Pitt Ohio to donate semi-trailer to Forbes Road school in Monroeville

Students in Forbes Road Career & Technology School’s diesel technology program get plenty of experience working on the massive trucks that haul goods back and forth across the country.

The difficulty is those trucks are often from the mid-1990s.

“There’s none of the modern controls or emissions technology, and there’s a real need to expose both the kids and the instructors to what’s out there today,” said Taki Darakos, vice president for vehicle maintenance and fleet services at Pittsburgh-based trucking company Pitt Ohio. “A lot of times vo-tech schools will get something like a totaled truck where there’s a usable engine they can grab.”

That’s why Darakos views the 2018 semi-tractor truck that Pitt Ohio is giving to Forbes Road as both a donation and an investment.

“We had a driver apprentice program and went out to vo-techs to partner with schools that had similar programs, but we hadn’t focused on the technician part,” Darakos said. “Meanwhile, we have 23 shops and about 120 maintenance technicians who support our fleet on a daily basis.”

To take advantage of their tech crew’s knowledge — and with an eye cast toward the future of their workforce — Pitt Ohio officials set out four years ago to form closer partnerships with local career and technical schools like Forbes Road.

The ins and outs of the truck’s technology will also be a new experience for Forbes Road diesel technology instructor Dominic DeLuca.

“I’ve worked on trucks and equipment for 25 years, but I got out of the field before the emission technology took over,” he said. “Pitt Ohio’s technical guy is going to come down and help us — myself included — understand some of the newer technology.”

The 2018 truck is equipped with current emissions hardware and has about 1.2 million miles on its odometer.

“We had a couple drivers and shops who took really good care of it,” Darakos said. “It’s got all the relevant technology you need on a truck today.”

For Pitt Ohio, a partnership with Forbes Road makes perfect sense.

“They’re one Turnpike exit away,” Darakos said. “Forbes is great because it supports 13 school districts. We need to create a path to build our own group of talented candidates, and we can bring students in and give them real-world experience on relevant equipment that’s going to help them.”

Today, Pitt Ohio has five such partnerships and are looking to expanding to areas near their other facilities, as a way of helping to train a new generation of potential employees.

“As a family-owned business for 45 years, we have people who’ve been around a long time and built the company into what it is today, but a lot of them are ready to retire,” Darakos said. “The donation is an investment and a commitment from us to say, ‘We value the students coming out of this program and want to make sure they get as much knowledge as possible.”

DeLuca said the donation is expected to take place later this month.