Which CDL school should I choose???

I am considering 2 local schools because I spoke with a company that recommended a school other than what I was already considering. They are:


1) Western Truck School http://www.westerntruckschool.com/; this is the school one company recommended and the school is local to me (West Sacramento).
2) Commercial Drivers Learning Center http://www.cdlc4u.com/; this is a school I found online about a week or so ago and is also local to me (Sacramento).



I would like to find out if anyone out there has attended either of these schools and can give me the good and the bad about their experience.

I am in the process of applying for a grant under the Workforce Investment Act to finance this.

 

I understand that; I made comments in a prior post about an employer sponsored training program that had a large class size and high student to teacher ratio (as many as 8 students to 1 teacher for fine skills and 3-4 students to 1 teacher for on the road skills) which really cut into the time each of us got behind the wheel ( I think I got about 1 hour per day dedicated on the road and maybe 90 minutes per day on the fine skills in 10-15 minute intervals) over that week that I was in 'training'. According to what I have read and heard, both of the schools I mentioned in the original post keep class sizes to 4 students to an instructor; which HAS to translate into more behind the wheel time, wouldn't you think?

 

Ok, here is an update and a few more follow up questions:

I went to speak to a representative at Western Truck Schools just a few days ago and will be returning Monday to observe a class in session for a little while before I go to the career center to submit my application for the WIA grant. I also went to CDLC's office and spoke again to the owner and followed that up with a little observation of the class in session at their yard (both up close and personal observing the pre trip training and from across the street parked in my car observing the skills session). As of this minute, I am leaning toward Western and here is why (in no particular order, just the thoughts that come to mind):

- Speaking with the owner of CDLC, he obviously has opinions about trucking companies and other schools (including the 'school'/company I was already working with, mentioned in a prior post). While that in itself is okay up to the point where it interferes with a professional attitude. Having come from years in various customer service roles; I never got very far when letting an opinion of a competitor or customer (and trucking companies are customers in a way), even if they were a former employer, get in the way of my professionalism is never considered okay.

- In observing the training at the one school, I noticed that they were using slightly older equipment than the original 'school' I was at, but more important to me than that; I noticed that they DID have a 53' trailer in the yard not connected to anything and appeared to have not been used in some time. The students were training with 48' trailers with single axles. Since I would likely be OTR as a company driver with 53' trailers, I think it would be important to be able to train and test with that and not the 48'. Any opinions on this would be welcome. Plus, there was a lot of BS'ing going on between the students and the trainer in my opinion. In fact, too much BS to be considered okay for the costs involved. Class size did seem to be ideally suited for learning within the time frame.

- I was reading that Western Truck School has been around almost as long as my little sister has (she will be 39 on her next birthday), yet CDLC has only been around since 2009... Her kids are older than that and I have T-Shirts that are older than that (in fact, I am wearing one right now)! LOL... Obviously, their experience and methods have worked for a long time and they have put more thought into their lesson plans. I also liked the fact that the training time there was flexible to account for what I bring to the table as I have a valid learner's permit and DOT physical, so no time would need to be spent with that outside of maybe a new drug screen, and I could be assessed for what I need in the classroom leaving more time to work on skills.


Any other questions I should ask?