Sage School, Henderson CO

The contact names on the web ad (googled Front Range Community College CDL) seem familiar. They either work for US Truck or Sage, can't remember! Very interesting though.

I have been trying to be very careful because of all the scams out there!

 

I'm still on the fence about doing this squeeze! I'd have already done it if the economy and the trucking industry wasn't in such a dump right now. The horror stories from EVERY company out there right now have me second guessing whether I should ditch the decent job I have right now for something that could end up being a disaster.

The notion I'm gathering of the trucking industry is that it's being turned into yet another higher skilled occupation that used to enjoy higher wages, into a low wage industry. The bigger companies can now dictate the industry and they're basically a racket at this point. Their new business model is to create as much turnover in the industry so driver wages will stay rock bottom, so they can compete in an industry chock full of low freight rates and what not. Plus, they make money from government grants training students, so the training aspect of the big trucking companies is just as much a part of why they operate as moving freight. From my research, many of the driver friendly smaller companies have gone belly up or been bought out by the monsters.

IMO, the next step is for Pedro from south of the border to start driving truck, cause ya know, us Americans don't want to do those "low wage" jobs.

 

"Also, someone mentioned the multiple guys in the back of the truck 'observing' thing. A rep at Sage a few years ago told me this was illegal in Colorado because of seat belt laws- not sure if that's true or not. "


At most schools or companies that have a CDL class, they have a tractor with a sleeper. The sleeper doesn't actually have a bed in it. They take the bed out and put in a bench seat, and yes, it does have seatbelts. I'm not saying Sage does any of this, as I am not familiar with them. I am just saying that some people go to school believing, as the instructor or recruiter told them, that the driving portion of the training is 1on1. Many companies, even some that are legit, say this. It is semantics. Yes, it's 1 on 1 because he's in the passenger seat. They just omit the fact that there may be 3 or 4 other students observing from the bench in back and they count your back seat observation as time driving. They will tell you that you will get 40 hours of driving, but again, it's semantics. What you actually get is 40 hours in a moving truck. Of that 40, you may only get a portion-some as low as 6-8 hours total "behind the wheel" before testing.

 

I'm from Colorado too and financial help would be great as the company/school I'm attending requires me to pay up front. How much time would I need to get this in order and can you point me in the right direction?

That's quite a shock coming from Sage about the PTDI. I've honestly heard nothing but good things about that school.

 

I graduated from the Sage school in Henderson in August 2007. Its a good place to go to school IMO - the course teaches a lot of things that the CDL training at my company doesn't. At the time, the actual road driving was done one-on-one with an instructor; manuevering practice on the pad is one instructor and an individual student in a truck/multiple trucks working at the same time s s. As a plus (and this is important) they do show you how to go down a mountain grade properly - a lot of drivers who think they can just bomb down a grade end up dead, and it's scary the numbers of semis that go downgrade at 90mph.

US Truck Driving School over in Arvada puts 5 guys in the sleeper, and the worst driver gets the time. Don't know about the place in Aurora. Avoid the scam up on I76 past Hudson.

I remember Bonnie from when I was there - she got a promotion when Rob Lyon left the school. I thought she was ok, but I can't say how she runs the school now.