Foodlink in Sacramento

On Mon January 4th I am starting with Foodlink truck driving school in Sacramento.

They are a charitable organization that provide food to the needy all over California and whilst doing so provide CDL A training at next to no cost.

The course is 18 weeks, first 6 getting permit and endorsements plus forkift certification, also required to work in warehouse some during this period.

Second 6 weeks is driver training leading to CDL test, also possible to get passenger endorsement as well.

Final 6 weeks is spent driving for them in either straight trucks or T/T, apparently it is possible to get a lot of on the road experience at this stage according to the director.

It is a very long course, but the total cost out of pocket is around $200 with additional cost for hazmat. They are also located about 12 miles from my house.

I will post my experience here for others who might be interested and would also appreciate any feedback from others who have completed the course or who know others who have.

 

Just an update to my Foodlink experience.

There are about 30 in my class and last week we all got our permits after 4 weeks classroom work, a long time to sit still for but we also covered chaining, scales and a few other things not normally covered. Most of this past week was spent on out pretrips and COLA tests which 8 of us are going to DMV to test for on Tuesday (the school has an arrangement with the DMV here that enables students to take each test seperately).

The school and the instructors are great, however as the school is somehow connected to the department of corrections there are plenty of people here looking for a new start in life after felony convictions. I don't know if they all have contacts or jobs awaiting them but from what i read here a felony is a real problem for employment.

So we have basically 12 weeks to get our class A licenses, however as soon as you pass you start doing ride alongs with the company drivers and a few recent previous students have got 7 - 8000 miles in this way before they graduated.

Would definitely recommend this school if you can take 18 weeks off work or get some kind of assistance.

 

Far as i know, they are full until April and classes start every 6 weeks, but call anyway as people will drop out all the time. Call foodlink and ask for Brenda Croker, you will have to come in for an orientation at 1.30 on a Monday where you will have to pass a basic education test and be told all the rules for the school. So far I am happy with the school, the hardest part was the 4 weeks classroom before you get your permit. Also expect a wide variety of ages and personalities. Check out the site.
http://www.foodlink.org/job-training.php

 

You have to work for them for six weeks at least after you get your CDL which offsets the school being free (apart from drug test, admin fees and dmv fees), this will also give you 2000 to 7000 miles exp driving. you will also drive their bobtails a little to pick up donations from stores and resteraunts, the only contract you sign is to play by their rules which are pretty basic. I think you can do the orientation any time you want, you should do it asap as I am sure the course are still filling up.

 

Finished my 9th week at Foodlink and taking the road test next week, this may seem slow to some but I will be the first in my class to do so, there are others from the class in front of mine (6 weeks ahead), that have still to take their road.

Part of the deal with FL is that you work for them either driving bobtail trucks or working in their warehouse, this normally happens about once a week for a few hours unless you volunteer for more, I have no problem with it and its for a good cause. So when i pass on Tuesday I have the option to take my passenger test the next week, after which i will be driving for the remainder of the school with the company driver, this should equal about 10,000 miles.

The school provides a resume service and they have some ties with companies bit do not provide a placement service, I suspect this is because some of the students have serious felonies and will struggle to find work anyway therefore to gaurantee them a job is unrealistic.

Have met some great people both working for Foodlink and fellow students and there is a sense of team with us being there for so long now.

Would still recommend this school to anyone who can afford to take the time and who can deal with differing personalities (kinda like trucking)

 

No nobody is rude, just lots of different people together.

Good luck with the test, from what i remember it was maths and a lot of English, punctuation, grammar, spelling ect. Good luck with the April 5th class.