Driving opportunity in Castlegar

A truck driver training school in Castlegar is accepting students from Jamaica and working to establish a sister school there

Andy Roberts is the owner/operator of Mountain Transport Institute Ltd., a professional truck driver training school in Castlegar, B.C. — Photo courtesy Andy Roberts

Andy Roberts’ company, Mountain Transport Institute Ltd. (MTI), is located in Castlegar, B.C., just 38 minutes from his birthplace of Rossland. Roberts said with a laugh that, like many business owners, he works half days—any 12 hours he wants!

Crazy for trucks

A self-described truck nut from the age of 13, Roberts bought a truck and started working for DCT Chambers Trucking in Castlegar in 1988. Ten years later, after obtaining his instructor’s qualification, he began teaching the airbrakes course at Selkirk College on weekends, and then started a professional truck driver training school in Castlegar so that he could get paid to do what he loves: talk trucks.

“For five years we taught basic skills enabling our students to pass their ICBC (Insurance Corporation of British Columbia) road test,” said Roberts. “Then in January 2003, we stepped up the training to include advanced skills that make our students exceptionally competent and a first choice for employers. That’s what made the school grow from two instructors to our present six.”

Roberts said that the average age of students who take the MTI course is 45-ish; for many it’s a second, third or fourth career.

The foreign drivers program

Because of a North America-wide shortage of truck drivers, candidates are being recruited from other countries, but until recently Roberts was hesitant to participate in the foreign drivers program. In 2012, however, professor Michael Patterson of HireProDrivers eliminated Roberts’ doubts with a unique approach to the program.

“We do things a little differently from other companies,” Roberts said. “We actually travel to the other country—in our case to Jamaica—and do an evaluation of the applicants before they are brought to Canada. That includes a medical exam, drug testing, a criminal record check and a driving test.”

Understandably, there is a lot of paperwork involved. The foreign drivers need protection from exploitation, and only the healthy and law-abiding are permitted to enter Canada through this program.

When the foreign trainees arrive in Castlegar, MTI helps them obtain Canadian driver's licences, social insurance numbers and bank accounts, so they can start working. MTI anticipates assisting 300 foreign drivers this year, as they pass through Castlegar on their way to their respective employers.

A longer reach

Roberts is working to support improvement in Jamaica’s economy and to replace some of the competent Jamaican drivers who are leaving to train with MTI.

“With the encouragement of (Jamaican) Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller,” he said, “we’re working with a community college in Jamaica to start the first professional truck driver training program in the English-speaking Caribbean. We will help them however we can, and will train some of the candidates in Castlegar to be instructors.”