CFCC Truck Driver Training Program

Now I know the rules says not to advertise. So consider this a review. Anyone who lives in southeastern North Carolina and wants to go to a good CDL school, this is it.

There are several good things about this school. First off is the cost. Total cost is around $1200, and that includes your permit, urinalysis, tuition, books, physical, everything.

Another great thing is they offer a longer class than some of the other schools. 384 hours total. 80 in the class, 304 in a truck. The max amount of students per class is 20. There are 9 instructors. This puts the student to teacher ratio almost 2:1.

The first week is spent in the class. You will review rules, the textbook (it IS a community college), and other thing such as shifting patterns. Week number two starts you in a truck. The first couple of days are used teaching pretrip and how to shift. You will be taken out to US HWY 421 and you drive and learn to turn around at an intersection. As you progress, the instructor will start allowing you to drive on rural roads (some are pretty daggum narrow).

Week three the backing range opens. they have a dual setup, and 6 trucks can be on the range at any one time. They go through the 45, 90, straight pull up and back down a 100' alley, and the serpentine. Also the road driving gets tougher. Its city driving time. This Continues on through week 4. Something I forgot to mention is the trucks. I'm not sure of the exact number but i believe they have 17 trucks and 15 trailers. They have everything but a Peterbuilt. The trans they have are straight 9, straight 10, and super 10. They even have Cabovers. They have a pretty wide range of trailers as well. A lot of the trailers are empty dry vans, 48ft & 53ft, a couple of loaded dry box, flat beds, empty and full smooth-bore tankers, 28ft pups, and even a set of doubles.

Week 5 & 6 include learning and perfecting backing, set up for turns, and learning the finer points of shifting, as well as progressive shifting. Week 5 you finish the text book (forgot to mention that fridays are classroom days).

Weeks 7-8 are spent in testing. Some of the instructors are DOT certified CDL third party testers. There are a lot of tests. You have the four backing activities, and each must be done with 3 different tractor trailer combos. Then you have to do a qualifying run. This must be perfect, or you have to start over the next day. Then you have the school ride. This is for your college grade (6 credit hours for this course). Then you do your DOT pre-trip and ride. And thrown in there somewhere is the coupling/uncoupling test, which includes sliding the fifth wheel and trailer tandems.

The final week is where it gets fun. Sort of. Monday is for cleaning the equipment. YAY! Anyway day two we get to go to the truck stop in Kenley North Carolina, and we all go to the Iron Skillet and eat and get to see a real truck stop. Then the last day is one we all have been waiting on. We go to the DMV and get our licenses and test for our endorsements.

So that's about it. Hope this will inform someone looking for a good school in this area.

P.S. CFCC stands for Cape Fear Community College.