I want to Quit Truck School Over 3 months In

You do fine once you are out of school. Stay positive.. Good luck..

 

I'll be honest: My money says you won't last 3 months out here.Sounds like you've been babied and your feelings
get hurt easy. There gonna eat you alive.

 

This is called a "CDL mill".

How much did they get you for? $3000? $5000? $9000?!

The sad part is your trainer at whichever company you go to will have to put in extra time himself to retrain you in what that so called driving school should have taught you. The trainer won't get paid salary or even hourly for the one-on-one intense and custom tailored training he provides. He will get a top rate per mile on just the miles the truck rolls. That won't be as much because you won't be ready to burn too many miles until after he finishes hours of retraining you.

I trained students for 6 months, so this is first hand info for you. After 6 months of having half-assed trained students come on my truck. I laid it out for the company. I demanded $1000/week salary plus $.54/mi on every mile. I trained these guys thoroughly and wanted fair compensation for it. Told them to get the money from their crap school to pay me the extra dough. The school was worthless, but mandated by the carrier's insurance company. It's a total scam.
Needless to say they dug in and refused; and I dug in and left. I make more money now driving my own truck by myself. I guess that's the carriers' and the trucking industry's loss. I'm doing fine. The trucking school scam just keeps rolling along too, at the behest of the insurance companies.

 

Please tell us, just WHO is going to eat him alive? I always love it when some old timer gets on here and starts trying to talk about how hard it is out on the road and how no one else can hack it. I guess talking that way must make the old timer feel like one of a rare breed - like someone who has accomplished something that practically no one else can.

Give me a break! While I haven't been driving for 15 years like you have, I have been out here for 3 years, and that's PLENTY of time to know that this job isn't anywhere near as tough as you are making it out to be with statements like the one you made.

All this job takes is an average level of intelligence, a good work ethic, and some decent training, and a person can do just fine starting out in this line of work.

This guy said his class has 80 students and only 4 trucks. Is anyone going to learn much when their class is 20 to a truck? I doubt it. That doesn't mean he's a whiner, that his feelings get hurt too easily (yes, that's easILY, not "easy"), and it certainly doesn't mean he is doomed to failure within 3 months. It probably just means he is in a lousy school.

With all your experience, how about making some suggestions that might be constructive for the guy? You were new yourself, once upon a time. Posts like the one you made above are worthless.

 

Neon, the chances are that you will just have to lose a few bucks with the school you are currently attending. If I were you, I would try to find one through a company who trains their own drivers. I got my training with Roehl Transport. At the time, they had a deal where you went through their school, and didn't pay much at all other than a few hundred dollars for some incidental expenses. The cost of the school was technically about $4,500 if I remember correctly, but if you stayed with the company until you had driven 110,000 miles (about a year), then they will forgive the debt and you owe nothing for the school.

In my experience, they were a good place to get started because they trained me on the same equipment I would be working with. My class had 4 students, 2 instructors, and 2 trucks. We were taught how to be safe, capable drivers.

I'm not here to give a sales pitch for Roehl, but like I said, my experience with them was good. There are probably other companies who have good training programs as well.

I would keep doing your research on here and you should find a good home.

Best of luck!

 

I was never taught how to back up, do logbooks, split gears etc., yet here I am, three years later and still trucking. Here's how I helped my own situation out: be proactive. You have the power to prepare more thoroughly before your test.
I learned more from veteran drivers than in driving school. Talk with experienced drivers, and heed their advice. Sure, you have to weed out the bull from the useful advice at times, but they have plenty of useful tips and tricks to help you. Chat with drivers at truck stops and watch them back up. Go for ride alongs with drivers before you take your test. Watch how they drive, and ask them questions. Heck, I even watched Convoy, Black Dog, and Smokey and the Bandit several times before I took my test, just to immerse myself in as much trucking as I could. If you don't feel like your school is giving you enough help, get out into the real world and find help elsewhere.

 

And I will add one more...

Save your money and buy your own truck and make over $125k / year