Western Dakota Tech truck driving students follow road to passion

by Siandhara Bonnet, Rapid City Journal Staff

Photos by Grace Pritchett

Winona Raney proved to herself and everyone who said she couldn’t that she could drive big trucks.

“Sometimes I work around some old, old greasy men... and here I come, a little girl,” she said. “They tell me, ‘you can’t drive a truck, you can’t drive that, how do you even fit?’ Those are the ones I wanted to prove that I can do this shit.”

So she did. Raney graduated from the Western Dakota Tech Professional Truck Driving program in 2019 and now drives for Lind-Exco, a company that provides general contracting, underground utility infrastructure and site preparation, along with mass excavating and trucking.

Raney said she was driving for her dad while she had her permit. She said she realized no one would hire her until she got her license, so she joined the program.

Jay Banick, program director of the professional truck driving program, goes through a truck driving simulation at Western Dakota Tech.

Photo by Grace Pritchett

Western Dakota Tech has had its progressional truck driving program for about 21 years. Program director and instructor Jay Banick said he’s been teaching it for about three and half years and has about 40 to 50 students graduate a year.

The South Dakota Department of Labor named heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers as one of the state’s top 30 hot careers and expect 1,100 annual openings between 2018 and 2028, the highest of any of the other careers. It reported the average wage for the profession in 2019 was $43,582 in August 2020.

The six-week truck driving program starts in a classroom with a truck simulator, which allows students to navigate driving a truck in a variety of circumstances along with shifting gears.

Once students are more comfortable, they drive one of three semi-trucks in the Western Dakota Tech driving range where Banick teaches them to backup and do cornering. Once they’re comfortable with that, he said they go out and drive around Rapid City and the Black Hills everyday from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Before students drive, though, students start with a truck inspection to make sure the tires are good, the brakes are working, lights work and more.

Banick said safety is the most important thing in his course.

“There’s just so many people out there that don’t pay attention, beyond truck drivers,” he said.

Jay Bates, who graduated from the program in November 2019 after his 21st birthday and drives locally, said safety is huge, especially since he hauls oversize heavy equipment. He said his loads are up to 200,000 pounds.

“Even regular trucks you’re looking at your mirrors every 3-5 seconds, checking blind spots,” he said. “But especially with hauling oversized equipment, most of the time, I can’t see out of my mirrors. I don’t know where everything is behind me when I have a huge bucket behind me or a widescreen.”

Bates said sometimes extra spot mirrors help. He said he also waits for turning corners to look down the side of his trailer to see if anyone is beside him on the road.

Banick said there are a lot of jobs out there in Rapid City for truck drivers, and he said he has a 100% of placements if a student wants a job. However, he said it’s hard to find drivers and companies have started calling the program for its driving students.

“No matter where you go, whatever you buy, whatever you look at...a truck brought it,” Bates said. “No matter where you go, you can find a truck job.”

Bates said he got into trucking because his dad drove trucks. He said he loved riding with him and loved driving.

Photo by Grace Pritchett

He said the good thing about being a local driver is that he gets to come home every night, see his parents everyday and on the weekends. He also said he usually only works from May to November and gets paid the months he’s off, too.

“Just because you get a CDL doesn’t mean you have to go over the road,” Bates said. “There are so many jobs in this area and place, there’s a wide variety to keep you here and around home. You might work some long days, but you get to come home every night.”

Raney said she works from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. year-round, so it’s easy on family life, too.

The next Western Dakota Tech Professional Truck Driving class will be Feb. 1. Class A is $3,999, which includes tuition, fees, training materials and the driving test. Class B costs $1,799 and is two weeks long. Enrollment is on a first-come, first-served basis.