From High School to the Driver’s Seat: Josh Kleyman Joins SiriusXM’s The Open Road with KC Phillips
Updated: Aug 26
Zeta Commercial Driving School Executive Director Josh Kleyman recently joined KC Phillips on The Open Road on SiriusXM’s Road Dog Trucking Radio for a wide-ranging conversation about CDL training, workforce development, high school students earning their CDLs while still in school, diesel technician training, and the rapid growth of Zeta Commercial Driving School.
During the interview, Kleyman shared how an idea born during the driver shortage grew into one of the largest single-location CDL schools in the country. He also discussed the challenges facing CDL education today and why listening to employers, educators and students continues to shape the programs Zeta develops.
From an Idea to More Than 1,000 CDL Students a Year
Zeta’s story began during the driver shortage that accompanied the COVID era.
At the time, Kleyman was working for a Kansas City trucking company that was trying to compete in a market where companies were advertising massive signing bonuses to attract drivers. Rather than trying to win a bidding war for talent, Kleyman started thinking about a different solution.
Why not train their own drivers?
As he explained during the interview, the idea was much simpler than the execution.
Kleyman eventually called the woman who had taught the trucking company’s general manager how to drive a truck decades earlier. That woman, Connie Detweiler, would go on to become Zeta’s Chief Academic Officer.
When she started asking about the resources they had available, the answers were less than impressive.
Trucks? No.
Instructors? No.
Office space? No.
Driving range? No.
Her response?
“Sounds good. We’ll start on Monday.”
Kleyman joked that, “Like all great things, we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into.”
The earliest version of Zeta operated from a borrowed 400-square-foot office shared by staff, instructors and students. But they kept building.
By 2024, Kleyman said Zeta had become the largest single-location truck driving school in the country, with more than 1,000 students graduating from its CDL program annually. The organization has since expanded its footprint and added diesel technician training as another response to workforce demand.
Earning a CDL While Still in High School
One of the most interesting parts of Kleyman’s conversation with Phillips focused on a group Zeta originally had little interest in training: high school students.
There was a practical reason. Commercial drivers under age 21 face restrictions on interstate driving. That is particularly significant in Kansas City, where the Missouri-Kansas state line can be only minutes away.
Because of those limitations, Kleyman explained that Zeta historically did not work with high schools or focus on students between 18 and 20 years old.
Then Bethany Kelly with Hickman Mills School District’s Real World Learning program called Zeta.
That phone call helped change Zeta’s thinking.
Kleyman told Phillips that Kelly reached out “completely out of the blue” and began talking with Zeta about Hickman Mills’ efforts to help students earn real, industry-recognized credentials before they graduate from high school.
Zeta had heard similar pitches before and had been reluctant to pursue them. But Kleyman said Kelly got the team to sit down and understand how the Real World Learning model could work.
“She really knew what she was doing.”
After learning more about the program and how the school district could support students pursuing industry credentials, Zeta decided to give it a try.
Today, participating high school students can attend CDL training at Zeta during their regular high school hours while continuing to work toward their diploma. That creates an unusual opportunity: students don't have to wait until after graduation to begin CDL training. They can do both at the same time.
As Kleyman explained:
“When they graduate in June, they are graduating with a high school diploma and a CDL license.”
From Two High School Students to Around 100
The idea started small.
Zeta agreed to try the program with just two high school students.
Kleyman said he told the instructors they weren't committing to anything long-term. They would train the two students, see what happened and decide from there.
The results surprised almost everyone.
After the first day, Kleyman recalled Zeta’s instructors coming back to leadership with a very different opinion:
“Those are the best students we’ve ever had.”
The instructors found that the high school students were already accustomed to learning, studying, completing homework and taking quizzes and tests.
For them, another test wasn't necessarily intimidating. It was simply part of being a student.
That experience changed Zeta’s perception of what CDL training for high school students could look like.
And the two-student experiment didn't stay small for long.
Kleyman told Phillips that Zeta expects to work with around 100 students from seven or eight Kansas City-area high schools, with those students expected to graduate from high school with their CDL licenses.
What began with Bethany Kelly reaching out to Zeta and a pilot involving two students has grown into an opportunity for more young people to leave high school with both a diploma and an industry-recognized credential.
What Quality CDL Training Should Look Like
Kleyman and Phillips also dug into an issue that has become increasingly important within the trucking industry: the quality of CDL training itself.
During the interview, they discussed the federal Entry-Level Driver Training requirements and a misconception about the amount of behind-the-wheel training required to earn a CDL.
Kleyman explained that while students must complete required theory education, federal rules do not establish a specific minimum number of behind-the-wheel training hours. Instead, students ultimately have to demonstrate proficiency.
That distinction is significant because simply meeting minimum requirements does not necessarily mean every CDL school provides the same level or quality of training.
The conversation also turned to the federal Training Provider Registry and the proliferation of low-quality or “fly-by-night” CDL schools.
Kleyman explained that when the Training Provider Registry was introduced in 2022, providers could self-certify for inclusion on the federal registry. That did not eliminate the separate state-level requirements schools may need to satisfy to legally operate.
According to Kleyman, confusion surrounding those requirements contributed to questionable training providers entering the industry.
For Zeta, quality and accountability have become increasingly important as the school has grown.
Kleyman also clarified an important distinction during the conversation between a school being approved and being accredited.
Zeta is an accredited school, something Kleyman noted remains relatively uncommon among CDL schools.
Employers Needed Drivers. Then They Needed Diesel Technicians.
CDL training wasn't the only workforce shortage discussed during the interview.
As Zeta built relationships with employers hiring its CDL graduates, those companies began bringing another problem to the school.
They needed diesel technicians.
Kleyman described Zeta’s approach as highly reactive to what employers are actually experiencing in the workforce.
The message from hiring partners was essentially: You helped us find truck drivers. Now help us find diesel technicians.
So Zeta did.
The school developed diesel training designed around the practical skills employers need.
That includes helping CDL drivers learn basic diesel and truck-repair skills that could prevent a minor mechanical issue from turning into hours spent waiting for roadside assistance.
Zeta also developed more comprehensive training for students pursuing careers specifically as diesel technicians.
And just as with CDL training, the emphasis is on actually doing the work.
Kleyman explained that approximately 90% of the diesel technician program is spent in the shop, giving students hands-on experience rather than relying primarily on classroom instruction.
Building Training Around Real Workforce Needs
One theme runs through nearly every part of Zeta’s story: listen to the people closest to the problem.
A trucking company needed drivers, and that challenge helped lead to the creation of Zeta.
Bethany Kelly and Hickman Mills School District showed Zeta how high school students could benefit from earning an industry-recognized credential while they were still in high school, and a two-student experiment grew from there.
Employers said they desperately needed diesel technicians, and Zeta developed training to help meet that demand. It is an approach to career education built around what is happening in the workforce right now rather than what has traditionally been done.
For high school students, that can mean graduating with a diploma and a CDL.
For adults looking for a new career, it can mean entering a high-demand industry without spending years in school.
For employers, it means having a training partner willing to listen when workforce needs change.
And for Zeta, it means continuing to evolve alongside the industries and communities it serves.
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