University looks to sell part of driver training center
Part of Carnegie Mellon University’s Driver Training and Safety Institute (DTSI) at Connellsville Airport is for sale. On Monday, Kyle Fisher-Morabito of the university’s public relations department, confirmed the university is looking to sell the institute’s driver’s training component “or partner with someone’ to keep it running.
The center, opened two years ago, does research into driver training safety issues as well as offer training to commercial drivers through a proprietary simulator and its on-site skid pad.
Gerard Meyer, president of DTSI, was not available for comment.
Fisher said the reason the university is exploring selling is that DTSI completed its main research project.
“The primary research program at DTSI was with the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration. That research program has been completed and is winding down. It ends June 8. There are no new research projects pending. That initiated the university to reassess the vitality of DTSI’s research agenda,’ Fisher said.
“CMU is committed to finding a way to continue the excellent training and research effort at DTSI. At this time the university is seeking to sell the driver’s training component of the DTSI program.
“We are in discussions with a number of potential acquirers or partners. We are looking at a variety of arrangements as well,’ she added.
“Depending on the outcome of these discussions and which acquirer or partner may come forward, CMU hopes to continue its involvement in future research projects with the institute,’ she said.
While Fisher said a couple of staff people have been let go because of the completed project for the U.S. Department of Transportation, other DTSI staff are “under the umbrella of CMU.
“The core staff CMU is committed to retraining them through this transition in order to sustain the program in the future even if under new acquisition or partnership.’
CMU, she added, is not looking to move the center from the airport.
“It’s not something we can talk about right now because of negotiations. We could not rule out that a new partner might not want to look at a new or expanded location,’ she said.
Fisher added CMU is “very committed to DTSI.
“Its mission was education, research and economic vitality for the region and we very much want to see DTSI retain that mission. With our help, we hope to continue an involvement in that in some new role.’
In June 2001, the center hosted the first international EuroTra Transatlantic Transportation Safety Summit. Representatives from about 20 European agencies in 17 different countries attended as did C. Thomas Keegel, general secretary-treasurer of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, who was keynote speaker at the summit dinner.
Hosted by the CM-DTSI, the event showcased the center’s grand opening as well as a collaboration between the U.S. and Europe to improve professional driver safety and quality.
“The institute is not just a school for professional truck drivers,’ Meyer said at the time. “It is a world class transportation, education and research center whose mission is to dramatically improve the standards of safety throughout the trucking industry.’
The school’s mission has not been to teach people how to drive tractor trailer and other vehicles but to drive them safely, employing such things as the psychology of driving with simulation to create lifelike situations drivers might meet.
For instance, while the school has offered a 320-hour program to help novice drivers get their commercial drivers license, it has other customized programs for those experienced drivers who want to improve their skills, emergency vehicle training and risk reduction training designed to enhance safety skills for “champion professional drivers.’
The DTSI has been operated as a subsidiary of Carnegie Mellon University.