Truck Driver Institute- TDI- Sanford, FL

I just graduated from this school yesterday. Here's a recap and some thoughts.

My first contact was with the school recruiter, Rodney. He seemed genuine and answered any questions I had. He gave me a tour of the school and a rundown of what happens during the 3 weeks. He told me about finance options if I needed to go that route. I was going to pay cash and they were good with that. I decided to go ahead and attend. I payed for a background check at that time. The background check is to make sure going to school is worth your and their time and resources. They pretty much won't take you if you have a bunch of thing going on that will prevent you from getting hired on with a company. Since I was leaving my present job, a store closing, so I was unsure of when I was going to start, that was ok with them. . I just kept in touch with them and kept them posted. Rodney called me a couple of times to keep me posted and see how I was doing. I had to postpone my start date a couple of times, and that was fine with them. They were patient of me and my circumstances. I was told to start studying the driving manual to make it easier to get my permit, which I did. Something else, If you live far away, they have a housing option where you pay $100 and it covers all 3 weeks of housing at a local extended stay suite hotel. Great deal and a nice place. (meals are you though)

When I finally started school, The first day was a lot of paperwork and paying the tuition and hotel. They started covering the driving manual and had practice tests and lectures going to help pass the permit test at the DMV.
2nd day was pretty much more of the same, lectures, practice tests and movies. And going over Pre-Trip Inspection. They also handed out a packet full of applications to start filling out and hand in. They email, fax, and send any apps you fill out to the companies for you, but no pressure to fill any out if you don't want to. Just part of what they offer. They also have computers with test questions to practice on.
3rd day, the first half of the day I went to DMV to take permit test.(I passed). If I remember right the afternoon covered "The Green Book". And a test on that.
4th day was HOS, Logs, Pre-trip Planning, Map reading, and tests for those.
5th day was mechanicals, shifting, double clutching, etc. afternoon was straight-backs on the driving range. That's the first time in the truck.

2nd week:
most of this week consists of half day driving on range learning offset back-up, 90* alley dock, and sight side/blind side parallel parking(using day cabs and 53' trailers). 2nd half of day is driving out on the road learning double clutch shifting. upshifting and downshifting. These are older Cascadias, a Volvo or a Peterbuilt. You'll be assigned a tractor and will pretty much drive the same on all week. There is 2-3 other students with you depending on the size of class. If it seems like a student is not doing as well they'll spend more time with them. On the range as well as on the road. The students couple trailers at the beginning of the day and uncouple at the end of the day. All of this is done rain or shine. In Florida in the summer the range is HOT and expect to get wet due to afternoon rain storms. In my opinion the is real world training. LOL

3rd week:
on Monday 1st half practicing backing on the range, 2nd half is a long on the road day. Out for 8 hrs driving distances.
2nd day more range time and road time. working on any weakness'
3rd day School evaluation day on all back-up maneuvers, couple and uncoupling and road driving. More practicing when not doing evals. You can stay late on this day to get in a bit more practice.
4th day State DOT testing. Pretrip, Skills, and roadtest. One reason I chose this school was that it is a third party tester for the state. So you test on the vehicles that you've been training on. Certainly an advantage. During test there are no favors, You have to know your stuff. They will not hesitate to fail you if you don't do it right. I passed...YAY!
5th day if you didn't pass on Thursday here's your second chance. If you passed on Thursday...1/2 day of road driving and half day of getting your hours in.

Overall I had a blast. Even though it's long days and a lot of information in a short period, I felt that I got a quality education. I went from never driving a truck to driving one safely on roads. No doubt, I need to continue my training and improve but felt I got a solid foundation to go on.The instructors knew what the were doing, very knowledgeable, and have no problem answering questions or spending time with you if you need it. They also made it fun. At the beginning no one in class talked much to each other, by the end we were all pushing and helping each other to succeed. Hi-Fives all around when we did well....support and encouragement when we fell short.
Oh by the end of the second week I had 4 pre-hires from various companies. I only put in 6 apps. Also various company recruiters will come in at different time and give you their talk on why you should drive for them. And give you free stuff.

Thanks TDI-Sanford,FL for a good experience.

 

I'm going with HO Wolding, I leave for orientation next weekend.

 

Right about $5k if you pay up front, I know It's more if you finance it but since i didn't go that route I'm not sure how much more. I had the money set aside and with all the tuition reimbursement programs out there that was better for me.

 

Thanks guys....They tell me there's no problem getting in and out of Florida when I want to. I told them OTR, so I'll probably be out for 3-4 weeks with a day off for each week. They also told me if I needed a couple extra days now and then, that was no problem either. They have regular freight accounts coming in/out.
@Drift...about 75% of my class was finance, only a couple had problems and that was due to the co-signers not getting their paperwork back in time. They just had to postpone their test a few days.