. It's not that everybody's against you. It's that you hadn't bumped into the person with what you need. And there are plenty of folks.

There are plenty of folks that will pray for you and encourage you and head you in the right direction. There's an opportunity here everybody in Winston should know about and an awful lot of people should take advantage of. Ladies, is there anything else you can think of that you'd like the audience to know about your program? I just want to say the Career Connections is a great first step for anything, even if you're interested in taking one of the training courses. We also have Ability Services and they can head you in that direction if you have a disability of some sort. We also have Project Reentry if you have a criminal background that can help you out.

Now Project Reentry, speak a little bit more about Project Reentry for us. Well, they typically, and I'm talking pre-COVID days, I don't think they're going into the prisons like they used to. But they go in, they work with the people before they even get out of being incarcerated. Well, I want to lift up.

We only got a few seconds left. If you've got a record, if you've got a family member you're taking care of that has a record, you need to call the Forsyth Jail and Prison Ministry. You need to look them up on the webpage.

You need to see what programs are available. And you know, if you've got a criminal record and everything is going wonderful, you need to think about praying for them and seeing how you can get involved and help with the folks that are coming through now. Remember that Christ expects us to share the good news with those that we come in contact with. That we are all ambassadors and that we've got a responsibility to know that our hands are Jesus' hands, our shoulders is Jesus' shoulders, our ears. We've got to be ready to encourage people, lift them up and pray for them. And if we did more of that, I think our churches would be full. We need those churches full. I want you to pray for this station. I want you to pray for Goodwill. And I'm going to lift up Forsyth Jail and Prison Ministry again. I wish that's on your prayer list. We hope you have a great day and keep robbing your prayers too.