When I was a little kid, I loved playing with trucks in my sandbox.

I'd make my parents pull over whenever we passed a construction site so I could watch the big trucks at work.

And whenever we went past a big rig, I'd signal for the driver to honk the horn.

The fascination hasn't worn off.

People are paid to drive many different types of vehicles, from dump trucks to school buses and tractor trailers to trolleys, there are lots of jobs out there for people who love to drive these and other kinds of commercial vehicles.

Today, we're at Fort Scott Community College, where we'll meet a drive from the construction industry and learn more about what it takes to become a commercial driver.

Let's go.

I'd like you to meet Tyler, a driver for Crossland Heavy Contractors.

Crossland is headquartered just south of here in Columbus, Kansas.

Tyler, to kick this off, could you tell us more about your job at Crossland?

Sure.

Crossland Construction and Crossland Heavy are large family-owned construction companies.

The Crossland Companies build everything from roads and bridges to sporting arenas and skyscrapers.

My job is to haul equipment and construction materials to different job sites across six states.

I'm responsible for loading and unloading my vehicle, maintaining and cleaning it, and driving it wherever Crossland Heavy needs it to go.

Makenzie: What do you like about your job?

I'm on the road almost every day in all kinds of weather, and no two days are alike.

I see new things every day I'm on the road.

One day, I witness a beautiful sunrise or sunset.

Then the next day, I might be venturing down roads I'd never been on before, exploring new countryside.

Makenzie: Wel that sounds like an adventure.

How far do you drive in a day?

By law, commercial drivers can only drive 11 hours a day or work in total up to 14 hours a day, including other responsibilities like loading and maintaining the truck.

Drivers must have good time management skills to plan their schedules.

Whenever I get an assignment, I determine whether I can get to the destination within that 11-hour time frame.

If not, sometimes I break up the trip into two days and stay overnight in a hotel.

The restrictions keep me and other vehicles on the road safe.

It's never a good idea to drive so long that you get tired or lose your concentration.

That's when accidents are more likely to happen.

While I love what I do, it isn't easy work.

I work hard, but I make good money.

I show my son every day that hard work pays off.

So I guess we should explain to our friends at home why we're here at Fort Scott Community College, shouldnt we?

You are going to get the chance to drive one of these big trucks yourself.

Good.

Because I feel the need.

The need for speed.

Slow down there, fast and furious.

This isn't going to be like a race course.

You're going to take it slow, steady and safe.

Fort Scott Community College offers a commercial driver training program.

It's at its campus in Fort Scott and Pittsburg.

Fort Scott has a closed course that allows student drivers to get experience behind the wheel.

And that's what you're going to do here in a minute.

So did you take a driver training course before you took the CDL exam?

No, I got my CDL before the new laws took effect.

I got started as a professional driver on a farm right after high school.

And when I turned 21, I got a CDL permit.

I was able to take the same-day CDL course, which was a one-day, intensive course you could take to prepare for the exam.

I think it's good the law changed to this new model to make sure all new drivers have plenty of real-world experience before they get behind the wheel.

It keeps everyone safe.

Did you always kno you wanted to be a truck driver?

Yes.

Ever since I was very young.

Growing up, I had a dear friend I called Papa Tom, who was like a grandpa to me.

He was a driver across all the lower 48 states, and he'd take me on his truck.

I loved every minute of it.

OK, Makenzie, it's time for you to drive a truck for yourself.

Are you excited?

I am.

What are we driving?

Here at Fort Scott Community College, they've given us a truck to drive.

It's a Peterbilt 579 with a 53-foot box trailer.

Before we hop in, I'll give you a complete tour of the vehicle.

Then I'll walk you throug how I drive the truck a few laps But don't worry.

It'll be fun, and I'll be here right by your side the whole time.

OK, then.

Let's go.

We met Michael, an instructor here at Fort Scott Community College.

First they gave me a tour of the features of the truck, including the sleeper in the cabin.

It was much bigger than I expected.

They popped the hood so I could see the engine.

Then Michael set up some obstacles and showed me how to drive the truck.

[HONK] Oh my god!

