R. R. Branstrom | Daily Press Under the watchful eye of an instructor, a student practices operating machinery towards the end of a course at North Country Heavy Equipment School, which operates alongside Midwest Truck Driving School in Escanaba.

EDITOR NOTE: The Daily Press will be featuring a series of articles on local businesses, highlighting their history and what makes them unique. The series will run on a regular basis in the Daily Press.

— — —

ESCANABA — In 1995, after identifying a need for commercial driver’s license (CDL) training in the region, Jim Berthiaume founded North Country Truck Driving School in Escanaba.

Prior to the opening of the school, relayed current Director Joshua Barron, there was no formal, standardized education towards obtaining a CDL, which became nationally implemented in 1992. Berthiaume worked with the State of Michigan to bring the curriculum to the Upper Peninsula.

In 1998, the name was changed to Midwest Truck Driving School to reflect a broader geographic scope. Still today, their programs attract students from across the Midwest and beyond. Last month, one student traveled up from Texas to earn his CDL.

In the early days, classes were conducted by one instructor – Jim – with one truck and one trailer. The school grew gradually under his leadership, and in 2008, it changed hands – into those of Jim’s brother, Tom Berthiaume. The business continued to expand.

In 2015, a group of local investors took over Midwest Truck Driving School. Barron, one of five members now on the board of directors, said that it was the goal of that group to really build up the school. Under their direction, Midwest Truck Driving School added school bus training and CDL Class B training, and the board also acquired another related business. North Country Heavy Equipment School, which began operating in the late ’90s, has been running alongside Midwest Truck Driving School at 1519 N. 26th Street in Escanaba since 2020.

North Country Heavy Equipment School’s HEO (heavy equipment operator) course is accredited by the National Center for Construction Education and Research, understood to be an industry standard. Certification is helpful for operators of a variety of heavy machinery. Per the course description, “The machines include excavators, articulated motor grader, articulated front-end loaders, compact track loader, 6-way angle blade dozer, extendahoe backhoe, compact excavator, and single and tandem axle dump trucks.”

Curriculum may be tailored based on a customer’s needs, limitations, or desires. Barron said that customer service and flexibility are among quaities that set the Escanaba schools apart from other providers. When the Wisconsin DNR wanted their forest firefighters trained specifically for the dozers they would need to use to create fire lines, North Country obliged. In addition to being G.I. Bill-approved and National Guard approved, the school also works with Michigan Works! and Michigan Rehabilitation Services and provide a useful step for the unemployed and underemployed. They have made adjustments so that someone who struggles to read and write can get their CDL.

While enrollees are often individuals still setting up their futures, many organizations arrange to send their employees through certain programs to improve skills or gain a particular certificate.

The major courses at Midwest Truck Driving School and North Country Heavy Equipment School are either month-long (160 hours) or week-long (40 hours), depending on the program. 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. sessions Monday through Friday make for intense and compact classes that include both classroom instruction and hands-on training.

The Class A CDL course through Midwest Truck Driving School and the HEO course through North Country Heavy Equipment School are the most popular, Barron reported. Both are month-long programs. Other providers, like universities that teach similar classes, stretch the curriculum over a semester.

“This is short-term vocational training, (which) enables people to get back into the workforce in a relatively short amount of time,” said Barron, who said that their students are of all ages, from many walks of life, and often have jobs lined up before coming through or soon after, when a completion certificate makes them particularly employable.

Truck driving and logging are two industries in which the average age is around 50. As many who have held careers in trucking and forestry are retiring, a problem is created when their shoes aren’t being filled.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the average annual growth rate across all professions is 4%. According to the American Trucking Association, the number of truck drivers grew by only 1.5% between 2021 and 2022.

Not only are the curriculums for all classes intended to set students up for success, Midwest and North Country go a step further.

“We always have recruiters that come in,” said Barron. “This past month, Holtger Brothers Incorporated came in, Schneider came in, and A.M. Express came in to recruit students right out of the course, which is good. Now, a lot of times, the students don’t go with those companies, but at least that gives them an idea – what’s the pay, what’s the benefits, what questions should I be asking … And it gets them used to those conversations they’re going to be having with different companies.”

The schools also offer online classes on theory for more specific skills. For example, the HazMat entry-level driver training (ELDT) endorsement training, designed for drivers who possess a CDL and are seeking to add the “H” endorsement, covers content that is on the test at the DMV. The curriculum meets DOT standards and is recognized in all 50 states.

A newly-added program that was brought to the school just in the past year is a 40-hour log truck course in which students learn how to operate a loader and key topics associated with forestry.

“We worked with three different loggers here in Delta County to create this course,” said Barron. “It was a big thing that they wanted for the logging industry.”

Consistently providing attentive education to small classes while having fun is something Midwest Truck Driving School and North Country Heavy Equipment School strive for. While some classes fill up completely – the February CDL course was full, and some people who called to inquire about enrollment had to be bumped to March – that isn’t always the case.

“Sometimes you don’t have the demand,” said Barron. “Once in a great while – like last month, heavy equipment – they only had one student, and that’s fine. Middle of summer they’ll have 16 students. … Life gets busy, and that student, that was the only time he could do it. Obviously the school doesn’t make anything when there’s only one student, but it’s a commitment to our customers, and that’s what’s important.”