innovate arkansas

You can learn stuff from Twitter. No, really, you can.

During President Barack Obama's State of the Union address last week, some political types - including U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin, R-Ark., and Lane Kidd, president of the Arkansas Trucking Association - got into a friendly 140-character debate about job creation.

Griffin: "Pres. wants energy independence? Wants infrastructure jobs? Wants manf jobs? He didnt mention KEYSTONE pipeline. I will."

Kidd: "@TimGriffinAR2 the US economy doesn't need Keystone. Business is growing."

Griffin: "U cant be serious."

Ah, but Kidd was serious: "Very. Read the facts. Pass a transportation bill - a true job creator."

Then he added: "Trucking could hire 100,000 people now. No adequate training dollars." And, in 2011, he said, "US trucking firms saw their biggest annual increase in freight in 13 years. That's fact."

Although the president specifically talked about vacancies in high-tech industries, Kidd told Whispers that trucking is another industry with a mismatch between jobs and trained workers.

That's why the ATA is partnering with the Arkansas Department of Workforce Services and Arkansas State University on the Governor's Truck Driver Training Program.

"This program has a guaranteed 300 truck driver jobs at four trucking companies in Arkansas," Kidd told Whispers. "If the person stays employed for one year, the state forgives all tuition and related expenses."

The four companies are Willis Shaw Express of Elm Springs, Tyson Foods of Springdale, Maverick USA of North Little Rock and Stallion Express of Beebe.
And these are jobs that must pay at least $38,000 a year, the median wage for drivers.

The program, Kidd said, has attracted a different demographic of potential drivers, including college graduates who have had a hard time getting work in their chosen fields.

While We’re At It
Talking with Lane Kidd  turned up another nugget: The Arkansas Trucking Association, which backed off of a proposed increase in the state’s diesel tax last year, will make another run at it in the 2013 legislative session.

“We’ll launch a campaign this summer and fall for roads and bridges in which the trucking industry will offer to pay a higher diesel tax.”

Truckers pay at least 90 percent of the diesel tax in Arkansas, he said. And unlike railroad companies, which own their own traffic lanes, the trucking industry has to work with government to make capital improvements.

So how much more in tax will the industry propose to pay?

Kidd said he wasn’t ready to get that specific.