Bursting sectors force transport centre's expansion.

The voracious appetite of the long-haul delivery trucking and heavy equipment operation industries for trained workers is forcing Sudbury-based Transport Training Centres of Canada to pursue the construction of a $1.2 million central office to accommodate its growing needs.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

"We'd very much like to be able to expand here but we just don't have any more space," says John Beaudry, president.

"We've crammed every possible hook and cranny in here with a body."

Supplying 30 per cent of the new entry-level drivers for Ontario, the school is the largest of its kind in the province and is constantly expanding. As the school is rapidly outgrowing its home office in Sudbury, Beaudry hopes to be able to transfer operations from its current 17-person, 2,400 square-foot office on Lasalle Blvd. to a 14,000-square-foot site on Kingsway Road.

The current head office is crammed to capacity, with the classroom also doubling as a storage area. Some employees are even required to share cramped office areas in order to maximize space.

Despite being the company's original facility and its current hub of operations, the Sudbury site still lacks many amenities and training tools featured in many of its other offices, such as a state-of-the-art gear shifting simulator. By expanding to the proposed site, the school's local facilities will be able to meet the standards reached by its many of its 19 additional locations, including its most newest facility, which opened in Cambridge this September.

Having first opened for business in 1996, the company trains nearly 2,400 new drivers per year, with approximately 200 of those being trained out of its Sudbury site. Twelve people are trained every eight weeks, and potential student interest is such that Beaudry has seen as many as 70 people applying for any given 12 slots.

Despite its name, Transport Training Centres of Canada also educates students on the use of heavy equipment such as backhoes and bulldozers. In this field alone, Beaudry estimates that as much as 60 per cent of his graduates are being drawn to Alberta's oil patch by promises of incredibly competitive salaries.

"A lot of these guys hear from a friend of a friend how much money is being spent out there," says Beaudry. "So they get trained here and head out there for two or three years. It's really competitive out there for labour."

Demand for graduates is equally competitive in the trucking sector. Many prospective employers often travel to Beaudry's schools to make presentations as to why students should sign up with them after completing their training.

This demand is rapidly spurring the proposed move to a new site, which would entail the renovation of an existing Shrine Banquet and Convention Centre. While the $1.2 million price tag may seem daunting, Beaudry says the cost is relative and represents a much lower cost than building a new facility from the ground up.

However, in order for the project to move forward, the location will have be successfully rezoned from a residential area to a commercial one, and Beaudry has seen mixed success in making such an application to the city.

Difficulties with city hall and some public dissent have impeded immediate progress, and despite approval from the planning council, the Sudbury's former city council voted to defer the decision to mid-January for further discussion.

"That whole corridor is already industrialized," says Beaudry. "We'd just be fitting into what the city already seems to have planned for the area."

By NICK STEWART

Northern Ontario Business