Newbie (about to be) Student

The first thing I would do is look into your local community colleges for CDL training courses. From what I've heard and read here on the forum they offer training for much lower cost & the training can be just as good or better than an independent truck school or company training.

Second, look into your local Alliance Worknet/EDD/Unemployment Office. Many times you can get training paid for through these programs. It's what I did and they paid for my truck school. It can be a pain in the @zz to get and take 1 to 6 months of jumping through hoops and going through their process but it can work to get you your CDL and doesn't leave you broke or obligated to a specific company for a certain amount of time.

Third, there are a few companies that offer training but you are then obligated to stay with them for 6-18 months. You could quit before that term is up but you would then have to pay them back for the cost of the school, usually $1500-$5000. Plus I've heard a few horror stories of the company threatening to put bad things on your DAC for leaving early and not paying off the training(don't know how true that is but it's been said more than once). As for companies that will train you, there are a bunch out there. CR Enlgand(stay far far away from here lol), Central Refrigerated, I think Swift does to, just to name a few. I'm sure if you search here on the forum you'll be able to find a few more. I don't know if any of them will hire someone from your neck of the woods, some of them have hiring areas and restrictions when it comes to that. You might have to live within a certain distance of one of their terminals. You'll have to look into that too.

Anyways, I hope that helps a little. I'm sure others will chime in here and maybe give some more answers to your questions.

 

1) N/A no experience with them.

2) none

3) none

4) none

are we seeing a pattern here? lol

but seriously, I know someone who went to sage at another location and he failed miserably when he did his intial road test in orientation. whether it is the same company or not I don't know, but in my experience and research before I went to school and what I've seen and heard from trainers, most schools are absolutely useless. do your homework and check out ANY school you are considering thoroughly.

Having said that, your BEST bet, for cost, quality of instruction, seat time, and hiring opportunities, is your local community college if they have a course available.

While I'm on the other side of the country from you, this seems to hold true from most people I've talked to from all over......and the states generally subsidize most of the cost so the cost to you, while having to be paid up front, is generally less than 1/3 of what you will pay a stand alone CDL mill / ripoff "school"

Don't go with the carrier based programs unless you just HAVE to. do you really want to be a company sponsored slave for a year? read some of the threads on here. they abound with horror stories from these types of programs.

given, alot of it is what you make of it, and the attitude you take into it, and not having unrealistic expectations and stars in your ewyes will help alot.

it isn't easy. unless you have and can live on the road, it's a tough adjustment to make. it's long hours and longer days. but it is rewarding and the good days make up for the bad ones.

above all, DO YOUR HOMEWORK......both on the school you choose, and the carrier you go with......don't buy into the hype of the used car salesman recruiters, or believe the pretty websites. go to the truckstops. talk to the drivers. (and not the ones at the fuel island who are busy, under load and probably trying to stay on schedule ) and talk to alot of them. there are many types of operations, companies and schedules out there and what works for one won't work for another or for you. the drivers are the real recruiters. if there are a large percentage of them for a company that are unhappy, you probably will be too. if you find a company (as I did) that has a large percentage of happy drivers, then it's probably a good bet it's a good place to be.

see what's out there in your area, and don't go with the mega carriers....they recruit and advertise for a reason........the same reaosn the good companies DON'T.......the better companies dont' come looking for you, you have to seek out and find THEM.

good luck to you. there are good gigs out there, but you have to do the legwork and the homework or you'll be just another newbie comnig back here telling us how bad weiner or CRE is lol......

 

good luck on weds for WIA. in my county in dallas,tx WIA has no funds. so i had no choice but go to a training company stevens. start monday

 

State of Idaho has a deal worked out with Driver Training & Solutions in Spokane. It might be worth your while to check that out as an option.

The distance might be too great for somebody out of Boise, though. I don't know.


For me, the state is paying for the school and four nights a week in a hotel room. There are two other hotels that the school works with that are cheaper than the one I chose, so it might be possible to get the state to pay for more nights for you if you wanted to stay the weekends as well.


In terms of atmosphere, I think DTS would be hard to beat.

I don't have any experience with Sage other than scoping out their facilities in Coeur d'Alene, though. Their Caldwell school might be a top notch operation.

 

4K for a community college?

geez I only paid $925 for 380 hours and ended up with over 750 miles seat time by the time the 8 weeks were over.....and it is a recognized course by almost every carrier.

good luck to you man.......sure am glad i'm living where I am lol

 

good luck on the WIA. i try to get WIA here in dallas,tx my county has no funds. so i had to go a company training program.

 

Good luck with the WIA Big Macc. Sounds like your county has things more streamlined than mine does. It took me almost 6 months to get through the process from signing up for orientation to actually starting school.