C1 N. Little Rock

So who are you going to work for ..What was the cost for school if you pay for it and dont want the commitment to anyone ?
Where about are you from in Arkansas ?
I'm actually thinking about going to school at Westark community college in Ft Smith.

PS thanks for your service.. !!!

I'm a Navy Seabee Vet from way back .. "Can Do" !!! LOL

 

I have to say that I also attended C1 NLR,AR and found it to be very dissappointing....not sure what I expected, so to be fair, they did teach the basics to get you your CDL. AND THAT IS ALL...you get what you pay for....dorms, suck....Our class had two different instructors giving their own version of how to do serpentines and given that your actual road time for training is far less than the pad time, one really has to wonder why the serpentine is even taught (though it is on the DMV test)....none of us in class could fathom a reason to do this in normal driving, and when we asked the two instructors the answer was the same "You probably will never do this, but......" If you stay away from the TV, don't go into town everynight (assuming you have a vehicle), then you will pass in the 3 weeks you are there. If other schools are like C1, the DOT needs to do some exhaustive research and bring the trainers back up to the professional level....not once did I observe any of the instructors there acting like professionals, but rather felt like we had just padded their own bank accounts a little more...do the math 6K (avg) per student x 15 (avg) students each week adds up to alot and the equipment is not road worthy and would not pass a real PTI....enough said, I am going into this with open eyes and will hopefully have a better experience with PAM Transport...

 

I attended C1 in Springfield, Mo and it sounds like they follow the same exact lesson plan at all of them. Straight line backing on Friday afternoon and half day backing and half day driving. Was the pass/fail ratio decent at Little Rock. We had like 5 out of 14 pass the first time. The others took a week or longer to pass. I noticed this is the norm. A few pass the first time and then those left pass in the following weeks.

 

Same ratio. At testing we had a total of 13
10 passed and 2 retesting. 1 sent home (5 weeker)

 

Going to start at c1 on Monday the 16th. Kinda nervous. Some experienced truckers I've spoken with have told me going thru a school like this isn't the best way to start a career in the industry, called it a cdl mill. I just want a good, long-term career. I just want to make sure I will receive the skills necessary to succeed. Will I get this at the nlr c1?

 

I looked into going to C1 since I lived in NLR. I first learned of them through driver's solutions when I applied for PAM. I was turned down for both Pam and USA so I tried to get a loan from the bank and pay C1 that way for the training. The cost was $4k since I didn't need lodging and they would pay my licensing fees if I was paying cash.
Well the bank loan was denied so I went to school at Road Master's in West Memphis. With lodging the cost was almost double that of C1 but from what I've heard about C1, it is well worth it!! With lodging for 19 nights, my loan amount was about $7200 (tuition was $6500). I just graduated this past Friday (July 6th). I was talking with a student from Memphis that was just starting when I was finishing up and he told me he went to C1 NLR. He said he got bad bed bug bites in the dorm. He said the AC went out and it was extremely hot in there and another student there was sick and pretty much spread it to everyone else there. He told me about having to go to Pine Bluff to test because C1 had a conflict with Little Rock and Russleville testing sites. He hit a curb and failed his driving test and then C1 wanted more money from him to stay longer and retake the test so he walked away.

Road master lodging is the Red Roof Inn directly across the street from Southland Dog racing and casino. It's 2 to a room but you do get free wifi, cable tv, and coffee is descent in the mornings. They don't have a shuttle for you to get to the school but the hotel person will drive whoever needs a ride to school if need be. There are a couple of gas stations that you can walk to across the freeway overpass, but I wouldn't recommend it especially at night.

As for the school, they just moved into a new building that is pretty nice. The classroom has computers for every student so you can do the E-Tread lessons. The pad is asphalt instead of dirt like their other location was. Their trucks and trailers are mostly Warner hand me downs, Freightliners with 8 and 10 speed transmissions. The trainers are all great and each have an unique style of teaching which IMO gives you a well rounded learning experience. As far as the serpentine goes, the main guy on the backing pad (Ronnie, old skool and funny as hell!) teaches it in a such a way that it shouldn't matter how any other instructor shows you if it's different. For instance, Ronnie taught us to turn the wheel 1/2 turn right (12 o clock to 6 o clock) as soon as the truck starts rolling backwards, then one full turn left once the trailer edge "breaks the string". The other instruct on the pad taught us to turn the wheel 3/4 left... both methods worked once you realized that it wasn't so much how far you turned the wheel but what you where looking for in the mirrors to know when to turn the wheel how ever much needed to change direction of the trailer or get straight with the trailer.

The best thing I think Road Master has that C1 doesn't is 3rd party examiners. Our instructors where the examiners that gave us our road test at the end... now if you totally screw it up, they would fail you, BUT their main mission is to get you out of there (they need new students to keep the cash flowing) so if you hit a curb, they may warn you instead of failing you granted you don't screw up a whole bunch of other stuff during your drive.