NCWV businesses celebrate National Truck Driver Week

BRIDGEPORT, W.Va (WDTV) - This week is national truck driver appreciation week and local businesses are showing them support.

All week-long W.S. Thomas Transfer LLC in Fairmont has been hosting lunch for truckers.

Its Operations Manager George Abel says they all work hard to get people near and far what they need.

“Pretty much everything that we use gets transported on truck, so we appreciate these drivers and we wanted to show some appreciation and take care of the drivers that we have here,” said Abel.

Aside from lunch, one lucky trucker even won a drawing for $2,500 as another show of thanks.

Trucking companies across the country like W.S. Thomas are in need of more drivers and a new commercial driving school has opened in Grafton to fill that need.

Hard Knocks Commercial Driving School is already training and getting new drivers on the road with their state of the art driving simulators.

Co-owner Joe Boyles says it’s a powerful tool to get people ready for the road.

“The simulator is one of the greatest tools that we have you know, when somebody climbs into the truck their biggest thing is nerves, after you can handle your nerves the calmer you are the better it is,” said Boyles.

Hard Knocks has a simulator not only for truckers, but also an immersive experience for bus drivers as well.

The school is ran by a father and son trucking team. Boyles says between him and his father they have logged 7 million accident-free miles and they want to train others how to be safe and make a living.

“The demand in North Central West Virginia for drivers is large, so that’s why we decided to get into it; we’ve been in trucking all of our lives, my dad’s been in it for over 50 years so we’ve been around it and know what it takes to make a safe driver,” said Boyles.

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