Do you have to go to driving school?

Thats not quite the truth. They don't care if you go though an out side school because they will put you though there school.

 

IMO the problem is not the drivers that have formal training. It's the ones who where taught by Grandpa, Dad, Uncle Bob who ever. They have always done it wrong because they don't know what the book says and now you will do it wrong to. The schools have there place. They are a great place to get the basics on driving a truck. Now that dose not mean that when you complete the course that you are a truck drive. It means that you know how to make the truck go forward and back wards. You still need to be trained by a trainer on how to do the job right. By trainer I mean some one who has years of experience. Not some yahoo with 6 mos who's company says he can train.

The FMCSA is working on new regs that will require ALL new drivers to have formal training.

Another thing to think about. If this guy isn't going to let you drive his trucks until you get a CDL. How are you going to learn to drive a big truck so you can pass the road test??

 

Yep I agree completely. I think the 6 week schools that pass out CDLs to everyone who can come up with $3000 are hurting the industry more than helping it. The ones that guarantee you'll pass are the scariest to me.

They're real good at teaching folks how to pass the DMV test, but they don't teach a darn thing about driving a truck in the real world IMO. Most of the stuff in the DMV book is so out of date its not funny. Thats not to say that everyone who goes to a school is a bad driver... but they're passing alot of people who have no business in a truck.

You'll end up being a much better driver with a one on one apprenticeship with an experienced trucker than you would with a school

 

In My Opinion..... I am very offended by your comment, you offended my great grandfather,my grand father, my dad, all my uncles, all my friends, and everyone elses family and friends that tought them how to drive.
I road with my dad from 2 yrs old til I had to go to school. I listened to all there stories, and advice, I pulled enddump, and belly dump when i was a teenager with my uncles and friends teaching me on the dirt roads. When I was 18-19, I serviced trucks for my friend who had 20-25 trucks, pulling trucks in to the shop, backing them back in the hole they were in, 45, 90 straight backing. I went down and passed the written test, got my permit, struggled everyday getting up at 5:00AM driving with a friend until 5:00 PM, then mechanicing until 1-2:00 AM. When he was comfortable,I went down and took the driving test. I was a fill in for them all the while still wrenching, until I decided to go OTR, The only outfit that would hire me was werner(My Age), worked for them 3 months. Bought one of there trucks and kept on truckin. had it for 4 years til I decided my son was more important than the truck, so I sold it.
I got a lot of good advice from hundreds of people, who were drivers themselves way before I got my CDL, and those are values a school cant teach you.
I'm not saying I am gods gift to trucking, I still have a lot to learn, I learn something new everyday on this forum alone.
I also understand 17 years ago when you started the schools were probably a lot better, and not every good driver has a chance to be born into the business, but myself and hundreds of thousands of other drivers were taught that way, and we WERE'NT taught WRONG!!

 

My husband went to trucking school about 20 years ago. and i can see problems on
both sides. But i still can't see how it can be a good thing for a person to be able to
get a CDL without proper training. I'm sure some people out there will work hard to learn how to drive and be safe. And i'm not saying i totally trust the goverment to be
in control of this either.

To me there is no good way to make sure people get the proper safety training. But
for now i have to lean toward the side of going to a school for training. I'm sorry that it costs so much but there is a lot of things you will need to learn to be safe and I just have more trust for the company or Business that is out there training than i do some guy off the street who's willing to put you in his truck for a while.

Jacks

 

even with my background, if they would have told me I needed school to drive, I probably would have coughed up the money(with a bad after taste) But what my last post was geared toward was just because us that have access to trucking from an early age, learn from the knowledge of family and friends, doesnt make us unsafer, or less knowledgable than some dude who was in a deadend job, hating life, and was cutoff one day by a JB hunt, that had a glowing sign on the back door that read: 60K first year! No exp. required!! We pay for Schooling!!! Call: 1-800-2-****nt, got an idea, paid $4-$5000 now we are a truck driver.
I worked my Butt off to learn how to drive. I had a school of many instructors.

My grandfather still tells me to watch out coming over San Augustin Pass East of Las Cruces, NM, Because he was hauling cows one day, and thought it would be funny to put the 1949 white (with hydraulic brakes) in nuetral and coast, well the engine died and no brakes!! Had heck getting it started, and almost ran into town.
What I learned from that: Dont be #######ing around going down a hill.
Age learned: Can remember him telling me that forever. dont know the date.