I think the only forum missing on this website is one that reviews Trucking schools. So I'm going to put my two cents in on mine.

Western Truck School - West Sacramento, CA

These guys have been around forever and that is mainly why I chose to go there. I am in my final week of their 4 week day class and overall am satisfied that they are giving me the basics I need to know to go pass the DMV test.

One thing that really gets me is that with all the money this place rakes in over the course of a year, why do they have such crappy trucks!?
WTS uses a variety of trucks, 10 and 8 speed volvo's mainly and a frieghtliner that they don't take on the street anymore. My first time out driving was in a 8 speed bobtail truck which was a royal piece of doodoo.

They had three students from the previous class using one of the trucks constantly, taking away from our class so for the first two weeks we did not get much drive time as we had to share and wait our turn to practice our skills in the yard. Same goes for going out driving, some days we only have had one truck between 8 people in the class so drive time was severely limited.

We also should have been able to practice more with a specific truck that we would be testing at DMV with. These trucks all seemed to have their own little quirks you needed to get used to and I'm going to be mad if I have to take my DMV test in a truck I have only driven once or twice.

Three of the instructors there have been great! they have a ton of driving experience and I highly recommend them, they are Wyatt, Gilbert and Eric. They also have a female instructor there named Sage. She is worthless, talks to you like you are three years old. She also has little driving experience and after only four months working at the school was made a supervisor. You can tell the other seasoned instructors that have been with the school for several years didn't appreciate that. She treats them like crap and should be avoided at all cost. My entire class and the class before us hate her and don't understand why she could even be in the position she is in. The boss-man of the training (Jeff) is a real putz, constantly strokes his own ego telling you how good he is....bleh....I think the other instructors mentioned above are far and above his skill level. Yeah he knows what he is talking about but I hate people that are so into themselves that they let it cloud what a good instructor should be.

Like the class before us we are all going to write letters complaining about Sage to the school director but overall we are satisfied with our schooling. However this school is a CDL farm, they only will teach you what you need to know to pass the DMV test. They could really improve the instruction by taking us up I-80 into the hills so we could experience some grades. Apparently they used too, but now they can't because if they take any of their crappy equipment past the scales on I-80 they would instantly be red flagged.

Good luck in your quest for your CDL. If you are in Sacramento area you might want to look into Western PACIFIC Truck school to see if they have better equipment though.

916..... Is the gal your talking about have ear rings all over her face and a cowboy hat ?? If so I've met her (?) Chas (recruiter) told me what he use to do when he'd deliver loads to companies then a little later he said he never drove trucks. Not sure what to think about that. As far as Western Pacific their trucks look about the same. I'm glad I read your post though. It doesn't sound like they give you what your paying for. Thanks Sal

Yeah that's a fair statement and yes Chas is a total GEEK. Western Pacific has a funny story....it's owned by the ex-wife of the owner of Western Truck school. Apparently they got divorced and she was going to take his company so they compromised and he gave her the money to open her own. not surprised to hear they both use crap equipment to train with. Yes the female instructor I talked about looks like a human fishing lure. lol