Apex Trucking LLC - Salt Lake City, UT Review

I have just finished my 2nd calendar week, so this short review will only cover what I have experienced thus far.

The total cost for someone walking in the door without obtaining their CDL learner’s permit and DOT medical card is $4,000.00. If you obtain both of these before enrolling in the course your price will be adjusted to $3,883.00.

The first week was spent mostly in the classroom covering 36 chapters full of general knowledge topics pertaining to trucking. Note that if you get your learner’s permit on your own that some of this will seem remedial, but the knowledge is much more in depth and, in the end, I see the value in this coursework. Pre-trip inspection knowledge is also highly stressed throughout the course. We went to the yard 3 times in the afternoon, a couple hours each time, to get our hands on a truck and work through pre-trip inspection including air brakes test. We also had recruiters from two different companies, Werner and Salt Lake Trucking Group come to give presentations in the first week. This school is not affiliated with any companies, however, they do have good relationships with many companies and have a full and active job board where jobs are posted for the benefit of current and former students (I will post a picture of the job board, along with other pictures.)

The lady that runs the office, Cheryl, is extremely nice, helpful, and knowledgeable about the trucking industry, regulations, and procedures. She knew that I was a coffee head because I brought in a keurig machine to set up in their kitchen area so that I could have a cup or two during class days and at lunch, (more on the kitchen later.) So, she told me about a newer local coffee company that is owned by an Army vet (I’m also an Army vet, she knew that too) and then went out of her way to bring me a couple pods of the coffee to try the next day. Extremely gracious of her and completely I requested on my part. The name of the company is Black Rifle Coffee Company, if anyone is interested, and the coffee is quite good.

Mr. German (pronounced Herman) is a Latino man with 7 years CDL experience that teaches the class portions, he is a very nice man who is knowledgeable and has a big smile and kind heart. I have nothing bad to say about this man.

They have a kitchen with a refrigerator, microwave, and cabinets full of bowls, cups, utensils available for student use throughout the program. Just be respectful and keep your #### squared away, boys and girls.

I started driving in week 2 on Tuesday, beginning with straight backing and offset backing, then on to parallel, and on to road driving. I am doing each of these maneuvers and hitting the road each day. I have progressed pretty quickly from what instructors are saying so note that other people may be a little slower, but the progression cycle is the same. When you master the previous skill, you move to the next while still practicing your other skills. Alley docking is not required for the test, but if you are catching on to stuff easily they will throw in that type of thing for extra instruction. I learned to alley dock today, for instance, but I don’t believe anyone else has been shown that. There is an automatic that is available to practice in and test with, if that is your desire, but you are encouraged to learn and test in a manual transmission. The equipment is a bit older but well maintained and performs quite well, the trucks even have working A/C. 1 Kenworth w/ 8 speed Eaton tranny, 1 Peterbilt with 8, 1 Freightliner with 8, and 1 freightliner w/ 10.

The instructors are knowledgeable and the system that is taught is effective. Note, the instructors here teach double clutching AND FLOATING GEARS, they say that companies tell them we want people who can float gears, not double clutch. So, they teach you the concept of double clutching, but they really go straight into teaching you to float gears. I walked in with zero experience in big trucks or manual transmissions (although I do have experience in pickups with big trailers) and I feel comfortable doing all maneuvers, up shifting and downshifting in city environments and on highways using the floating gears method by the end of my 5th day driving. Pretty sure I could pass my test at this point, moral of the story, if I can learn it so can you.

This is not a weekly course, it is hourly. If you go the full course, you will graduate with 160 hours combined classroom/driving time; However, you can pay by the hour and just straight up take the test after a few hours instruction. Personally, I plan to make this a full career and own my own business in this industry sooner rather than later (God willing), that being said, the full course here is well worth the investment if you intend to really give this career a shot. You get two testing opportunities included with the full tuition, after that if you have not passed it is $250 to retest.

This school has been excellent in my experience, I have been 1 to 1 most of the time while driving and a couple times with only 1 other person with us. If it is you and one other person they will only count those hours as HALF HOURS. As I said though, I’m mainly rolling with one instructor and I am the only driving, meaning I am getting a #### ton of practice in. I will update later after my 3rd week and hopefully after my successful CDL test. I hope this review helps out anyone in the area looking for a good school that will teach you the skills necessary to be a good driver. Also, special thanks to @Chinatown for helping me decide to give this place a shot.

Cheers

 

I just saw a video from them randomly on YouTube today, one of the coolest video marketing vids I’ve ever seen. The owner is an ex-Army Ranger with 5 combat deployments. Cool to see another Southern boy on here, I’m from Alabama originally. I’ve been to Manchester quite a few times for a music festival that is there every year. Interesting that they opened up there.

 

I had a few friends that were with the 101 stationed at Campbell. You should check out the owner of the Black Rifle Coffee’s YouTube channel, he makes some high quality content that is geared towards vets and is pretty #### funny. MBest11x is his personal channel name.
@Chinatown