DCCC Truck Driver Training.

Member Kickin Chicken suggested that I make a post about the school I'm attending.

The class is offered through Davidson County Community College in Lexington, NC, however, the training itself is held at Davie County Community College in Mocksville, NC.

I've attended one class so far so there's not much to tell other than they've reported to have 40 different companies that will hire graduates from the course. The head man is Bob P and he has 5 associate instructors to help with the classes.

I haven't seen the equipment yet but I'm told all the trucks have 10 speed transmissions. They said we should expect to get plenty of time behind the wheel. I'll see the trucks this weekend when we have our "transmission" class. I assume it's purpose is to familiarize everyone with what and how to operate a 10 speed transmission to include how to double clutch.

The tuition is fairly reasonable in comparison to private driving schools in my area. The cost with books was around $750.

I'm in the part-time class so my schedule is every Tuesday night from 6-9:40 and Saturday 7 a.m to 5:30 and Sunday from 7 a.m to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday is all class room work and the weekend classes are set aside for drive time.

Our class will be the first class to go through the night time driving training that they've added to the schedule.

I can give updates from time to time if anyone is interested.

 

As promised here's my account of my first day with the equipment. There are a total of 4 range trucks (these trucks are only used to run the course) We ran three different drills today using the range truck. The drills were forward driving, coupling/uncoupling and backing. We also started practicing our PTI.

There are 5 road trucks w/trailers, one old white and the rest are Volvo. The equipment is modified to fit 4 students, 3 in the sleeper area and one in the driver seat. We'll only have 3 students per truck.

All in all the instructors are very attentive and are considerate with regards to breaks and such. It was really hot out on the range today so they made sure we had plenty of water and a air conditioned breakroom time.

So far so good.

 

waddlin, The class is 8 weeks for full timers and 16 weeks for part-time. The course is 384 hours.

 

Update: Had class on Tuesday night, turned into pretty much a bs section about the trucking industry. Learned a couple of new things.

This weekend will be our first time out on the road with the trucks so everyone is looking forward to driving. The instructors were pretty clear about what the expect and in reality it isn't much, no pressure type of training. They just want to see everyone observe their surroundings and be safe. They plainly said "we don't expect you to shift perfectly, it will come in time. Looking forward to it. I'll post up after the weekend class.

 

OK, I went out for the first time today. We had three students in the truck including myself. The instructor gave everyone about 2 hours behind the wheel.

The majority of the time was concentrated on double clutching, up and down shifts. We drove mostly highway and back roads, once the instructor was satisfied we drove threw downtown, which wasn't too bad even though there were some tight areas.

I really enjoyed today and looked forward to the next time we hit the road again.

 

I wanted to give an update about Sunday's class. I spent all day on the range practicing the different maneuvers, they also let us bobtail around the course to practice our double clutching.

That was a big help for me. I feel way more confident with the shifting than the previous day out on the road. My coordination of shifting was OK but I wasn't very consistent and would lose a gear from time to time so the extra practice really came in handy.

 

Xrays2Highways, I'm only in my third week of school so I haven't talked with any recruiters yet. The school does have a recruiter day towards the end of classes which I'll attend.