Why pay for school?

I think the only way to do it without a school now days is on the farm.

The permit is easy.

Handling the truck is not that hard.

But learning all of those regulations and all of the points covered in the pre-trip inspection, I would never have been able to do that without the school.

Most company's insurance will not cover driver training, it's not easy just to get a ride-along which isn't worth much.


You pay for school so you are not beholdin to some scum-sucking_D-B_low-life_money-grubbin_driver-pimpin_bottom-of-the-barrel truckin outfit.

 

The CDL school I went through was a third party tester. They also trained some of the big oil companies Drivers. While I was there, there were a few of the oilfield guys that didn't pass even after the thrid try.

 

didnt say it was a federal requirement. said most companies need somethiong to judge what kinda driver you will be. if you dont have experiance what else are they gonna go on, your word that you can drive?

 

Student myself, my 2-cents. I went with school for a few reasons:

I didn't have access to the equipment on my own and you have to show up in your own vehicle. Used to be you could show up in a rental truck and get a class A so long as you passed the written, but they closed those loopholes. Even if I could get the equipment for a day there is no way I could pass the driving tests at a reputable place and didn't feel like going through the "I know a guy who will sign you off for $200" guy.

I want training and practice (and proof of it) before I hit the roads. Whether or not the employer cares is up to them, but hurting myself or someone else because I didn't receive proper training wasn't acceptable to me.

If I could have gotten on with an employer first who would train me I would have gone that route, but with zero oilfield experience and plenty of people looking for work that wasn't likely to happen.

 

I choose school and am happy. Its no way that you will gain more information from a book rather from instruction guys. Its so much tips for your pre trip and you driving. The minimum is 160 h course so its small commitment to find time to spare for class but is worthed

 

Well, here's my story, I did the school thing, because I didn't have ANY idea of what it was going to take to get a CDL. I was still working, so I couldn't do the day classes which took 5 days a week from 8-5 for 4 weeks- 160 hours. I chose the weekend classes 7am-5pm for 8 weeks. Would NOT reccommend this! Too long in between classes. First 2 weeks study to get the permit, after that, out in the yard with OLD broken down equipment, OH, and within the first 5 weekends, 5 instructors QUIT! I THOUGHT I was going to be learning how to drive. Spent maybe..... a total of 5 hours in 6 weekends driving.

At one point in time they had 7 students cycling through the skills tests, so much of my time was standing around waiting.....waiting.... but, I did make good use of that time going over, and over the pre-trip and air test.
Thank the good LORD, they did have one instructor that was awesome, but they just don't pay the guy enough! One thing I do have to say, I was very persistant about getting in extra practice, so when the equipment was working, I'd get my rear in there and practice! I had to drive 3 hours round trip to practice for 3-4 hours in between the other classes.

So, I went to DMV, passed the pre-trip, air test, a couple of skills, but had too many pull up's on the alley dock. Going back next week to "try try again" If I had it to do over again, I think I would research the daylights out of a school before I commited!

 

good luck on your final alley dock test, here is a little pointer i found to help with that backing procedure, you may laugh, but it works..

it was taking me sometimes 3 pull ups to get it in there so i did some research on "The Alley Dock" - Get yourself a little 18 wheeler model from a store, and practice your dock with that, from the set up to putting it in the box., keep doing it until you completely understand the concept.

after doing this, i pulled it in with zero pull ups., truth...

best of luck

The Hornet

 

I agree, and practice backing with a toy actually does help. I just remember how when I went to school, started with 20 students and on the last day there were 7 left. AND then once actually faced with "now it's your turn to take the driving test" * 4 more students left me and 2 others to take our test.

 

A CDL mill certificate is no indication of what kind of a driver you will be . Plenty of CDL mill graduates fail the road test and get sent home . Many more get rejected by trainers . Many members here going through carrier orientation say half the people didn't make it past orientation .

 

In case you haven't noticed , when companies shut down truckers that were supplying product and delivering finished material are also out of work . Trucking is not a "specialized career ".
With the economy as it is most carriers keep expenses to a minimum . They have no control over equipment and insurance costs . The one thing they can control is driver pay . As long as desperate people are willing to work for substandard wages pay will never improve .
I've read many wives posting saying their family isn't being provided for .
I don't think people understand what 100% turnover means . It doesn't mean every one of the drivers quit . Say they have 1,000 trucks . Probably 60% or more of the drivers have been there over a year . That means 1,000 drivers have quit in 400 trucks . Why are they always hiring ? Because most newbies don't last 6 months .