SAGE Professional Truck Driving School, Indianapolis, IN

Wanted to start a thread on this school to hopefully inform others on what to expect and what I experienced. This is a 4 week long school, whereas the first 2 weeks are classroom training, and the last 2 weeks are driver training. I just started on July 21, 2014 and with an expected date of state exam on August 18th, 2014. The reason I went with this school was due to the one on one driver training. When I get my time training, I want it to be my time, not sharing the truck with others, as some schools do. From what I am told, there will be many miles in which I will have the time training in numerous driving conditions, and different roads, interstate, rural, city (not downtown though) and state roads. There are 8 drive and 11 drive classes where each drive time is 4 hours in length, and some may be 2 4 hour drives in a day. I didn't want to go through a company sponsored drive school as I didn't want to be forced to drive for any company I didn't want to drive for, and I wanted a school which seems to want to train me, not just take my money.
I will not make daily updates, as I will be concentrating on the tasks at hand, and I will try to update when I have the time. The first week was all classroom instruction. We started with only 4 people in this class, and 1 left after the first day (not sure why though). Now we have 3. I am glad the classes are limited, gives more time for more of a personal training instead of a class loaded with people and a more impersonal training I guess. We are completing daily paper logs, to help familiarize ourselves with that. We are going through PTDI book training, and taking tests after every chapter. We have covered HOS, shifting techniques, regulations, different driving conditions, mountain driving, chaining, air brakes, pre-trip inspections, (we have a dvd which demonstrates the pre-trip inspection), responsibilities of the driver, shipper, receiver, company, etc. There also are several videos, some of which are older but still pertain to trucking rules and regulations, as well as different driving techniques, as well as some videos from personal perspectives of current and/or former truck drivers. Some really hit home knowing that a simple mistake can change many lives, not just yours. I can tell everyone from my personal standpoint that I was ignorant of many things which a CDL holder has to comply with to maintain their license. I guess when they say professional driver, they really do hold you to that, somewhat unfairly in my opinion, other times I agree with. Anyways, this looks to be a very good training program so far, as it just isn't about holding a steering wheel. The instructor is very good and was a professional truck driver of over 7 years, who still holds their CDL, and has many stories to tell which are very interesting. Several companies have sent recruiters to the school, and several more will be as well throughout our training. I do plan on going with TMC, and had already had things in motion when they came to the school. Old Dominion, Gully, Schneider were also there this week, and DOT food was going to be there, but had to reschedule due to family emergency. I know I have left out several things which we had went over, but just wanted to give some insight as to what to expect if someone else were to think about this school. Overall I am not in any way disappointed with my decision to go to this school, and hopefully I will be successful in attaining my CDL!

 

Good luck, hope you also find the training very thorough and informative as I did. The classroom training is boring at times, but these are things that need to be taught, not just for getting your CDL, but so you are aware of certain things. Some of this training will definitely be necessary, and should be required in my honest opinion. I have researched so much, and overall I think this school was a good choice. Not everyone is successful, hopefully I will be. Too many horror stories of schools just doing the minimum to collect and boot you out. This school so far is very in depth at many things, sometimes to the point I get bored as some things should be common sense, but I do realize not everyone has this common sense, and if I were to be unsuccessful, it should not be the fault of this school, as at this point I feel they are doing what I paid them to do. We will see if I still believe that to be the case, but don't see why I would think differently at this point. I do agree not everyone can succeed in this profession, hopefully I do. And this school cannot train EVERYONE to be successful in their quest to attain a CDL, all they can do is train you as best they can. It is up to the student to be successful, and SAGE seems to give the students the necessary training to give the student a very good chance at being successful.

 

The cost was around 4,600 I don't remember exactly. That was for the 11 drive program. The 8 drive was a few hundred less, but don't remember. That cost included the DOT physical and drug test. Yes, had to get the CDL permit myself. All of this is required before start of class. I cannot answer which is a better school, I believe the instruction is the same but have no idea if that is true or not. I live in Lafayette, IN and they have a couple hotels near the school with discounts which are 36 or 37 per day if you want to be within 5 minutes of the school. That is NOT included, it is your cost, which I would rather pay that and not have to worry about driving a little over an hour each way every day and possibly missing class. Good luck if you decide to attend, think either is a good choice.

 

Thanks everyone for questions and comments. The one question if anyone wants to put their two cents in is this...... Should I put several apps in to different companies? The reason I ask is that the company I want to start my career with has already gave me a pre-hire so wasn't sure if I should continue submitting apps or not. I guess my thinking is why do that when you already have a pre-hire from the company you want to work for, didn't want another company to give a pre-hire also and then I don't go to work for them, I may at some point be interested in working for them but that may look poorly for me to already have had a pre-hire but didn't accept it...??? Hope that makes sense.