CDL question

The place I went to school at wouldn't sign you into a class unless you had pre-hire letters from a minimum of 3 companies. There were 4 other schools in the Denver metro area at that time. I had been to 1 a year or two before that, and wasn't impressed. No. 4 tried to pressure me into signing papers without seeing the curiculum - must be the place you're thinking of, and no mention was made of pre-hire letters.

Look... a CDL school is nothing more than a place to get your feet wet, and have enough experience to get through the CDL driving test. It gets you to the point where you can loose the "training wheels" as it were. They can't possibly provide the experience I got from my training with the company that I now work for - spent 3 months with a trainer. Heck... ran across two brand new CDLs less than a week from taking the state test training each other for I think it was PTL.

 

Well if a company has to spend 3-6 months after you're done with a "driver" just to make sure they can actually drive a truck without a babysitter... what exactly are you teaching them for their tuition money? A couple hours studying the DMV book will get ya a permit, so don't tell me thats worth the cost. A company could take a green driver who'd never been inside a truck and do the same in the same amount of time, without the CDL school.

I guess in the "big 10" companies with 100+% driver turnover rate, CDL schools serve a purpose. They couldnt possibly go through drivers that fast without the CDL schools passing out licenses to everyone with $4500.

For the rest of us that work for small companies or ourselves, it just doesnt make much sense.

 

It has been stated many times in these forums pre-hires have no value . They only mean your application had no obvious reason to reject you . Many students with pre-hires have had those companies notify them while they were still in school that the company would not have a position open for them .

 

There's a lot more to driving a CMV than just "holding the wheel." They put you with a trainer for 50,000 miles - as little as 8 - 9 weeks in a high-paced team environment. The rest of it depends on freight, holidays, home time, etc. I got hit with Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. Added a little bit to the bottom line.

 

Your right. Its not an offer of employment. Its something that says there's no obvious reason that you couldn't be hired if the need still exists after your graduation date. There are a lot of bottom feeder schools out there that will take a persons money for CDL training that has no reasonable expectation of ever being hired because of their past... so it has the value of at least finding out if there is the possiblity of employment after obtaining a CDL.

 

Yes, I suppose they could but they don't. Most owner/ops could but don't. Drivers who pay 120-150,000 for a truck don't want a green driver in there tearing it up. Most drivers don't have the patience to train a green driver.

Some of the instructors at my school are truly amazing. They have to exhibit patience and self restraint on a daily basis that most of us couldn't fathom.

And once again, In my state atleast, the Department of Driver's Services hands out the licenses, not the CDL school. The Examiners are licensed by the State of Georgia and follow the guidelines set forth by the FMCSA. You should really be challenging those guidelines if you truly don't feel that these drivers should have licenses. If the state made the test more difficult, and added additonal requirements, the schools would obviously have to provide additional training.

 

Now theres a point we can agree upon, the DMV tests are a joke, not only are they highly outdated and full of completely silly information, they're entirely too easy.

But the couple of drivers I've taught to drive (my wife and nephew) were taught well beyond what the state required minimum because I didn't feel what was in the Illinois DMV book was enough. CDL schools could (and should) be doing the same.

 

The state also gives hazmat endorsements but that endorsement isn't adequate . FMCSA requires further training . Does your state road test have any mountain grades , icy conditions , or take them through construction zones ? I had a customer tell me a Schneider tanker driver was a day late with a delivery because he got so shook up coming down Monteagle the previous day when he got to the bottom he just parked it for the day .
Why do your instructors need all that tolerance ? It's because some students are so unsuited to drive a truck once you take their money and send them to a carrier the trainer will reject them and send them home .
If a person lacks the perception , common sense , and coordination to be a driver no amount of additional training will ever make them a driver .
If a poll was taken of the percentage of drivers trained without a school still working versus the percentage of graduates still working the ones trained without school would show a much hire percentage of drivers still driving . The reason is those training them don't have thousands of dollars to lose if they tell them they should find another way to make a living . Turning out incompetent graduates that won't be able to keep a job is job security for the schools and it's happening every day .

 

I am assuming you taught your wife and nephew in your truck using real industry experience, I think that is great and the best and only way to become a truck driver.

You give me the slight impression that somehow my students go directly from my school and are put in a truck on their own. Thank God that is not the case. When they leave school they are put into an environment similar to the way you taught your wife and nephew. During this time they are supposed to receive training that goes well beyond the information contained in the CDL handbook. This is the training that can make a good student a great truck driver. But it takes a great driver, to make a great driver.

 

Thats my point, if a trucking company is going to do all of that anyway (and rightfully so) then the CDL school is pointless. Maybe the "big 10" companies like that system, but I'd much rather teach a green driver from scratch than have to deal with a school grad who thinks they already know it all.

I just really don't see what these students are getting for their money other than access to a truck to take the test. Everything else could be done on their own for free.