I went to school in St. Louis and recieved my CDL there, I listen to the recruiters and decided I would pick Stevens, I wasn't so nieve to believe everything he had to say was true, every company embelishes alittle. I recieve the date that I was going to be at Stevens, Nov 25th this year. I went by train to dallas which I did recieve reimbersment on, I stood at the train station for the yellow cab that was supposed to pick me up, I stood there for almost a hour fending off all the homeless people asking me for change or smokes. Finally the cab came, we went by the bus station to see if there was anyone there that was going to Stevens, There was, so we packed them in the cab and went to the Howard Johnsons, now this hotel was nasty, But that is another story. They tell you to be in the lobby by 7am to be picked up and taken to Stevens, Little do you know that there are about 100 people waiting in the lobby to do the same thing, I figured they would put us all on a bus, Nope. They had one window van with 3 bench seats in it and you had to cram yourself in there like sardines, or wait for him to come back, sometimes people wouldn't get there until after 9am and then the instructors would get mad at you because you weren't there on time, I told him that if you want me here on time then he needed to come pick me up and if he didn't then he needs to shut up about it because he knew what was going on, Our van driver was the slowest driver ever, He really didn't care because that is all he did all day was transport people to hotels, bus stations etc. I was told by my recruiter that we would take our drug screen and physicals on sunday and be on the payroll by monday, He only stated that we would be in training for 8 weeks not the 12 that we were told when we got to class. Out of all the peopel that were my class half went home by Wed. some casue they were lied to, some cause of Medical reasons. I figured out why some did on the Medical, Stevens has thier own doctors and also have thier own insurence which they run, it is through Stevens, so if you have the slightest medical condition, on anything, they will send you home, because they dont won't to have to pay for anything that is a existing medical problem, even though they dont pay much anyway. $600 deductable for going to the doctor or getting your meds through a prescription, that $600 for each so $1200 dollars before you get to start paying you co-pays. the 600 dollars has to be paid for your doctors visit before you start paying your co-pays and then you'll have to pay full price for your prescriptions until you meet the 600 dollar deductable. Not a very good plan. The doctors offices are right there at Stevens, They say they don't have a vested interest but you know damn well they do. we had a guy in class that was about 400lbs, his blood sugar was a little high and they told him that they were going to put him through some skills testing to see if her could get up in the trailer or the tractor, stuff like. He re-tested on his sugar fine then they put him through the skills test, I thought he did fine , so did everyone else but the doctor said it took him to long so they sent him home. He even went to Stevens school to get his CDL, Why didn't they tell him then, because they wanted the contract signed for $5000 before hand. Stevens talk a good game but they don't deliver one, I will be heading to another company to work for. Im already hired. If you decide to go to Stevens, just remember that they really lie about everything to just get you down there. beware!

Thanks for the post!

I survived the whole 10 week orientation process no late loads no incidents, although I was completely broke, and was given my own truck.
After the first two months solo it was ok when you learn to deal with the driver mgrs and dispatch people and not expect to much out of them. Well then in month 3 my blood pressure meds ran low and I had asked the "company" doctor to refill my scripts. He said sure no problem and had asked my to sign a release so he could get my chart from my regular Dr.
Well thats when the crap hit the fan, I was under a load taking me to my family for the holidays, of course I got in the day after X-mas (weather related). But then I secured the truck and was picked up to drive 70 miles to see my family for the remainder of the holiday. I didn't get 10 miles from the truck when the company Dr.'s nurse called to inform me that I was now on Med-hold due to what the Dr say in my chart from my regular Dr.
Approx. 8 months earlier I had seem my reg. Dr. and mentioned that I was having trouble getting to sleep as I had recently moved from a rural area to the big city in an apartment complex. Well that was all it took now I have been to a sleep dr. and done multiple sleep studies and am now disqualified from driving by the company Dr. because he rejected the sleep Dr's report.
So now i'M OUT OF WORK WITH NO PAY NO INSURANCE (as it was canceled by the compay the day I was put on med-hold) AND NO HELP FROM STEVENS TRANSPORT.
i am in the process of getting re-certified and fighting the company Dr.'s decision to disqualify me as a driver.
So beware of what you tell the Dr. at Stevens, my advice would be to not tell them a thing, and only see him for your physical, as required they do not accept med cards from other Dr's.
Better yet avoid Stevens altogether, they do not care about you all they want is the money the gov't gives them for training you on top of what ever you have paid for your training. They do not care about driver retention as there is always another group of newbies to haul their freight for well below avg. pay.

That is because Stevens runs thier own Health Insurance and Doesn't want to be out any money what so ever.