My Review of 'Charlotte Tuck Driver Training School'

Well to start off I believe this school has some highs and some lows. I'll try and explain my review of it from my own perspective. I waited to write my review till I graduated and today was my graduation date, yay me. To start off the school is broken down into four weeks. They state you'll graduate in four weeks but most likely it takes everyone five weeks since things just get backed up. I'll break down the weeks below

Pre Trip
Every day from 730AM to 830AM your going to be pre-tripping. They have about 4 trucks and they divide one instructor per truck and have one lead student do a pre-trip while the other students listen and the instructor corrects the lead student if he messes up. I will say this the pre-trip is allot to remember but you WILL remember it if it's all what your hearing every day for an hour. Instructors are very tolerant and help you out with whatever you need. I ended up passing my pre-trip today with a 95% so it's not that bad.

Week 1
This week you'll be watching tons of video's and after each video they'll be given a test on what you have learned. Also an instructor will come in and give you a verbal lecture of the video aswell. You'll be issued a paper log book so during the whole 4-5 weeks you'll be logging your days to get a hang of it. They go over hours of service how to recap your hours. briefly go into map reading, how to hook and unhook a trailer from your fifth wheel. Theirs only so much class room stuff you can do so theirs also lots of "filler hours" of war stories these instructors go over about driving through NYC, and other such filler topics.

Week 2
This week is your field week. Your learning how to back a tractor trailer. They start you off with straight line backing a truck that is such a POS i'm not even sure how it runs but it does get the job done. After you can straight line back two times without doing a pull up you graduate into learning how to do a 90. the rest of your field week is doing 90's and offsets. The instructors are very helpful in teaching you how to do these maneuvers. Their sitting beside you walking you back each step of the way.

Week 3
This week your doing your road driving. They start you off on the gear range. The gear range is going around a block in an industrial area with not very much traffic. They teach you how to up-shift and downshift. Once they feel confortable with your progress you get thrown into some country bumpkin back roads and near the end of the third week if they like your progress you get thrown into Downtown Charlotte, NC. where I about #### my pants a couple times on those small roads.

Week 4
This week is your flex hours. You need 160 hours so whatever your missing is what your going to be doing. If your shy on road driving hours thats what your doing, field, class whatever. If you have all your hours in and have perfect attendance then you might test at the end of the week. If testing is booked solid you'll test at the beginning of week five. I ended up having to test at week 5 since testing was booked.

Testing
They really do want you to pass the test. Your tested on a 48ft flatbed so its a shorter trailer for easier maneuvers and it's a flatbed so not as much stuff to pre-trip. It also doesn't have an rpm gauge so you do the thinking.

Conclusion/Opinions
I feel like I got an adequate education they only teach you what is needed for you to pass the exam nothing more nothing less in that respect I believe they did a good job. Not to toot my own horn but I went from not being able to drive a stick shift to driving a 48ft trailer down downtown charlotte. I ended up not hitting no lines or no pullups on the straight back. no pullups and no lines on the offset and one pullup and 2 get outs on the 90. So if I can do it anyone can. The instructors are knowledgeable but I do have one downside to this school. The waiting, you have 10-12 guys waiting to backup one truck so if these guys suck at backing your going to average three try's a day getting it in the hole so you better be learning something. The rest of the day your going to be sweating in the heat. Same thing for road driving you have 3-4 students per truck and each student gets 2-2 1/2 hours to drive if your not driving your just sitting back there racking up observing hours so you better be learning something. The trucks aswell are outdated half of them are 96's they have two never freightliners that might be early 2000's but that's acceptable since we grind these trannys. All in all I would recommend this school but go in knowing your only going to learn the bare minimum to get your cdl. Make sure the first company you go with has a good training program.