"CDL Mill" and "Bottom Feeders": Definitions, please?

CDL Mill: A driving school that turns out graduates with no regard to the quality of education provided, regardless of the ability of the graduate to find employment in the industry. Generally they are there to make money off of the unsuspecting rubes who walk through the door, and the government money that comes with them.

Bottom Feeder: A transportation company who uses their drivers like cattle, treats them worse than slaves, and then destroys any possibility of their continued employment in the industry when they throw them out after they have become useless to them.

 

Pretty much all the schools are CDL mills, simply because of the length of the course. There is only so much you can learn in four weeks, ususally just enough to be dangerous. They don't teach you how to drive a truck. They can't, not in 4 weeks, so they focus on teaching you how to pass the test and get your CDL. The real training starts after you get hired, and it's usually only the "bottom feeders" that will hire you.

 

I don't consider all schools CDL mills . Some do provide quality training with good equipment and qualified instructors .
There are some students with a degree of aptitude that would make them capable of being safe drivers as soon s they graduate but these re a small percentage . I have worked for companies that would take an employee out of the warehouse and have a driver train him for a couple of weeks . They went on to be good , safe drivers .

 

Still, there is no way you are going to make a truck driver in 4 weeks. It doesn't matter how good the teacher is. I've been out here on the road 12 years, I'm still learning.

 

I know several that have done just fine with less training . Some people have the abilities , some don't . Far too people realize that .
It's like playing a musical instrument . Some people can pick up a banjo or guitar and just play . Others take months of lessons and never have the ability .

 

Hey I went to a CDL mill and the one thing that really stood out was if you came up w/the money, you passed!

One of the instructors was really straight about it. He told me his job was to provide the absolute minimum training.

 

I worked for a company that hired a "driver" that had graduated from Mid Florida Tech in Orlando . That guy was flat dangerous and never should have been behind the wheel . I confronted the school staff and they admitted he had needed "several attempts " to pass some driving parts of the course .
That was the first and last CDL school grad that company hired .