Before we go, first thing we do, push in on that and push in on that.

Thats your trailer brake.

You just released it.

Now you released the tractor brake.

Then Tyler coached me from the inside of the cab while Michael directed from the outside.

Youre getting better at the brake.

Michael: Very good, keep going.

Try to steer to the right.

Hard right.

Hard right.

All the way.

All the way.

OK, now get straight.

Straight, straight, straight.

Perfect, perfect.

Keep backing up.

Keep backing up.

Just like that.

Steer a little bit to the right.

OK, so if I told you earlier today that you could offset back this truck, would you believe me?

No I wouldnt.

There you go.

You just backed up a truck that is 75 foot long.

All right!

Pretty impressive.

OK, that was amazing.

I thought you would like it.

Michael, thank you to you and your entire team here at Fort Scott Community College for making that happen.

I'll never forget it.

It was awesome.

And a little scary, but super fun — all rolled up into a couple of minutes.

Not a problem.

Let us know when you're ready to enroll.

Michael and his colleagues set up a row of vehicles that can be driven with a CDL, so all of you watching this can see the variety of career options for drivers.

So Tyler, you said that people must take an entry-level course before they can take the CDL exam.

Are there any other qualifications to get a commercial driver's license?

Yes, but before I list them, the qualifications sound a lot harder than what they actually are.

The first ones are pretty simple.

You have to be 18.

You must have a valid driver's license.

You must pass a written knowledge exam with an 80% or higher score to get your commercial learner's permit, which is called a CLP.

Then you take entry-level driving training, which includes both classroom and behind-the-wheel training.

Those all seem pretty reasonable to me.

But wait — there's more.

After you get your CLP, for at least 14 days, you have to drive with another CDL holder sitting in the front seat with you to gain firsthand experience under the supervision of a driver who is licensed to drive the same kind of equipment.

After all that's done, and you successfully complete your driver's training course, you can take the you can take the CDL practical exam.

While that might be a long list, none of it sounds too hard.

You do some of the same things to get your regular driver's license.

Which, by the way, I got last year.

So how long does it take for most people to get a CDL?

So if you already know how to drive a vehicle, it only takes less than two months to get your CDL.

But there's more to this work than just getting your license.

You must be really good at this job every day, not just on the day that you take your test.

And you must be observan and watch closely at all times to what is going on around you and within your truck.

A lot can happen in a rapidly moving vehicle within a few seconds.

This is definitely a career where safety comes first.

People's lives depend on it.

One bonus skill would be to take some automotive classes.

Knowing the basics of engines and how vehicles operate could help you troubleshoo problems on the side of the road if your truck breaks down.

And that could keep you from having to wait hours on a mechanic to come to you.

That sounds super smart.

I know most high schools offer career and technical education courses in automotive technology, so that shouldn't be too hard to get.

Speaking of technology, do you think we're getting close to the day where trucks will just drive themselves?

Some of the new technologies are making my work easier and more efficient.

But I think we're still a long way from the day when an employer like Crossland will depend on a self-driving vehicle to move a million-dollar piece of equipment.

Technology will continue to make our work easier, safer and more efficient, but humans are still going to be supervising and doing much of this work for a long time.

Thanks for your perspective.

I know I feel much better driving alongside a huge truck with a well-trained human at the wheel.

I'd like to thank Tyler, Michael, Crossland Heavy Contractors and everyone here at Fort Scott Community College for teaching me all about the job of a commercial driver.

You can have so many different jobs with a CDL, and I highly encourage you to check them out.

As always, you can check out this and other high-demand jobs at HirePaths.com.

Until next time, this is Makenzie signing off in Fort Scott for Cool Careers.

Have a great day.

Hi, I'm Ailia.

Almost every day, my family gets a package like this on our front porch or in our mailbox.

Over the last 10 years, a lot more people have been shopping online.

So today, we're at eShipping Distribution Services in Kansas City to learn about jobs in this growing industry.

eShipping Distribution Services is a part of eShipping, a company that was started in 200 to help small and medium-sized b to help small and medium-sized businesses figure out the best way to get their products to peopl who buy them all over the world.

