XPO Logistics (NYSE: XPO), as another step in trying to recruit drivers, is now willing to pay tuition at outside schools offering their students training to earn their Commercial Driver’s License.
XPO already has extensive in-house training for its employees, including dock workers who want to move up to the driver ranks. What is different about the program announced Tuesday is that it will offer tuition reimbursement for expenses incurred at an outside CDL school. “The Drive for Success program will provide tuition reimbursement of up to $5,000 for individuals that attain their Class A commercial driver’s license (CDL-A) and drive for XPO,” XPO said in a prepared statement announcing the program.
When XPO announced in January the extension of its in-house training program, it said it was going to triple the 2017 enrollment and bring in more than 800 employees.
The Drive for Success program offers the tuition reimbursement at an approved third-party driver school if they earn their CDL and then drive for XPO.
The current XPO training program consists of 114 XPO-owned internal schools. It requires, among other things, 80 hours of classroom study and 160 hours behind the wheel with a driver trainer. The employees going through that program can be working the dock while attending their training. The cost is zero. Eligibility is for age 21 and up, reflecting the national requirements for driving a truck interstate.
The XPO announcement quoted Kenny Wagers, the company’s COO and interim president of LTL for North America, said the company would be teaming up with the outside schools “to extend the financial support already available to trainees at our XPO driver schools.”