Which School???

I came from Alaska to Indiana to visit my sister, while here my darling husband served me with Divorce papers, seems he had someone on the side and had the perfect opportunity to dispose of his wife and 27 year marriage. All accounts were emptied leaving me stranded in Indiana with no way home.

I now need to start a new chapter in my life, and am set to pursue driving. This is my third attempt, each time my wonderful husband has shot the idea down. Well no more, I going ahead with my wants, and that's to drive trucks and travel.

Since I was left destitute, I needed to find a school that would train with no money up front. Quick internet search and found C.R. England. Seemed like a perfect match, they had a school at Burns Harbor, Indiana, they would provide transportation to the school and they also had a place to stay while in school. I would be done in as little as 2 weeks, what more could I ask for..... Then I did some checking, first a search for unhappy people, found pages and pages of them, then a search for happy C.R. England graduates, nothing found, anything good, nothing found, anything ok, again nothing found. So I started really reading the forums and they sscared the crap out of me, I ran far and fast from C.R. England. Also they taught on Automatic's.

Next Search brought up Drivers Solutions, filled out the application and of course I was accepted, no questions asked. There was a school even closer to where I was, they required no money up front, was guaranteed a job in just a few short weeks. Only thing I saw wrong was that I would be only getting 17.5 cents/per mile and that I would have to pay back the loan thay were giving me at a rate of $35.00 per week. The math didn't add up, but being new to the game I figured I must be doing the math wrong. Drivers Solution sent me a link to a wonderful web site and I got started agreeing to everything they required. Came to DOT requirements and had to mail my recruiter with a quick question. My question was, what is DOT requirements if you have sleep apnea. My nice link to Driver Solutions web site was shut down so fast it made my head spin.

Ok fine, time for Plan B

I found two schools in Indianapolis that found trucking companies offer pre-hire options as well as truck driving school tuition reimbursement. I also learned the difference between the two types of schools, contract tuition and none contract tuition.

It seems my choices are currently Roadmaster Driving School and TDI Truck Driver Institute. Any suggestions on schools, both are the same length of time. Both have about the same trucks, and both gave me applications to fill out to obtain pre-hires.

Any advice will be appreciated.

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I can't offer any advice, but that suks.

Good luck to you

 

Try PAM Transport. They were going to send me to a school in Ft. Wayne. Overall they seem to be a decent company according to comments on this site.
Good Luck

 

welcome to TTR do some more reasearch alot of good info here. if i read your post correct if you have sleep apnea you may have some issues. it is serious safety concern driveing an 80,000 lbs battering ram down the road.

I wish you well. pick the company then pick the school. being in your current situation with lack of funds. you may not wish to slam the door on crengland just yet.

try pam, swift, werner.

with no money for school, any of the starting company's with training are worth a good look. get your cdl get experiene then move on to the job you want.

 

Every company will eventually deny your application because of the Sleep Apnea. Sorry

 

I'm not hearing that the Apnea is going to be a problem, I've had a current sleep study and because I've been using the c-pap for so many years lots of documentation that it is indeed being used. I have a current compliance report and am at 96.8% compliance, only day I missed using the blasted machine was the day I had a sleep study.

 

get a dot physical before you do anything and have all documentation.

many schools will take your money even if you are unhireable

 

If you can find a school to go to, then maybe look at Schneider. They seem to have a pretty decent reputation for having drivers with sleep apnea. (At least that is what I have seen on this board and others.) They may work with you on that as well as helping get a new c-pap or any items you may need to help you use it in the truck.

Call a recruiter and find out more. I am not the expert on this.

 

I suggest calling recruiters about the sleep apnea situation. It isn't a automatic disqualifier so don't get down about that. I do not believe Schneider National has a CDL school but I do know they work with you if you have Sleep apnea.

I however do not have that problem right now, so I do not know first hand. However I've read plenty of forums about people with it. Just keep your head up and moving forward. It does suck about your marriage, that is definitely a really crappy thing to have happen to you. Luckily your ready to move forward, just make sure your truly ready.

Edit: TheTank beat me to it.

 

I'm sure I'm ready to move forward, sure don't want to go backward!!!

Even if I just get training and no company will take me I can still head back to Alaska and drive backfill in a Goldmine, lots of jobs once I have my CDL. I'm moving forward. First choice is Truck driving, 2nd choice is heavy equipment operator, either one I can find jobs with.

Have already talked to two recruiters about the apnea, I really am hearing it's not going to be a problem as long as it is being treated and under control.

Now I need to find a school, I'm thinking Roadmaster, anyone with negitive on them.