Let's go!

Today, I'd like to introduce you to Rozlyn, a distribution support specialist here at eShipping.

Rozlyn, before you tell us about your job, can you explain what people do in this huge warehouse?

This warehouse is what we call a regional distribution center.

We store products that were made in factories here in the United States and in other countries.

That means that the product is right here, ready to ship out when a customer places an order.

eShipping has centers just like this one all across the country.

Let me take a second to explain how regional distribution centers work.

When your family goes to buy groceries, you don't travel around the world to get everything you need.

You go to your supermarket, close to your home.

The food is already there, right?

Yes.

It would take forever to g to a bunch of different places to buy everything on our grocery list.

Exactly.

A distribution cente is kind of like a grocery store.

All the products are shipped to one place to wait until someone close to that part of the country buys them.

The distribution center gets an order over the internet and ships the products to the customer who needs it.

It's one of my jobs as a distribution support specialist to research all the ways to get the product from our distribution center to the customer.

The best option is usually the one that will get the products there the quickest, using a combination of transportation options that can be done within budget.

You've seen semitrucks on the highway, right?

Or trains with lots of railroad cars.

Often they're carrying products from distribution center closer to the customers home.

OK, let me make sure I've got it: This distribution center store products made all over the world When those items are sold it's your job to figure out the best way to ship those products from this building to the customer.

Exactly.

That's right.

Good job.

I know that's a lot to wrap your head around.

There is one more detail to keep in mind about my job.

What's that?

There are two main types of customers.

There are people like you and me who usually place small orders that get sent right to your house.

There are also retail stores that place orders for a lot of products that they then sell to their customers, like when you go to the store to buy something.

I help plan the quickest and most affordable way to ship out both orders, big or small.

OK, that makes sense.

Can I see where you do your work?

Absolutely.

Rozlyn does her research in her office on a computer.

As she figures out the best plan for each order, she sends instructions to other people in the distribution center to get the products packaged and ready to leave the warehouse.

When it's a big order, like one that's going to a store, it might need to be shipped on a semitruck or even a boat, plane or train.

Rozlyn makes all the arrangements for that, and the warehouse team gets that big order packaged, loaded and picked up, ready to start its journey.

When it's a small order shipping to someone's house directly, I work with our fulfillment team to process each order.

Do you want to see what that's like?

Yes, please.

Do you know if bubble wrap will be involved?

I love bubble wrap!

You never know.

Let's see what we find.

Come on.

How are we going to ge there?

How are we going to ge there?

Just trust me.

One, two, three.

Jump!

Whoa!

That box is like a Portkey!

You want to go check out fulfillment?

Yeah, let's go!

Ailia, we're going to introduce Luke.

He's one of our fulfillment specialists here at eShipping.

I'm going to take us through the fulfillment process, really from the time we get orders from our customer all the way until we ship it and then it's on out the door.

You want to follow me and we'll go do it?

Let's go.

All right, so the first step in the process, after we get the orders from the customer, is that each of our pickers is given a grouping of orders to pick.

She scans the location first.

It tells her what bin to pick that product into, and then her screen tells her the quantity of bags, cases, whatever that unit is.

She places it in the box.

She's coming to one location and grabbing the same product for multiple orders.

Now that we finished the picking process, it's on to the fun stuff.

We get to pack some orders up.

Bubble wrap!

Easy now.

Sorry to burst your bubble.

We're not going to be using any bubble wrap today, but I promise we're going to have some fun.

And if you want to pop a couple, go right ahead.

[POP] Now that we've finished picking our product, those bins that we were watching the order pickers pick into come over to here to our packing station, and we pack and check all of our orders that go out.

So this is the fun part.

This is where we get to us some of our packing materials.

This is a dunnage machine.

Just think of it as a fancy name for packing paper.

All right.

And then you can pack that on one half of the box.

We're going to place it right in there.

We're going to put our packing list on top of the box itself.

Perfect.

And then we're going to slide this over onto our shipping line you can just keep pushing.

And then it's going to go down the shipping line and on to be shipped to the end customer.

