SAN ANTONIO – Tayler Lang said driving a side-load truck now feels like second nature.
“You can whip it just like you drive a regular car,” Lang said. “When you get in the groove of things and you’re just picking them up and down and doing it maybe 1,200 times a day.”
Lang is an employee with the City of San Antonio’s Solid Waste Management Department. But just months ago, she was an apprentice through the city’s Commercial Driver License (CDL) apprenticeship program.
“It took me maybe about three months or so,” Lang said. “I’m learning a little bit more in-depth about my city because I’m actually in the neighborhoods learning the areas.”
Lang is among more than 100 people who have completed that program. Since its start in 2018, the ultimate goal has always been to supply the city with staff who have a CDL.
“It’s easier for us to fill in those vacancies and bring in a new generation of drivers for the Solid Waste Department,” Rick Masters, a manager for the city’s Solid Waste Management Department, said. “San Antonio is growing and it’s not going to stop. We have to keep up with the growth throughout the city.”
Certain vehicles, like trash collection trucks, require drivers to have CDLs.
“We have to keep our city clean. It’s a tough job,” Masters said. “In order to, to keep up with the demand and the hard work we do, we have to make sure that we retain our employees, keep the programs like the apprenticeship program running so we can keep up with the demand of hard work here.”
This 100-graduate milestone comes as the demand for trash collection across the city is on the rise.
Just this fall, Solid Waste Management launched an educational campaign in an effort to stop illegal dumping as the city allocated half a million dollars in the new budget to help crews with equipment.
The incentives for those who choose to stay with the city after getting their CDL include health benefits, a retirement program, and a chance to move up within the agency or the city, as well as a steady job.
For starting pay and open positions in the apprenticeship program, click here.