ANTIOCH - Ken Acosta could pass for one of New York City's crime-busting Guardian Angels with his black beret and don't mess-with-me stare.
It's late on a Friday afternoon, but he's still running at full throttle from his small, Spartan office in downtown Antioch and shows no signs of calling it a day.
Acosta's on a roll, clearly enjoying the chance to talk about the lives that have changed through the trucking school he oversees.
"I'm a born social worker," he laughs.
Despite his imposing presence, Acosta has a heart for those others have dismissed, offering them a step up into the cab of a big rig and with that, another chance at life.
"I encourage people that there's hope," he said. "I have the ability to detect a flicker of hope in a person and I fire it up."
Since the San Pablo-based American Truck School opened a branch in East County in August 2003, dozens of students have graduated, earned their commercial trucking license, and landed jobs that have enabled them to get back on their feet.
For some the training is just one option among many, but Acosta estimates that half of those who enroll face what career counselors euphemistically call "barriers to employment."
In plain English, they're recovering drug addicts and alcoholics, ex-cons, men with tempers that have landed them in court or middle-age casualties of plant closures and barely literate farm workers.
Take Richard D'Amico, whose decades-long heroin habit landed him in Folsom State Prison twice before the 56-year-old Oakley man began to turn his life around.
Even after he was released in 1993, life was bleak.
Bouts of depression eventually forced D'Amico to quit his handyman and carpentry jobs, but his luck changed after the state Department of Rehabilitation agreed to pay for him to attend American Truck School.
These days, D'Amico no longer depends on Zoloft and disability checks to get by.
Instead, he is one of Acosta's four full-time employees, helping others regain their self-respect and financial independence.
"From Day One we tell them they have to be responsible," D'Amico said.
Robert Campbell, 46, is a former student whose medical history had brought his career to a standstill until he met Acosta.
Cancer and chemotherapy had sidelined the single full-time father from his construction job, but since the Clayton resident earned his Class A license late last year, everything has changed.
Campbell credits Acosta for agreeing to let him take time off during the program to regain his strength and notes that even before he finished Acosta had a job lined up for him.
"I look forward to getting up every day and going to work," said Campbell, who's now in remission and working for a Concord trucking company hauling sand and gravel.
Students hear about the school through contacts Acosta made during the 26 years he spent in the public and private sectors developing jobs for the hard-to-place.
He accepts nearly all applicants despite their checkered work history and questionable personal backgrounds.
The criteria for acceptance are simple: Acosta first must be certain he can help them find a job after graduation and believe that they intend to follow the school's character-building rules.
Be prepared to apply yourself --"You're going to work your (expletive) off here" -- take responsibility for your actions, and always, always tell the truth, Acosta informs students at the outset.
"There's no B.S. here -- everything that we say here is honest," he said.
The combination of classroom work and hands-on training typically lasts six to eight weeks depending on how quickly students grasp the material.
They first must pass three written exams, which requires earning a higher score than what's required on the Department of Motor Vehicles test for a Class A permit, Acosta said.
What's more, he says students are all but guaranteed to pass the DMV test because instructors cover every aspect of the state agency's handbook for commercial truck drivers.
Once they have cleared that hurdle, students begin training on a 42-foot tractor-trailer the school keeps at the fairgrounds.
In addition to identifying every part of the vehicle and assess its condition, they must know how to use all the cab's gauges and switches and how to operate the air brakes.
They also practice reversing in a straight line, backing up to a loading dock and parallel parking after which they must demonstrate to Acosta that they're ready to take the DMV's driving test.
Once they have their Class A license, graduates can find entry-level positions that pay around $14 per hour, Acosta said, noting that with experience those wages can reach the low-$20s.
That's a big deal to students like Cesar Martinez, who grew up harvesting Brentwood pear orchards alongside his father.
Martinez, 29, eventually switched careers and after graduating from trucking school now works for Acosta teaching other students -- including several farmworkers -- who speak little or no English.
His 51-year-old father continued working as a ranch foreman, however, supporting his wife and youngest son on a $350 weekly paycheck until he was laid off in December.
Now Martinez is helping others whose job prospects are limited by the language barrier and a grade-school education overcome the obstacles to establish a new career.
"The best feeling is when they come back with their Class A license and a big smile," he said. "It's like a new beginning for their lives. They're going to have money. They can finally get a better place for their families and move on."