{"id":535,"date":"2019-11-11T21:33:02","date_gmt":"2019-11-11T21:33:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/?p=535"},"modified":"2019-11-11T22:06:05","modified_gmt":"2019-11-11T22:06:05","slug":"covenant-introduces-landmark-driving-program-for-hiring-veterans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/other-news\/2019\/11\/11\/covenant-introduces-landmark-driving-program-for-hiring-veterans\/535\/","title":{"rendered":"Covenant Introduces Landmark Driving Program for Hiring Veterans"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>By Wright Media staff<\/strong><br><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><br><strong>CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. \u2014\u00a0<\/strong>Appropriately on Veterans Day, Covenant Transport has created a landmark military hiring program it hopes will increase the number of professional drivers on its team with military backgrounds.<br>\u00a0<br>Operation Victory is designed to credit all veterans entering Covenant Transport\u2019s highway services division with a military occupational specialty related to driving 100 percent of that service time toward their truck driving experience in determing their respective compensation package. All other military occupational specialties that are non-driving will be credited 50 percent toward a new truck driving career.\u00a0<br>\u00a0<br>All veterans who have been generally or honorably discharged dating back a period of seven years are eligible for the program.<br>\u00a0<br>\u201cOn a day when we honor our nations\u2019 veterans, we couldn\u2019t be prouder to announce our newest military program,\u201d Covenant senior director of recruiting Jason Rice said. \u201cAs a veteran myself, I\u2019m thrilled that we have built a program that credits proven driving experience from the military and honors their service to our country by providing these professionals with top pay.\u201d\u00a0<br>\u00a0<br>The program allows veterans to begin a driving career in Covenant\u2019s highway services division without having to repeat CDL training. The service time can translate into an increase in pay between 2 and 6 cents per mile ($2,000 to $8,000 per year) for those who qualify, recruiting manager Chris Schoate explained.<br>\u00a0<br>\u201cThis program will allow us to offer well-paying jobs to separating service members,\u201d Schoate said. \u201cInstead of starting from zero, they will get out of the military and, after training, be paid like they\u2019ve been in the industry for a year.\u201d<br>\u00a0<br>The Operation Victory program does not impact any participation the carrier may have in the DOT\u2019s Under 21 pilot program approving 18-20 year-olds with the military equivalent of a CDL for interstate commerce.<br>\u00a0<br>Covenant currently has a veterans\u2019 base of about 14 percent on its driver side, \u201cbut we\u2019re hoping for a lot more,\u201d said Schoate, an Army and Air Force veteran.<br>\u00a0<br>&#8220;I&#8217;m excited about the growth of our highway services veterans program, where we want to become the veterans&#8217; choice employer for driving careers,&#8221; Schoate said. &#8220;This is an important step in that journey.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Click here to check out jobs available with Covenant Transport Inc. (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/truck-driving-jobs\/company\/covenant-transport-inc.\/3SqRs34uTs\/\" target=\"_blank\">Click here to check out jobs available at Covenant Transport Inc.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Wright Media staff\u00a0CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. \u2014\u00a0Appropriately on Veterans Day, Covenant Transport has created a landmark military hiring program it hopes will increase the number of professional drivers on its team with military backgrounds.\u00a0Operation Victory is&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":189,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[190,191,192,47],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=535"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":538,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535\/revisions\/538"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}