I think tip started I wanted to add..........

Study the written portion with the manual and take the test yourself on your own time before you go to school.
The school won't let you get into a truck even on the yard until you have your permit anyway. So if you can go into school with the permit they will most likely let you into truck right away.(on the yard)
You can shorten your time in school...........the faster your are ready to take your test the faster you can get out....

good luck......................

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Just my few words-----or not................J

Life is too short, try to enjoy it.....
Maybe we should drive buses

My mill was right at 5,000 bones for five weeks. Three weeks were in the classroom gettin' the learner's permit. That was 5 days a week, 8 hours a day, for 15 weekdays. Believe it. I could have gotten the permit in a weekend. Then I spent two weeks in the so-called 'driving' stage, which I did very little of. I spent most of those two weeks watchin' somebody else drive. I think all total, I probably got 15 hours of on-road driving, including the time I needed to do my road test to get my license.

And again, I have to add five weeks of lost wages to my cost, which brought it up another 5 grand. Yeah, I spent probably 10 grand just for the CDL, plus I had to pay my room and board for five weeks, gas to go back and forth to the mill (each weekend I went back home), and meals. Add another thousand to make it 11 grand total, with about 12-15 hours actual driving time in a rig.

This was in 1995.

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--Paved Dudley--

Yeah I drive a Swift truck
And that means one thing
It means she's slow
It's a typical company truck
It's just all show and no go

I'm gettin' passed by Yella
And even Overnite
I'm gettin' passed by ever' body in sight
46 days on the road
And I'm not gettin' home tonight

No, my hometown's nowhere in sight
And if you think I'm pissed off
You're right
46 days on the road
And I'm not gettin' home tonight


Love pissing off those trucking company insiders.

Well...my local cdl mill (America's Driving Force in Atlanta) is def. out. I visited there on Thursday of last week and have to say it is one of the worst looking businesses that I have seen. The person showing me around was a nice guy, but that only takes ya so far. For $2400 they would spend a week helping me "get my permit", a week backing and a week "driving". When I talked to one of the instructors...he explained that the way it works is on day1 week 2 I would test on backing. They would assign a number based on my backing ability 1-10, (1 being best). "If for some unknown reason I got a 1...then I would have alot less time backing that week because obviously the students that did worse would need more practice". His words exactly. I then asked how much seat time would I get during the last week(driving). "Roughly 8-10 hrs." WHATTTTT?!?!??!?!
I tried to elaborate my concerns, and they basically hemmed and hawwed around about it being "sufficent enough time" and that they "wouldn't put anyone on the road that wasn't ready". Pretty much all I needed to know...thanks but no thanks!

PS- the absolute worse part of the whole visit was when I was introduced to the filing cabinet in the hallway of their classroom(along way from the office), behind a door, and next to the bathrooms.

The guy walking me around opens the file cabinet and there are applications slammed full (stuffed is a better word) strewn all over.
He says you can fill out these applications and put them in the inbox hanging on the wall. When the pre-hire letters come back we put them in this bin (on top of said filing cabinet).
Call me paranoid, but I'm not trying to fill any personal information onto an application, and just leave it laying everywhere for all to see.

It's good you bugged out of there. Now go get a grant for training. Don't pay for it out of your own pocket. There are ways to hide assets from financial aid gatekeepers, and knowing what trucking is like and what (little) security it offers, I'd make sure I got a grant. This and the fact that the government has driven up the price of driving mills by giving so many grants to every Tom, Dick, and Felonius Harry in the past. And oh, yeah, one other thing--the overpriced training is worth maybe 10% what you'll actually pay, as when you graduate and go to work at a company, you will have to be TRAINED on a training truck for several weeks.


Get the grant.

__________________
--Paved Dudley--

Yeah I drive a Swift truck
And that means one thing
It means she's slow
It's a typical company truck
It's just all show and no go

I'm gettin' passed by Yella
And even Overnite
I'm gettin' passed by ever' body in sight
46 days on the road
And I'm not gettin' home tonight

No, my hometown's nowhere in sight
And if you think I'm pissed off
You're right
46 days on the road
And I'm not gettin' home tonight


Love pissing off those trucking company insiders.

