CDL question

Right , 2 years ago . There was a driver shortage then . Now there is a growing oversupply with more drivers losing jobs and more graduates being turned out . How much common sense does it take to figure out there is little or no opportunity for a graduate when drivers that have lost jobs can't find work ?

 

You are cramming every school into one bucket. If I train a felon, on the very rare occasion, I make certain that he knows that it is going to be a straight uphill battle getting a job. He signs a waiver, that he understands just that, and this waiver is signed before we take any money for training. Following is a list of students that must sign waivers.

Any license suspension in the past year
Any Commercial Disqualification in the past 3 years
This is caused by more than 1 major moving violation in any 3 year period
More than 2 Moving Violations in the past 3 years.
Any DUI's within the past 5 years
More than 1 DUI ever.
Any Felonies
Misdemeanors less than 5 years old
Multiple Misdemeanors less than 10 years old

In addition to the above list, we have many health issues that are disqualifiers, Mostly concerning any injury which has any lifting restrictions, taking any medicine for depression or anxiety, Sleep Apnia, and heart conditions.

If any applicant has any of the above barriers, I try my best to disuade him from pursuing a trucking career. If he still wants to train he signs a job placement waiver and pays half of his tuition in advance.

I DON'T GET PAID FOR THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE I START IN TRAINING, I GET PAID FOR THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE I GRADUATE AND PUT TO WORK.

and why was i pushing so hard on my keys as i typed that, i don't suppose any of you felt that did you?

 

Also,

I don't work at all with:

Violent Felonies
Drug Felonies
Sexual Felonies
Any person who has stolen from an employer
Any person who has failed a drug screen for any employer

and

I inform any person who has any employment gap longer than 6 months that finding a job is difficult.

 

Graduate, or graduate and actually place in a trucking job? If you don't get paid when they cant find a job, where does their tuition money go?


My issue with most CDL schools is they teach you the bare minimum to pass the DMV test, but don't teach you a darn thing about what happens in the real world. Most of whats in those DMV books is a pipedream.

Passing the DMV test is easy for anyone with basic reading skills, I'd like to see drivers who're actually prepared for what really goes on out on the road.

 

Probably 90% or more of all drivers that are starting today are CDL School graduates. Where else do you think these guys are getting their training. This is really confusing.

People are railing on Truck driving schools, but that is the only avenue that men and women have to get into a job with an OTR company. Please, tell me how else they will do it, if not to go through a school.

Hell, I am a CDL graduate. Paid good money for my training and was glad to do it. I chose this career, and enjoyed it. Chose to get out, and I enjoy my life now too. I definitely do not regret going through a truck driving school, because otherwise I would have never had the opportunity to get into a truck.

 

In the case of anyone who's tuition is paid for by the Georgia WIA, I don't get paid until the WIA counselor has verification in the form of a pay stub from the student's employer.

In all other cases where the student's tuition is being financed, it is being financed "in-house". So I ask you, If i didn't get you a job, would you pay me for your training.

Very few students pay for their tuition up front, we write student loans and depend on tuition reimbursement for the payment of them.

 

Sure am glad that I didn't have you as my trainer. I have a felony, its for poss. of CDS, went thru training, and do have a driving job. Don't know if I could get one now, less than a year later, but do have my foot in the door.

May never get my "dream" job but am doing what I want to do.

 

Schools teach what the trucking companies and the Individual States require that they teach. What part of the "real world" would you have us teach? We cannot by law pickup or deliver a real load, we do teach log booking but not in a real world type of environment, we teach routing and map reading but there it can take months and months of practical application to be an efficient route planner.

Would students be more prepared if we taught them to fuel a truck. Should we run them by a pilot so they can learn to use the card reader. Perhaps we should install Qualcomm in our trucks, and teach them about canned messages, and pickup and delivery messages. Would it benefit students if we taught them how to punch the star in before the numeric code at the shower door in the TA Truckstop.

Perhaps we should also teach them how to buy 1000 gallons at Love's so they can get free drink refill for the month. We should definitely have them memorize every truck stop in the country that fills up before dark, so that they will know how to find a place to park. A 2 hour class on the idle aire system is extremely important, lets not forget that. What about a CB etiquette class, should we squeeze that into our curriculum?

We should probably stage a number of scenarios for each student to get practice on. Tire blowouts would be a good one. We can rig explosives to the inside of the tire and blow it so the student gets to feel what it's like. Every student should take a ride up an escape ramp, after we stage brake loss on a 6 degree downgrade.

What else do we need to fit into our curriculum someone please tell me.

 

6 months ago, I would have tried to work with you sir, but times have changed quickly. The fact of the matter is, we cannot and should not just train anybody. Schools should be training people who we are almost 100 percent sure that we can put to work.