How can I tell if a school is a mill?

YES Chinatown is right. If you wanna do flatbed, Howard is a real good small company to go with. I was with them for a couple of months before we mutually decided flatbed was not good for me. Great folks there in Ellisville Mississippi. They do haul their own electric transformers that they make themselves and run the eastern 32. The short time I was there, I got home 6 out of 8 weekends. They start at .37 per mile, drive Internationals and Western Stars. Dorothy Ivey and Michelle King are the recruiters. If skateboards are your thing, Howard is a great place to work. Me, I pull dry boxes and reefers for Abilene Motor Express in Richmond VA, and I LOVE THEM!!

 

Hey! Another Durham person here!
I went to JCC Truck Driver Training School in Smithfield. I was lucky enough to not work for the 2 months. With the commute, it was a 65-70 hr week. Great school but I understand it's quite a commitment. About $1200 + a lot of gas for the 1hr,15 min commute each way, every day!

No matter where you chose to go, just pay attention and apply yourself. Stay away from the complainers and negative people. Everyday at lunch I studied my pretrip and for tests. Other guys talked football and told tall tails... when we learned how to adjust brakes, I crawled under and did it. Some guys didn't want to get their pants dirty. You will get out of it what you put in. It's your money and time. If you want to learn, GO AFTER IT. No one is going to hand it to you.
The real learning starts on your first job. It's mind boggling how much there is to trucking. School did what they could, but there is no way to teach the daily changing circumstances that happen EVERY day.
Another company to look at is Estes. I know they do the flatbed local deliveries for Home Depot(North Pointe off guess rd) I know this because the material for the deck I built the week before I went to school was delivered by them. I had a talk with the driver. He seemed happy. They have a local terminal I guess... but I know nothing else of them...
I have a friend that went to a school in Thomasville. He liked it. He did the weekend thing. Bout an hr. each way, Saturday and Sunday for 16 weeks. Works at a local dairy delivering milk products and was able to work and go to school. They seemed very accommodating with his schedule. Can't remember the name but it's in Thomasville. Think it was around 3000.

Good luck Bro!!

Oh, and Go Sox!! You have a very ugly avatar! Lol

 

No one had the upper hand. It is a free market economy, you did not need to go there.

You could have looked for a school that gave you six months of one on one training, and you could then expect a bill for $200,000.00 for your training as well.

It amazes me to hear everyone on here always complain about school costs but they have never run a truck before, let alone 6-10 trucks, made payroll every week for instructors, paid the mortgage on the property, fuel bills, ridiculous insurance amounts because you let people who don't know how to drive a truck actually drive your truck, absurd advertising costs, property maintenance, health insurance for employees, mechanics bills for all the tore up clutches from students that treat your trucks like crap and refuse the understand what a clutch brake is........so on and so on and so on.

This is the new America. All business owners are considered evil, anyone that makes more money than me is evil, everything should be given to me for free, I'm the only one that should get paid for my time.

If you think $5k is too expensive and that everyone should leave a school as a polished and professional truck driver then I suggest you open a school yourself and train people for 10 times as long and half that amount....see how long you are in business.

 

well said.....

 

I am considering Mcelroy, I would like to know some information on their company. Do you have any to share>

 

Are you talking about McElroy the flat bed company out of Cuba Alabama?

If so you absolutely cannot go wrong there. Just know, they are a serious company. They expect men who do their job, are clean cut, work hard and represent them properly.

They pay fantastic, home time is outstanding....guaranteed home every Friday before the sun goes down. If every company was as good as McElroy, the trucking industry would have a much lower turn over ratio.

It is flatbed though, make sure you are physically cut out for it.

 

Several ways. If they have advertising that says Earn your CDL in two weeks that's one. If they want to teach you on a day cab with a forty foot trailer that's another. If the instructor says "i'll make you a deal" and proposes under the table payments go some place else.

 

That's all it comes down too man. At least you have a clear enough vision of your future to see that. A couple of my buddies have destroyed great opportunities because of GF's at the time that aren't around any more. Now the only thing you gotta do is dump that Yankee swastika and THEN your good to go!


BOOM!