Generous community and industry support from A&M Transport, Freightliner Northwest, Daimler Trucks North America and the Umpqua community’s Workforce Development Board, raised funding to update student trainer trucks for Umpqua Community College.
For Immediate Release
March 14, 2019 – Roseburg, OR – Umpqua Community College (UCC) Foundation Board hosted a gala fund raiser to purchase trucks for the school’s truck driving program. An impressive budget of $46,000 was raised locally, allowing the program to pursue truck purchase options. While UCC was shopping for the right truck, Andrew Owens of A&M Transport reached out to and Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA) who agreed to assisting the program with funding. DTNA also agreed to a truck donation of their own, a 2015 Cascadia with 19,000 miles from the corporate test fleet, valued at $80,000.
Freightliner Northwest assisted Mr. Owens with identifying the right truck for UCC to purchase from the dealership and they selected another 2015 Cascadia. UCC reports both trucks are equipped with new safety features and the newer technology drivers are expected to use on the job. The first Cascadia was delivered to UCC by Freightliner Northwest’s, Mark Christie and Todd Tracy on February 21st and the second truck will deliver in March of 2019.
“We are thrilled with the donation of 2015 Freightliner Cascadia from Daimler and Freightliner Northwest,” Robin VanWinkle, UCC’s Director of Community and Workforce Training, said. “The addition of an auto-shift to our fleet helps us train future drivers using state-of-the-art equipment.”
UCC offers truck driver training through their Community and Workforce Training program and they currently graduate 30-50 students each year and have done so over the last five years. Students who complete the four-week program have a job placement rate between 87% and 95%, over the past 3 years. UCC reports an estimated 90,000 new drivers are needed to be hired nationwide each year for the next decade due to the driver shortage.
“This truly is a fantastic project and should be modeled around our dealer network and the Country at large,” said Mark Christie, Freightliner Northwest Senior Fleet Account Manager.
About Gordon Truck Centers, Inc.
Built upon over 30 years of helping customer satisfy their transportation needs, Gordon Truck Centers, Inc. is an expanded network of dealerships doing business as Freightliner Northwest, Western Star Northwest, and Freightliner of Hawaii. The Dealership Family has 12 locations throughout Washington, Oregon and Hawaii located off nearly every major highway. As a full-service Freightliner, Western Star, Fuso, Wilson Trailer, Reitnouer Aluminum Trailer dealership family, GTC can sell, finance, insure and service commercial trucks for medium and heavy-duty applications.