First time driver who paid for their own schooling: Do you feel like you got....

hello mommy

 

This might not necessarily be the school's fault. Just like with basic driver's ed or the MSF rider training, A few people will need more practice, so the real question is what will the school do to work with you if you duff the drive test the first time. Will they give you more practice time after the "normal" time frame and let to test again or as many times as it takes, or will they say "see ya" and not care since they already have your money?

Obviously this is where reviews and referrals come in handy. The school I'm at is working with a couple people from last month's class who needed more work. They seem to care. Stories from unsatisfied customers would be very bad for the smaller mom/pop outfits...they have every incentive to bend over backwards.

 

I went to a Sage school in NC for their 5 week (full-time) course and got a great start with a national company. Unfortunately I had to bail after 9 months (no I didn't get pregnant! lol).

Did I get my money's worth? Yes, learned everything I needed to know and what I didn't learn with them wouldn't have changed my mind about trucking as a career. I have no regrets for paying for my own school either and my company paid almost 1/4 of it after I was hired.

If you think you'll like trucking then go for it.

 

I just finished my first week of school and WTF!!! Not even 12 hrs into the school they told us to go to the Sec of State and take our test. Didnt have School on Mon. couse of holiday 10 hrs on Tue. with half ##### instruction and Wed at lunch we were off. I passed but i dont feel like i was educated. I dont want to sound like a ##### but my life and alot others are at risk in this job. I hope the rest of the training is better......

 

Mac, same thing happened with Sage but taking the test after some coursework was to allow us to get a look at it in real-time. By the end of the course, assuming you're enrolled fulltime, you'll pass the book test. I could be wrong though and if you think they're going to cut you loose after one week of class (doubtful) go see a school administrator and find out wtf is up. I think you've misunderstood something, so go talk to them. Man, it's your money so find out what's going on. Again, taking the test early on will help you, not hurt you. Good luck.

 

I went to CCC&TI in Hudson, NC back in 94. I did the weekend classes it took 3 months. I was glad I did after I seen what the CDL mills put out. We spent 3 hours 1 day a week on the road. All of it was done on skinny two lane roads. The rest of our time was backing.

That helped me a bunch when I went to Schneider. Three of us were in the class and went to schools like the one I went through. Four others were in the group came from places like Alliance Truck Driving School. After the three of us did a few backing exercises we then sat out the rest of the time. The other four drivers would take one hour each to get it in the hole. They even made the holes twice as big for one guy just so he would be able to pass that day.

 

Roadmaster won't test you until they feel you are ready to test. There was a student in my group who had been in the program for 2 months, when it was only supposed to be 3 weeks, and he still couldn't back, or shift. Roadmaster ended up recommending the student to downgrade to a Class B, which he did. He had no problems driving a bus, he just couldn't drive a truck. Not everyone can drive.

It doesn't matter if you go during the day or night as you're going to get the same amount of time regardless. I forgot how much time was needed to graduate, as it's been 11 years sinse I've been a student there, but it was something like 180ish hours TT.

 

I went Amarillo college truck Driving academy in amarillo texas and below is my experience. I paid $975 for the basic course and an extra $400 for the advanced course all in all $1500 for 7 weeks and got about 500 hrs. of instruction total. i could be wrong on the hours, Its been awhile.