Working on that as we speak. Lurch told me about a WIA program that I found is available to me through our unemployment office. Only down side is that most classes don't start until July. Oh well...free is free.

You could also check out your local community college. There is one here in VA that the in state cost is less than $2000 for an eight week course if you go full time. You get a lot of seat time with that. They also offer the same course at night and on weekends so you can continue to work and make money while going to school and grants are possible.

Coach, you go get 'em man. Get that grant no matter what. You'll encounter a lot of resistance, but persevere to the end. Like I said, the government has driven the cost of training through the roof by handing out so many grants in the past to just any ol' body. Unfortunately, this applies to any kind of training you can get, be it trucking, heavy equipment, even programs you'll find at colleges. I know the University of Phoenix has been investigated for its practices of drawing in immigrants to milk the government's grant sugar-titty. I think asking the government for a hand-out sucks, but paying 5,000 for training that's worth maybe 500 sucks a lot more.

Sidestep the training racket and play the grant game. Don't ever pay for any kind of training out of your own pocket. There are programs out there if you'll take the time to find them, and the WIA is one of those. There are others, though. Keep on keepin' on. Don't pay a high price for training just because the government is willling to pay that high price.

__________________
--Paved Dudley--

Yeah I drive a Swift truck
And that means one thing
It means she's slow
It's a typical company truck
It's just all show and no go

I'm gettin' passed by Yella
And even Overnite
I'm gettin' passed by ever' body in sight
46 days on the road
And I'm not gettin' home tonight

No, my hometown's nowhere in sight
And if you think I'm pissed off
You're right
46 days on the road
And I'm not gettin' home tonight


Love pissing off those trucking company insiders.

You spent 1/2 your time on bookwork even though you had a permit?

So how many hours did your school have you in a truck?

__________________


The definition of stupidity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. — Albert Einstein

We did 10 hour days at school, monday-friday + one saturday. 5 on the books and 5 driving.

This was about 1 1/2 hours of actual seat time per day and they kept a log of your seat time. You had to have, as I remember, 51 hours before they let you do the dot road test.

getting the permit is easy, read the dot book a few times during the week and then go take the test. you can miss like 20% and still pass to get a permit.

driving takes practice but after 50 hours you are qualified to herd the truck down the road.

the class room time was invaluable. Some of it just drilled into you the stuff you already knew from the dot test but a large majority of it was "need to know" tips. Some came from videos via truck rodeo winners, some came from our book, and some came from the instructors.

Example: Most guys haven't a clue how to set up thier right side mirrors. Assuming they do... they don't really know what they are looking at in the mirror and what it means.

If you look directly right and can see your trailer and trailer duels, your mirror is set up wrong. You are missing about three feet of the adjacent lane.

You should need to lean your head backwards about 3" to be able to see your trailer tires. Why????

you don't need to see them while you are driving down the road, they are right behind you afterall.

Having your mirror set out slightly further than what comes naturally means you get a "better" picture while passing others and you get a much clearer view of the trailer when making right hand turns, which is when you really REALLY need to be able to keep your eye on where the trailer is, so you aren't driving over cars, curb, and people. Number one accident cost in trucking: Striking fixed objects on the right side.

1st day of school, this how you adjust get started, shift, brake ect. One lap around the pad start stop. 10 laps start, grab a few gears, down shift, stop. do it again, do it again, do it again, easy on the brakes. after 30 minutes, ok you can make it go and you can make it stop, take a right out of the parking lot and we'll go driving.

approach the street at a 90 degree angle, when you see the curb disappear behing the passenger door post, crank hard right out onto the road. Don't worry about the trailer right now we'll talk more later about that and mirrors, just know your duels aren't jumping off or anything they are right where they are supposed to be. great, perfect, ok after the light, grab your left hand lane and we'll take the on-ramp for I-80 down two exits then we'll work the traffic on the surface streets back to the lot. Don't look at the gear shift, its in your hand, keep looking out the window where you are driving... lol

good school / great instructors.

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Though your argument is very clever, I don't think it will lead to the results you desire. gandhi

You got over 50 hours behind the wheel? You did great.... I think the average is less than 40....... I'm sure you are a better driver for it..... the classroom stuff also sounds like it was very useful........

What was the school name again?

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The definition of stupidity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. — Albert Einstein