Giving up on the dream

I can probably see why. Hot springs is off the beaten path in norther CA! have you tried IDC? I'm waiting on some information on MY new job career so I'll send you a link when it comes in. But don't give up quite yet!

 

Hello PapT

Best of Luck to You and Your Success!!!!

 

The 5k is a student loan I presume? Well, these schools charge 5k and are just gleeful even though the take is more like 2.5k after training you get pass a CDL driving test....Schools don't teach people how to drive, they teach them how to take and pass a driving test. So here is the pattern. You pass the test, the school gets the student loan money. You wash out in a few weeks and never pay the loan back and go back to delivering pizzas (no insult intended). The loan company goes belly up (Like The Student Finance Corp. did) and the school that used them goes under. Now you get handed over to collections and they hound you for the rest of you life, ruin your credit and across town someone sets up yet another truck driving school and starts the process all over again.

When American Career Tech in Fort Worth Texas went under the first time, I was one of their top instructors. They and all the other schools lost the Guaranteed Student Loans because no one paid them back. So we found another way to finance the students and tried it again. Then they took away the Grants that paid for housing and meals, that finished us off. That is back when the price was $3200 for six weeks of training and there were still some decent schools out there. So the greedy schools helped put the good schools under and the end result is that the bad schools had a better chance of surviving than the good ones. All this happened in 1992 I think. I have worked for 3 schools since then and all were three week CDL mills that hired the worst instructors they could because they would work for less so if they spend the day sleeping in a truck while the student is left to figure it our for themselves....at least they work cheap!

So, instructors don't get paid much. Any decent instructor (and there are not many of them) is doing it out of some warped sense of value and obligation to their students. I myself have been pretty well blacklisted here in N. Texas. Schools do not like me at all because I teach folks how to drive. I am a great instructor and that is why I am driving a pneumatic tanker instead of teaching!

So yes, schools are trouble. I liked trucking better when you took a newbie out with you and taught them to drive out on the road. But that was when you could get a Commercial Chauffeurs license out of a crackerjack box! The good old days are gone.

 

I thank God I didn't have instructors that slept while I was driving. I can't imagine learning anything but fear of the truck that way.
I was blessed to have instructors who would explain it differant ways for hours and THEN let us "figure it out" when that didn't work. My best instructor had 25 years experience plus 14 months driving and training drivers who couldn't speak English in Iraq. He wasn't teaching for the money but because he wanted SAFE drivers around his grandchildren.
I was blessed not only to have their stories and instruction but also by them willing to be a referance on my apps.
I feel sorry for those who feel they have to go to a company-paid training school. But if don't do the research first then you're a fool. I did my research and it saved me up to 5 grand.. I would say it was worth it..

 

You see, your instructor did it because he loved instructing! I imagine he was a good communicator and assumed the father role on the first day of instruction. Respect gets it done every time.

Sounds like you had a good one. Is he still doing it?

 

Stick around Papa T,.......Someone needs to tell the truth about the direction the industry is headed,...

 

The good old days are not completely gone. I took a very old school approach. Yeah, I had to bite it and pay for truck driving school, after all, I needed a CDL and a certificate from a school.
I went to a good private school. 4 students to a class, 3 field instructors and 2 class room instructors. I got one on one time in the truck with instructors and by the time I graduated was fairly good a shifting, still a little trouble with floating, but that was no biggie as I could always just traditionally shift.

However, after school, that is when I decided to go retro and relive the good old days. I opted out of going with the megacarriers and be trained for a couple of months by someone with 6 months of experience. i went with a small company and was tained by an old timer O/O with years and years of experience. Now I knew how it would work, I would do the grunt work and all and he would train me and show me the ropes. I wouldn't just run with him for a month or two then be assigned a truck of my own. I would run with him, learn, gain experience and learn to make it in this industry and I even got paid.

Now, I know that what I have learned from those that have experience, many many years is a lot more than I ever would of learned and figured out on my own. for example a month or so ago we were going to have a 3 day lay over. Bummer right, 3 days t a truck stop not making money, wrong. We dropped the trailer, locked the kingpin, found some short runs and made some money.

I run with the old timers, where hard work earns you a good dollar, respect means something, and the stories keep the boredom away.

I will be at a truck stop somewhere and thee will be with hours to complain, I nod my head sympathetically and then get back to work.

To be honest with you, things have worked out better than I expected and I am actually making more money than I thought I would during my first year. I am also building a good network of trucker friends, which is what you need to really make it out here.

I feel bad for those who have had a tough go of it. I share my experience so that if trucking is really what you want to do, than you can. Don't throw the towel in, just go a different route.

Good Luck and Happy New Year to everyone..

 

Bye . . . . .

 

I had a student that was doing well the first two days....until he found out that you had to sleep in the sleeper. He thought the carriers rented you a motel room when you stopped. So he got mad and quit the school.

No great loss.