Firm School vs. Tech School?

5 weeks I believe. As for oil fields, forget it. One, they want experience. Two, they're all shut down due to low oil prices. Flatbed is very physical work and expect to be filthy a lot without the opportunity to shower. That's the downside. On the upside, it's honestly more interesting (if sometimes frustrating) work.

 

4k is cheap compared to what Swift, et al will charge you if you get your CDL through them and then quit. Or for that matter, serve your period of indentured servitude with them at their crap wages. Also, most companies that hire new drivers offer tuition reimbursement at the rate of $150 per month or so.

 

yes

 

In my opinion, the best way is just take the tests and forget about pay for a school altogether. From what I see all those schools are just short of a scam: $4,000 - $7,000 for 3-5 weeks. What a joke. The drivers that come out of the schools appear to be no better off and often times worse then those that did it on their own.

There are companies that hire a rookie. Most of these companies are the same ones that have a training school. Do you get the scam? If you got your CDL on your own it may indeed be hard to find a company that will hire you. Hard but not impossible.

Almost no one stays with the company they trained with. All those companies have 100% turnover. The working conditions there are so bad that most leave before payment of their training contract is up.

If you are going to pay, I would guess any community college is better then tech school, is better then company training. However, I went to a community college and it sucked. 12 students, two of us had CDLs and even then 8 failed the state CDL test after one full quarter of classes. What a scam. The good thing is many training companies will reimburse tuition (that $4000) even if the school is not administered by them. Although, as mentioned earlier almost all do not make it to a term at the training company where that is possible.

Somewhat, who you work for as a rookie will depend on who can insure you. The mega-training companies are self-insured so they take the risks. The companies that pay decent are usually limited by their insurance policy who can hire. Most do not take on the type of insurance that would cover a driver with less than a year of experience because there is more then enough drivers that apply that have more then enough experience for the lower rate coverage.

 

It is. Some states require school to even get a CDL. You see the mega-crap companies are quite good a lobbing for the purchase of their product: truck driving school.

 

I was told by one of our recruiters that new drivers are required by the DOT to have completed a CDL School. Not sure why that is the case but I was talking to a guy here on TTR that "got his CDL on his own" and he could then buy a truck and get the MC# required to start driving... But if he wanted to be a "company driver" (without experience I assume) it would be easier to go back and zip through a CDL School than find a way to work around the system.

I also assume it impacts insurance rates to hire only drivers with the basic level of schooling and receive a diploma... Who knows.