You're a pro.

You can pack and ship for us any time you want.

You got it down.

Nice work.

Thank you.

So that's the full process.

From our distribution center, packages just like these can ship through the post office, UPS, or other delivery carriers that then take the packages to their final destination.

Hundreds of packages, just like these, ship out here every day.

Wow.

That's a lot of orders to handle.

I bet you had to learn a lot of stuff to work here.

It was a lot at first.

I had to learn many different abbreviations and terms.

For example, one of the terms that we use daily is LTL.

Do you know what LTL stands for?

Laughing too loud?

That's a good one.

You made me LOL.

No, LTL stands for less than truckload.

That means that the order i too big to ship through the mail but also not big enough to fill a full truck.

We pack those orders up and ship them out on a truck with other orders.

The computer figures out how many orders can ship on one truck.

That way we don't waste gas or people's time sending out a partially full truck.

How did you get starte at eShipping in the first place?

I grew up in a small town in Nebraska and always knew I wanted to be in the business world.

During high school, I was a part of FBLA.

That's a club called Future Business Leaders of America.

Then I started attendin Peru State College and found out about all the different jobs I could do with my business degree.

How did you end up here after college?

After I graduated, I participated in the Kansas City Fellows Program, a nine-month leadership program to help young professionals in their careers.

The Kansas City Fellows Program helped me get this job.

Like I said, it was a lot to learn at first, but once I was here a few months, it all clicked.

I'm a very detailed person.

I like structure and solving problems.

While my job does use many of the skills I learned in college, I've also learned a ton of what I needed to know on the job.

If I decide I want a career in shipping and distribution, are there ways I can get ready while I'm still in school?

My best advice for you is to prepare for a career in business.

That means being good with math, writing, and speaking, time management, computers and different types of technology.

The different skills I learned while being in FBLA also helped me prepare as well.

OK, I can do those things and I love money, so I'm pretty sur I have a good head for business.

I'd like to thank Rozlyn, her team, and everyone else here at eShipping Distribution Services for showing me what it's like to work here.

Be sure to visit HirePaths.com to explore other kinds of high-demand careers.

Until next time, this is Ailia is signing off in Kansas City for Cool Careers.

Have a great day!

Hi, I'm Atticus.

Today we're in Salina, Kansas the headquarters of Blue Beacon, a company that runs more than 110 truck washes across the United States.

It's a big jo to make sure all those locations are in top shape and to help the truckers maintain their rigs.

To get around fast among all their other truck washes, Blue Beacon has its own fleet of corporate jets.

Cool, huh?

The company has a team of full-time pilots who work exclusively for Blue Beacon, flying employees around all over the place.

We're going to meet one of Blue Beacons jet pilots today and learn about how you can become a jet pilot, too.

Let's go!

This is Sam, a pilot for Blue Beacon.

Sam, I'm not going to lie: I'm very excited about today's episode because I'm pretty sure I already know I want to be a pilot.

That's great.

When I was your age, I wanted to be a pilot, too.

My grandpa was a salesman for Beechcraft in Wichita, Kansas, and he had his own airplane, and he would give us rides.

It was awesome!

As a matter of fact, I can't even remember a time I didn't want to be a pilot.

My first job was working at a store that sold radio-controlled airplanes.

My dad's a pilot in the Army National Guard, and I actually just became a Cadet Airman in the Civil Air Patrol.

Wow!

Thats excellent.

A lot of aviators, astronauts, women and men in the military start out by volunteering with the Civil Air Patrol.

I'd say you're off to a great start.

Thanks, but I really want to hear more about you in your job as a pilot for Blue Beacon.

Can you tell me more about what you do?

Sure thing.

There are a lot of jobs that pilots can do.

While being an airline pilot might be the first thing that comes to mind, there are many different kinds of pilots.

I've got friends who fly celebrities and private jets or others who fly medical jets and helicopters to transport people to the hospital in an emergency.

I even have friends that fly alongside oil pipelines to inspect them for leaks.

I've had a lot of different jobs in my aviation career, but this job here at Blue Beacon is the best one for me.

