Chicagoan Truckers: What about West Side Transport

We work for US Xpress out of their Markham, IL terminal. They hire new drivers.

 

Overall it's a good company to get your experience. Office people are not the brightest. That would be my biggest complaint.

We liked they have a terminal nearby. Training was about 2 weeks. Wife and I team so we got a new truck. They get you home on time but you only get off four days a month.

 

Nightwind8830,
Yeah it will be rough to get on with a Freight Company without that Class-A CDL in your hand. What Driving School are you attending and what are they charging you? I did the almost 3 month 5days a week course at Scott Community College. it was very thorough and Nobody fails their Illinois State Test after attending that course!
You will most likely have to get on with a training company. But, that's probably not a bad idea now since Winter is setting in. I would actually suggest that you take advantage of the experience you would gain from being in a truck with a senior driver for a month or so.
Anyway, I wish you the very best on your Skills test on the 25th Be very safe and leave your cell phone in your car when you take your test!! The IL DMV testers have NO patience and give NO breaks if your phone rings during a Road test.

 

Nightwind, Wife & I went to Wolf. We hated the simulator. It never worked when we were there & I think when they bought it. Amador is a good teacher but its hard to learn with one simulator. Pay attention to Amador because the packet leaves out stuff you need to know for the test. We started in November & graduated in March. Camila told us it would take a month but you really have to devote a lot of your time there. Hard to do when you work full time.

When we started, classroom was in the building that Camila is in. They moved into the bigger classroom in February. The number of students tripled after that. I remember there were days when it was like 100+ in that classroom.

The state test was easy. The tall guy tested my wife. He asked her a lot of questions about pre-trip. The short guy was very cool. He wants to hear answers like they are in the packets. I had trouble with a few questions & he gave me several chances. If you plan on getting your tanker, double/triple, hazmat endorsements then get it after you pass your pre-trip. The state tester will ask you questions about those endorsements during the pre-trip test if you have it.

Camila will bump you back a week if people the week before failed. We got bumped twice. The state only tests 20 students every week at Wolf.

Here is a tip for you. You can go there & do oberservation for more than what is required. Whatever extra you do, they'll count it towards your classroom hours.

Wolf has really expanded since we graduated. I got an email from them telling me they offer passenger endorsement, CDL-B & automobile classes.

 

Amador got into trouble with Dereck(the owner) a few times over his language. He came to blows one time with this Mexican student. Not sure what it was all about. They were swearing at each other in Spanish.

If you can do well on the simulator then you will do fine when you test with the State of Illinois. The state is not as thorough as Amador.

Make sure you know what each knob in those trucks are for. We had a few people fail because they didn't know where the headlight switch was.

When you start driving with the instructors...make sure you do the brake tests with them. They hate doing it. Insist that they test you on it.

Is Wayne Kempe there still ? He is this student that is like 60 years old. He would bring Amador an apple. Wayne has been trying for a year when we left. He kept paying for more driving time. My wife & I joked that his extra driving time paid for that red truck.

 

TruckDuo and Nightwind8830,
Are you folks saying that you don't actually get behind the wheel of an real Tractor and Hook to a trailer to drive each day at your school? You only use a "Simulator"!??! I sure hope that's not what you're paying money for.
There is no substitute for actually driving a Rig. At the College I attended, We all had two weeks of in class instruction about DOT and FMCSA regs and Map readin/trip planning/Log books. Then we all had to be studying for our tests for our Permits and have them in hand within that 2wk period. At that point we all got into actual trucks and practiced on side streets for a week and then hit the highways and the in-city roads to learn city manuevering and docking. Then we did our driving tests for the State of Illinois at the DMV and got our Class-A CDL's.
then after that, we all got a chance to drive Different trucks...Mack, Frieghtliner, Volvo and Peterbilt to get accustomed to different transmissions 9spd, 10spd, 13spd and Auto's. Are you folks getting any of that type of experience at your school?
Anyway, I wish you all the best.