For any of you in NE Florida looking to enroll in a CMV driving course, I would strongly encourage you to look into Florida Coast Career Tech. The weekend courses are CDL mills, this is a REAL driving course. This is the program of the school formerly known as Florida Community College at Jacksonville (FL). FCCJ is now Florida State Collage at Jacksonville (they are now offering 4 year programs). FCCT is the votech division of FSCJ. The total class size is 12. Due to folks dropping out for one reason or another, we finished with 9. With 4 trucks, the student/trainer ratio was less than 3:1. Often we would be 2:1 because folks have appointments, etc. that require them to miss class from time to time. So, think about 2 hours driving each day per student. it was great. I know that there are weekend schools that cram 4-5 students into a truck. I couldn't imagine. The course is 4 classes, the first two are 2 weeks each in duration and the last two are 4 weeks of 4 hours/day and run concurrently. 8 weeks total (4 weeks in the classroom and 4 weeks on the skills pad and driving). You finish the first 160 hours with your CDL permit and lots of knowledge including air brakes, hours of service and other DOT regulations, logging and recaps, trip planing, and an intro in to pre-trip inspections, etc. These sections move a little slow and, in my opinion, they could easily do this all over a 2 week period. The second 160 hours is spent 4 hours on the skills pad and 4 hours driving on the road. The skills pad includes straightline and offset backing, parallel parking and alley dock backing. The course is sufficiently long, that if one applies him/herself, he will really leave with a great foundation and understanding of manuevering a tractor/trailer in reverse. Unfortunately, there are some who can't do it when being told every move to make...pretty scary. But then, most of them don't make it through. After lunch each day, the students then head out on the road, learning to shift (there is a separate shift pad for the first few days), make turns while staying off of the sidewalks, learning to downshift and stop, etc. When proficient in these tasks, we head out on the big highways and downtown into busy areas to practice driving in traffic, crossing scales and AG inspection stations, pulling into and out of truck stops, etc. It was great experience (IMO). The instructors are all former OTR drivers. Program head worked for a flatbed company and then spent time as a fleet manager. Another was 28 years behind the wheel as an O/O. The others were former O/Os (36 years) husband and wife who provide the other behind the wheel training instructors. Each student will receive between 800 and 1,000 miles behind the wheel. The cost of the course is about $2100 plus about $100 for books. You are required to purchase a text (that we hardly touched and I would discourage folks from buying it), a Rand McNally Motor Carrier Atlas, 2 training log books and the current edition of FMCSR. Give 'em a call. I am neither affiliated nor compensated in any way by providing this information. It's simply a great course with great instructors.
I graduated 09/10. FCCJ (FSCJ) is a great school. Jim and the other instructors are top-notch and they had many experience to share with us. 2nd 4-weeks we drove and drove. I thought in flat Jacksonville there would be no inclines. Dames Point Bridge is a nice incline. Out of 8 weeks, we got a whole month learning how to parallel park, how to back up straight and into a slot and we did about 2,000 miles OTR. (That's a slow week for me now.) Thanks Jim and everyone else.
