So is this par for the course when it comes to trucking schools?

I am thinking of going to Sage school in Indianapolis , they have a few schools around the USA I think.

The price is like $5000 but $4000 If you pay cash, price may be a little off but close to this.

I think it is 4-5 weeks and one on one training. heard it was a real good school.

 

South East community college worked very well for me. That was ten years ago.

 

LOL @ people paying $5k+ to be taught how to pass a dmv drive test. Sounds like rape.
Companies are telling recent grads to drop everything they taught ya in CDL school and learn how to drive our trucks our way. I paid around $1600 two years ago, ftr. You can keep the "prestigious" school and your trucking "degree".

 

Hi dennis, here's a deal you can't refuse. How about give me $1000 and an Asian bride, I'll teach you all you need to know.

 

Never paid a dime for trucking school. I went in with some experience found a #### company that would pay a "driving school" so I could get out on the road (cost me 1 year), and now I don't even drive OTR. Of course my CDL is still vital to my making a living since I am out in the oil fields doing pressure pumping.

 

[QUOTE="semi" retired;4267236]Hi texasmorrell, I'm not sure when you did that for your license, but if I'm not mistaken, now you have to take a road test on the type of vehicle you will be driving, at least in Wisconsin. I agree with you 100% that schools are a scam, but sadly, for many people, they have no other way to get into trucking. Years ago, when I worked at a trucking co. before I could operate a forklift, the manager had to observe me on a forklift, which entailed, getting on the lift, buckling the seatbelt, pick up a pallet, set it inside a trailer, and back out. Recently, I was going to apply for a forklift job, and the person, who sounded half my age, asked if I had a forklift certification. I said, WHAT? I've been running forklift's when you were in diapers. He said, that may be so, but without a certification, I can't hire you. I laughed and hung up, but as with trucking, undocumented experience just doesn't cut it now.[/QUOTE]


It's not that way here in Texas. I actually let my CDL lapse for a few years while I went to graduate school. When I decided to start driving again I hooked my 40 foot gooseneck up to my Ford f-450 pickup truck and I went and did my CDL road test with that. Since my truck didn't have airbrakes I had to describe to the examiner step-by-step how to perform and airbrake check and what I was looking for. The main thing is that it has to be a combination vehicle of a minimum gross vehicle weight. Once I have my CDL again I went and purchased my international ProStar and my 48 foot flatbed and drove it home. Then I started hauling freight for myself again. But I did get the CDL I have now by using a pick up truck and a flatbed trailer for the road test. Kind of crazy huh? What you are describing would require some sort of vehicle class restriction being printed on your license. That's the only way law enforcement would know if you were qualified to drive the class of vehicle that you were driving. In Texas the class A CDL permits you to drive any size vehicle.

 

Seems high. I paid $1800 in chicago area last year

 

My Dad was a trucker and I've been around trucks since I can remember. By the time I was 11 I'd been in 42 states in a truck with him watching and learning how things were to be done. I also drove his trucks quite a bit w/ him riding shotgun when I was a kid. Then, on my 18th Birthday in 1967 I got an unrestricted chauffer's license in Oregon. That's the equivalent if a Class A CDL w/ full endorsements (Doubles, Triples, Tankers, Hazmat) today. I took the driving test in a VW Beetle.

 

My experience in hiring driving school graduates was that the schools teach 'em how to do the paperwork involved in trucking (logs) and not much else.

 

That's how it is here in FL. You test in what you're going to drive, or you don't get the cert. They even give you a restriction if you test in an auto transmission (no manual trk. allowed)
Heck, we even have one guy where I work that has an addendum(?) to where he runs a knuckleboom crane truck with a 40-yard can and another 40 yard can on a military hitch trailer, but cannot run a semi truck. I forgot what the exact term is on his license, but he's tried (and failed...WTF?) 4 times to get an unrestricted CDL A....