The class i was in had roughly 13 people to start and they split us up in two groups for the first course that was just us doing the driving test that the state of texas requires and taking practice test. During the morning 6 of us were on the driving course three in trucks, three watching and encouraging other drivers as they took their tests. then after the course was run twice we would switch. That continued for about 4 to 5 hours until lunch. Then our group was sent inside to do lesson plans over the Drivers Handbook and take practice tests until around 4 o' clock. The other group of 7 people would be doing the opposite of us throughout the day. At the end of the course i was THOROUGHLY prepared for the driving test and the written tests. I passed all of my tests with at least an 89% including my hazmat. Most of which i completed on my first time. The driving test itself is done in an automatic daycab with a 38' flatbed trailer and alot of the reason for that is because if you hit a curb once, You fail. Quite frankly even if you take most of the corners wide as hell there is hardly any room for you NOT to hit the curb in a real truck with a real trailer. You can do it in the school truck pretty easy, but one day i drove through the exact same course in a sleeper mack with a 48' dry box. Next to impossible not to hit the curb on the first friggin turn.lol. After taking the test, Assuming you pass, You have about a week left of the first course to drive in a straight 10 freightshaker up and down the campus roads (its on an old airforce base so there is plenty of room) as they teach you how to double clutch. Side note: they get pretty frustrated when you start floating, lol, i can't count how many times they told me "stop floating and use the clutch." Now if you spring for the extra couple hundred bucks you can take the "advanced Course". The advanced course in my case was 8 students and it was all driving for 3 weeks. We had to keep a correct and legal logbook for the entire course so we could get familiar with them. We put in about 500 miles each for the course, We hauled flatbeds, Tankers that were filled to about half, 53' reefers, and a set of doubles. We took two runs through amarillo one with the tankers which ,with as much slosh as they got, was fun. The other run was with the doubles during "rush Hour". We also had a night run from about 7pm to about 4am. All in all the advanced course is great everyone in the truck gets alot of hands-on experience driving, hooking, backing, etc. During the last week of the course its all about backing in between two sets of cones from a 90 degree angle both drivers side and blind side. All in all its a great course for a new driver and i HIGHLY recommend it. Jerry is the handbook instructor and is good at his job and will go into as much detail as you need if you don't understand something. Homer is the drive test instructor and even though hes a bit abrasive and kind of an ###, he is good at his job. Bryan is the Advanced course instructor and is one of the better human beings i've met in my life, both as an instructor and a person.

The equipment that they run in the basic course is all late model except for the freightshaker that me and another student got to drive during the basic course. Only reason we ran it was because we were tired of running automatics and we were both truckers kids and by god we wanted a little bit of a challenge. After taking out a stop sign with the hood, that we decided was a better idea not to tell anyone about, we parked it for the duration of the course.
For the advanced course your running a 2007 sleeper mack, and a 2008 O/O Western star 4900. So all the equipment is anything but old, The Star Car is one of the nicest trucks ive been in to date.

 

in my opinion the sage school at Phoenixville, PA is a really good school. Over the course of the last 2+ months I drove a lot. Drove two different trucks along some of the narrowest, hilly, curvy, and complicated roads that I had ever seen.

Had three different teachers all of whom brought a different skill set to the table, & the abundent range time offered just what I needed to hone my skills as far as the sight/blind parallels (practiced 15' foot shorter than whats on the skills test).

I really enjoyed practicing the sight/blind alley docks, as well as the 3,4, & 5 cone reverse serpintines that ended with a "loading dock." The full parkinglot length straightline back ups made the actual skills exam seem like nothing.

The down sides were that the weekly schedules were mailed and not emailed, that the audio visual tools and videos were from the 1970's, and that I didn't get a t shirt. i did get a ###### schneider hat and only used that to open the fuel tank caps while fueling.

When I took the cdl exam the pre trip was brutal because the examiner asked me about everything. It seemed like i identified everything on under and around the truck when I was finished.

the air brakes were straight forward except when the window opener came off in my hand.

The controlled stop was cool because I had practiced it 100's of times as was the blind side parellel which I completed in one continous motion w/ the dot bumper ending up stopped right in the middle of the box.

the road test was a 23 mile question and answer identification game regarding everything and anything that was a road sign. i had to do 2 fast emergency stops and navigate past a penn dot dump truck pulled up way to far in a tight turn.

All in all the training was great, the advice I got was real world kinda ####, and the job leads were just that leads.

Thanks SAGE at CAT a division of LCTS. 4.75 stars outta 5.

 

I absolutely got my money's worth.

i didn't go to a CDL mill but did my homework on both the school and the company I went with and have been happy with both.

I got 380 hours of intense instruction with a bunch of old farts who have more miles backing than i'll have driving forward for a few years yet.....and they had no tolerance for stupidity and taught us what the real world was like, not what the pretty websites and recruiters tell you.

the company I went with is the same. i reserached them thoroughly, went in with an outstanding background, dmv record and with the attitude that i was interviewing them, not the other way around.

i got a trainer that was on his game, taught me far beyond just the basic of driving in the real world and commpany policies, but how things work out here, then got a brand new truck, home every weekend, and making the same first year as alot of guys are making at year 2 or 3.

and I only paid $925.

#### right i got my money's worth lol

but i did my homework and didn't go with a bottom feeder.....school or company