Helping those experiencing homelessness get back on their feet

Rich Palzewic

Staff

September 16, 2024

ONALASKA – Leveraging his more than 40 years of truck driving experience and his desire to help those less fortunate, Tom Gilliam – owner of CMV Tutor LLC in Onalaska – is using his platform to give back to the community.

Gilliam is offering free commercial driver’s license (CDL) training classes for people experiencing homelessness to help them land a job.

“I just think it’s a good thing to do,” Gilliam, who was born in Virginia, grew up in Florida and eventually moved to Minnesota, said. “It started with an idea, and it’s gone from there. There are thousands of homeless people, and some have nowhere to go. There are homeless people out there who really want to change their lives but maybe don’t have the means to – this is an opportunity for them to possibly have a career and have someplace to live right off the bat.”

That “home,” as Gilliam pointed out, “is the truck they are driving.”

“What most of what these (trucking) companies do is put somebody in a truck and say, ‘okay, well you might be out on the road for two or three weeks,’” he said. “You’re living in your truck the whole time, right? I know drivers who are on the road and don’t have a house – their truck is their ‘house.’ And this is a great opportunity for them to make money while doing it.”

Gilliam said for people interested in free courses, they must have a reference from a program counselor or homeless shelter.

“I’ve had quite a few (homeless) people interested in the free training program, but much of the interest I’ve gotten has come from other areas of the country – Texas, Oregon, Virginia, South Carolina, Maine, etc. You have to be in the area, so narrowing it down to that has been difficult.”

Gilliam said, “obviously, people have to do the training in person.”

“Trainings are offered in Rochester and Eagan, Minnesota, and Onalaska,” he said. “I’ve got two guys who I just recently accepted into the program, and one of them has an Illinois license. Testing standards are different in each state. The offer is out there – it’s just working out the kinks and the details – and people have to be local.”

Gilliam said he’s prepared to work with people to help them get back on track.

“There’s a gentleman I’ve been trying to get back in touch with,” he said. “He originally had a California license, but he lost it when they bulldozed one of the homeless camps. I told him, ‘if you can get here, I’ll work with you and help you get back on your feet.’”

Four decades of experience

Gilliam said originally, he didn’t want to be a truck driver.

“I wanted to be a marine biologist,” he laughed. “My brother was an agent for Allied Van Lines, so I guess it was expected that I follow in those footsteps. I worked with the family for 20-some-odd years doing that. I also did some in-depth hauling in Florida for a while for my family. When I moved to Minnesota, that’s when I started branching out to other companies and carriers.”

From there, Gilliam said he went the instructing route and opened CMV Tutor.

“I like instructing,” he said. “I’ve been instructing for probably the last 10 years. I train quite a few drivers who are on the road, and I like doing it. I worked for another school probably 10 years ago, and I worked for them for a couple of years and then another school. My ultimate goal was always to start my own school, and when they changed the FMCSA (Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration) requirements for schooling, that’s when I decided to go ahead and open my own school.”

CMV Tutor offers lessons at three locations – Onalaska, Eagan, Minnesota and Rochester, Minnesota – with the primary training site in Onalaska.
Gilliam said he provides night and weekend classes for those who can’t make it during the week day.

CMV Tutor

Gilliam said for now, CMV Tutor has one instructor – himself.

“I’ve seen what it’s like when you get multiple instructors, and the teaching and the instruction tends to get watered down,” he said. “The way that I do it is a certain way where students absorb it a little bit faster. For me to have someone else to do that type of instruction, it would be hard.”

Gilliam said with multiple instructors, sometimes “everybody thinks they have better ideas on how to instruct.”

“In some cases that’s true, but I like being in control of what I teach and how I teach,” he said. “I’ve taught a lot of students on my own and got them through the tests, which most pass on the first run. It works – that’s why I want to keep it my system.”

Because Gilliam is CMV’s lone instructor, he said it might mean he can’t take on the volume of clients other larger schools can – but can instead offer more individualized training.

“I’d say I train about 50-60 students per year,” he said. “Some of the larger schools might train five to 15 per week. I don’t need to have a lot of students to make ends meet. Giving lessons are satisfying. They are well-rounded students, and I can get them comfortable with what they’re doing. I do a lot of driving with them in city situations. I don’t like to push people into situations where they’re going to feel super uncomfortable.”

Just like a classroom for school-aged students, Gilliam said, “everybody learns differently in trucking school.”

“First off, they need to be comfortable with the equipment to function properly,” he said. “I try to gauge it off their learning ability. Some of these schools out there try to get you through in three or four weeks. That’s not what it’s about. It’s about you feeling comfortable with the vehicle and being able to operate the vehicle safely. It’s not about how quickly you can learn it.”

Gilliam said there is a curriculum for students to follow.

“Once they get their online curriculum done, we start with the truck,” he said. “Whether a student has a permit or not, the very first lesson with the truck, we are driving in the lot doing shifting training.”

The trucking industry

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the most recent data from 2023 revealed there were 3.05 million truck drivers in the U.S.

But Gilliam said, “don’t let the numbers fool you.”

“In my personal opinion, they keep saying there is a trucker shortage,” he said. “I honestly don’t think there is a trucker shortage, but I think it’s a shortage of good drivers. There are a lot of bad truck drivers out there. Insurance rates these days are ridiculous, and companies can’t afford to have bad drivers driving their equipment. They have to have good drivers.”

To learn more about CMV Tutor, visit cmvtutor.com.