"CDL MILLS"

When I got my CDL, I paid the school $4500 to help me get a license. The school was three weeks long and this is what I went through for my $4500:
Within the first 3 days, I had a physical, and was given sample questions to obtain a CDL permit. By the third day, I had my medical card and permit with tanker, double and haz mat endorsements. Days four and five we went over filling out a log book, and we had recruiters come talk to us, so we all had a guaranteed job, once we obtained our licenses.
Second week we started driving.
We'd drive four students to a truck. The first day, our instructor talked us through and showed us exactly what she was doing behind the wheel. She let us know about having to double clutch, the sensitivity of the brakes, and how she was constantly checking her mirrors. She let us know when she was starting her turns, and what she was going to be expecting out of us once we got behind the wheel. Once we got to the "shifting range", we all got out and she talked us through a pretrip inspection. Next, she talked us through a brake/air pressure check, and let the first guy take the wheel. We all took turns doing pretrips, brake checks, and driving that day. We also had to start filling out log books that day. The next four days were more of the same. Start out with pre trips and brake checks before you get to drive. We'd drive about two hours at a time. Third week, we "learned" to back.
First day, the instructor talked us through what we were going to be doing: Pre trip inspections, Brake checks, straight line backing, backing into a dock, and parallel parking. All day we took turns TRYING to learn to back. On your last day, you were expected to go test for your license.
For your license, you're expected to: Do a pre trip inspection, a brake check, straight line backing, back into a dock and parallel park. Then you go out on the road for about a ten mile drive, don't hit any curbs, don't speed, pay attention to all signs, get the tester back safely, and you get your CDL.
Once you have your CDL, you go to where you applied for a job. At the job site, you'll be tested on pre trips, brake checks, driving, and backing. Before the end of the week, you'll be paired up with a trainer, and out on the road for about 2-3 weeks.
Really, it's not that hard to get a CDL. Unfortunately, if you're going to try to go about learning the things you need to get a CDL through a different route, it's going to take you a whole lot longer than three weeks. Are schools ripping you off? I don't think so. Good luck trying to find a truck to practice your shifting and backing.
You have to point at, and tell what you're looking at when you're doing pret trips and brake checks. Good luck trying to learn that out of a book only. You need hands on experience on that.
Some drivers advise to go through a community college. Thing is, you're not going to learn that much more from a community college than you're going to learn from that CDL mill. It's really not that hard to get behind a wheel of a truck and get it from point A to point B. That's not saying it's easy to be a truck driver, but the mechanics of operating a truck can be learned with a week's worth of practice. Why put off making money for three months?
Experience is the best teacher, that's why the companies that pay well require some time behind the wheel. I drove for three years, and while I honestly believe I know A LOT about truck driving, I also know I have a lot to learn. Your first year out on the road is a great learning experience. I don't think a community college could teach me in three months what I learned my first WEEK out as a solo driver. I wouldn't want to be beholden to a my employer for a year because they helped me to get my CDL.
In terms of the "high" cost of school: That's the going rate. It's the market that sets the price. Nobody's going to charge you less than what you're willing to pay for a product or service. I would suggest you try to go through your unemployment bureau and see if they can get you through the school on either: a grant, or a low interest rate loan.

 

I think message boards like this one are one of the advantages people who have the time to research should take advantage of. We can help by letting people know what questions to ask, and what to try to get out of your training, but I have to reiterate that there's no teacher like experience. I went into driving almost blind. I thought I knew what it was going to be like to be away from my family for weeks at a time. I'd been camping before, I thought it would be no big deal to sleep on the side of a deserted road. I started driving in the spring and talked to truck drivers all the time at docks and restaurants about what to expect when driving in the snow. No matter how many pointers you get, nothing prepares you for when you're turning your steering wheel to the left and your rig's deciding to keep going forward for lack of traction. So you decide to pull over to catch your breath and notice your tandems are frozen solid and you've probably been dragging your trailer for the last 60 miles.
So who do you ask what questions to? Before I left school, I wish someone would have shown me how to properly hook and unhook from a trailer. I felt like a jack ### when I lowered my landing gear by turning the crank from the handle. The guy testing me tells me to stop and says "Try it like this.". He uses two fingers to quickly lower the landing gear from the crook in the arm. Something minor, but had I done it more than once at the school, it wouldn't have seemed unfamiliar to me.
Backing is something I think you're not really going to learn at a school, but that takes practice and once it clicks, it really is easy. It takes a while for it to click though. Some of the guys that started with me at my first trucking job came back from their trips with their trainers knowing how to back. I got one of those trainers that went into training cuzz he was getting paid all the miles for the truck and wanted us to drive like a team. I got to back twice when we were on the road together. It took me a while longer to learn to back.
I can go on and on and on about stuff you'll learn just your first month on your own. Someone help me out with how you learned something on your own you wish your trainer or your school would have shown you.

 

In terms of getting behind the wheel of a truck, cranking it up, PRACTICING on it ( Let's say, you drive it 50 miles before you let the next guy PRACTICE. In 9 weeks, you're really going to learn that much more about handling a truck than you did your first two weeks? REALLY? I'm talking practice here, not on the job. If you did learn that much more in 9 weeks, then I musta have gone through school with a bunch of truck driving prodigies, cuzz we were all handling the truck pretty easily after our first three DAYS behind the wheel.) and getting it back to the yard, you're not going to learn that much more in nine weeks than you will in two.

I'm pretty sure I added somewhere, payment's something I wish I had had more time to research. I could have had the state pay for my training, or gotten some kind of discount like the felons I went to class with did.

According to my trainer, so was I. We were driving team loads off the bat.

4500 WAS the going rate for a truck driving school ( CDL mill ) which is what I was referring to. I bet it's even more now. I know community colleges are WAY cheaper monetarily, but they're very taxing time wise. I stand by what I believe, Driving a truck is not rocket science. It shouldn't take 9 weeks.

You're 100% correct on this. I think I also made that point in one of my two posts on this thread. Something about having driven over the road for three years and still having a lot to learn. I'm talking about the mechanics of driving though, not transporting goods. Is that clearer?

I have to agree/disagree with you on this point. Because I went through trucking school to get my license, I paid to keep them in business.
I don't think you were better trained in your nine weeks at a community college, than I was in three weeks at a CDL mill though. I think I alluded to that when I said your REAL training is achieved when you're out there solo. In just your first month, you get a hell of an education, or did your community college cover all the situations that arose in your first month driving solo? If you honestly believe you didn't learn anything you hadn't already covered in your community college training your first month on your own, then I'll admit to being completely off base on this.

I already said that.

Sorry about that. If I had known you posted here, I woulda waited and changed driver info with you.

Yes. But if your alternative is community college, and you're pressed for time and a job, a community college isn't going to prepare you any better for your CDL, or for being on the road, than a CDL school. Not all of us have the luxury of nine months for "training". Hell, if I'd have had a 40 hour a week job that paid the bills when I got out of the military, I wouldn't even had considered driving a truck. Forgive me if I'm assuming working a 40/hr work week at a machine shop feeds a family of five.

I don't think there's much change on the horizon on how truck drivers are going to be trained. An alternative is to hire on with a company that "trains" you to get your CDL as long as you give them a time commitment, but if you don't fulfill your commitment, you have to pay the company back for your "training". The "training" program is a little bit more than 3 weeks, but not as much as nine. Pretty much the same as a CDL school.

My two cents, is to train drivers like they do carpenters and electricians. Putting them through journeyman, apprentice, master driver qualifications. That's a whole new can of worms in itself I don't want to open up though.