I fly Blue Beacon employees to different truck wash locations to perform maintenance, or managers to various locations to perform their duties.

I live in my hometown of Salina, Kansas, which is great because I get to be home a lot more often than maybe some airline pilots.

Generally we only fly a few days a week.

And while I'm out of town during those days, it gives me time to explore some of the various locations that we fly to.

What kind of planes do you fly?

And do you have a co-pilot?

Right now, we fly Cessna Citation CJ3 and CJ4 Jets, which are built and maintained at Textron Aviatio in Wichita, Kansas.

We do fly with two pilots and all of us are captain-rated, which means any of us can be the lead captain.

Generally, one of the pilots will be the left seat pilot on the outbound legs, which means leaving from Salina, and then we'll switch seats and the other pilot will fly the return legs.

You want to come check out my jet?

You want to come check out my jet?

Sure do!

Let's go.

Atticus: I got a tour of the Blue Beacon hangar and met some of the other aviation staff.

Then I got to see inside of Sams Cessna, which was super cool.

He even let me put on headphones and told me a little bit about the controls.

I hope someda I'll get to fly a jet like that.

Thanks for showing me around.

What do you like most about being a pilot?

There are so many things that I love.

I love being able to travel.

We fly to all sorts of different spots in the U.S. with a lot of great scenery, and it's pretty magical.

I can wake up here in Salina, Kansas, take off, and be ready for second breakfast in California.

It's a pretty neat life.

Atticus: How did you learn to be a pilot?

Well I grew up here in Salina, Kansas My family and I were always pretty big K-State fans, so it just made sense that I could go to K-Stat Salina Aerospace and Technology, where they have a great facility and great staff, and learn how to fly there.

Do you want to check it out?

That would be so cool.

Let's fly ourselves there.

All right.

Let's go.

Oh, wow!

So many planes.

You went to school here?!?

Sign me up!

Looking sharp!

Yep.

Here at K-State Salina, they have a professional pilo bachelor degree program, which means you can d your classroom training and your flight trainin right here in Salina, Kansas.

Once you complete your flight training and your hours, you can even become a flight instructor and get paid to teach the new students how to fly.

Come on, let me show you around.

Sam showed me the K-State fleet of planes and gave me a tour of Stevens Flight Center.

In the aviation maintenance lab, I learned how engines work and saw a lot of equipment used to maintain and fix aircraft.

We also toured the operation center, where they can monitor all the planes in the sky at once or just K-State planes.

OK.

This place is very cool.

Are you glad you went to college here?

Definitely.

And if you don't want to get a college degree, there are other schools you can go to.

But personally, I think having a college degree and hands-on experience really got me ready for the ups and downs of the aviation industry.

There have been times when I've had to get other kinds of jobs because there weren't enough jobs for pilots.

I was glad I had a college degree at those times.

That's another reason why I lik my corporate job at Blue Beacon.

It's stable work I can count on.

Plus, trucks always need to be washed.

Very true.

OK, I have to ask... what's in here?

Because it looks super cool.

Oh, you're curious to see what's in there?

Hmm.

Think you're up for the challenge?

Lets find out!

Wow.

This is — can we fly it?

I don't see why not.

Sam and I got to try out the biggest simulator in the lab, and man, it was like no other video game I've ever played.

Just like something right out of Top Gun.

I could have stayed in there all day.

Pretty cool stuff, huh?

Yes, sir.

Thank you for taking me to see it.

Well, I've got one last thing to show you.

Come with me.

Are we going where I think we're going?

Oh yeah!

My friend Johannes was wondering if you wanted to take a ride in a K-State 172?

Whoa.

That would be awesome!

Sam: Well, what did you think?

It was so much better than the simulator.

Thank you, Sam.

I'll never forget this day.

I'd like to thank Sam and everyone here at K-State Salina and the team at Blue Beacon.

It was so cool to see what it would be like to be a corporate pilot and a student pilot.

I'm so ready to enroll!

Be sure to visit HirePaths.com to explore more kinds of high-demand careers.

Until next time, this is Atticus signing off in Salina for Cool Careers.

Have a great day!