FARMINGTON — Three Mt. Blue High School seniors are ready to hit the road, having earned their commercial truck driving licenses.

Chris Vashaw, 18, of Chesterville and Brandon Fitch, 17, and Destiny Nelson, 18, both of Wilton, took the course at Region 9 School of Applied Technology in Mexico.

Vashaw and Fitch have their Class A and B licenses and endorsements to haul double and triple trailers and drive tanker trucks.

Nelson has her Class B license and is seeking her Class A and endorsements to haul the multiple trailers and drive tankers.

They are the first three students at Foster Career and Technical Education Center in Farmington to earn truck driving licenses, Nelson said.

The program is offered through an agreement between Foster Tech and Region 9.

Vashaw and Fitch spent 20 weeks at the Mexico school, 10 weeks for each class license.

They called the courses challenging.

Vashaw and Fitch plan to attend Kennebec Valley Community College in Fairfield after graduation and take the electrical lineman course. They don’t have any definite plans to drive big rigs, but are glad that they will have that option if they need it, they said.

Vashaw enrolled in the program because it was needed for the college he planned to attend. And his father had a Class A license, he said.

“You never know when you might need it,” he said. “It could be a backup plan.”

“I just got it for a backup,” Fitch said. “It is always something you can use for a backup job. I can always get a truck driving job pretty easy.”

It is also an addition to their resumes.

“My stepdad owns a trucking company and owns Sunrise Maple Farms and is planning to expand,” Nelson said. She plans to work in the family business.

Vashaw and Fitch earned their licenses on the first try and Nelson earned her Class B on the second try.

The three had to pass certain specifications, including random drug tests.

The teachers in Region 9 were good, Vashaw said. They set up practice testing, including practice in alley docking, he said.

Nelson said the teachers were very supportive. They taught them how to do pretrip inspections, alley docking, parallel parking and other maneuvers, she said. Students can fail if they miss a gear, stall the truck or do not take a turn wide enough, Vashaw said.

There is a lot to it and for three high school students to pass with all the other classes they are taking was unique and quite a challenge, he said.

All three are enrolled in other programs at the Farmington school. Teachers were supportive of the students taking the commercial license course, Nelson said.

“I would strongly recommend this course to everyone,” she said.

The only cost to students was transportation to the Mexico school.

There are limited slots for the program, Vashaw said. He advised students considering the program to make sure they are focused on what they want to do.

“You need to be on your game and do good in school,” he said. “Don’t drive like an idiot. You need to be safe. You are going into a big truck.”

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