Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Published Monday, September 3, 2007

HAY RIVER - Tom Westrope says he can teach anyone to drive a transport truck.

"If you can pass a medical and you're medically fit to drive, I can teach you," said the instructor with Northern School of Driver Training in Hay River.

Tom Westrope is an instructor with Northern School of Driver Training in Hay River. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo

Westrope has been an instructor for three years and has passed his knowledge along to students in Hay River and throughout the NWT.

"We travel all over the place," he said. "I've been to Fort Smith, Fort Simpson, Norman Wells, Inuvik, Sachs Harbour and probably we're going to Aklavik this winter."

His focus is on training people to get their Class 1 licence, which will allow them to drive tractor-trailers and just about anything else.

"There's a high demand for it because of all the work going on around here in industry and the oil fields and everything like that," he said.

His instruction includes classroom time, where he goes through operator manuals and teaches about air brakes. Afterwards, students are shown around a truck and introduced to the various parts.

Westrope said some students find the classroom boring. "But once they get out on the trucks, it all starts to come together."

In all, the instruction takes about four days in the classroom and 30 hours of driving.

"Usually it will be about two hours a day per student," Westrope said. "So it's about 20 days."

Once the instruction is complete, students are ready for the government-administered road test.

"Once they past their test, it's a matter of getting experience after that," Westrope said.

Westrope said the biggest challenge facing students is their nerves.

"A lot of people are nervous if they haven't been around trucks before," he said, adding many are intimidated by the size of the vehicles.

"I try to relax and joke around with them," he said. "They all don't believe I do this because of the stress level."

It's not unusual for first-time drivers, who range in age from 18 to about 45, to grind gears, over-rev or speed.

Westrope said he doesn't really get nervous while teaching.

"Touch wood and thank God, I've never had an accident with any of my students," he said. "Nobody has ever put it in a ditch or rolled it."

His calm is because of his 17 years experience driving large trucks, he said. "I don't get over excited."

Westrope noted some of the best students are women, noting he has instructed three.

"They just seem like they're really into it," he said, adding he would like to see more women learn how to drive transport trucks.

Westrope, 38, said he gets a lot of satisfaction from being a driving instructor and seeing how happy his students are when they pass the government road test.

In fact, he said he sometimes feels like a proud father at a graduation.

"If they carry on with it, it's going to be a lot better for their families and their lives and everything else," he said.

Westrope, who is originally from Ontario, learned how to drive trucks from his father.