Half way through transport school and it sucks! The reality of my trucking school experience.

Right from the TTCC website.

Unfortunately, it is common practise for some trucking schools (even car driving schools) to “fast track” you through the training and present you for your license before completing all your hours. Shady trainers will tell you how good you are and how impressed they are with your natural abilities and push you to get your license without getting all your hours. They don’t offer to give you a refund for the hours not used neither. You need all the training you can get. If you are a great driver with only a few hours of training, you will be an amazing driver if you complete all the hours that were promised. Whatever school you choose to attend, make sure you get everything that you were promised.

 

It is what it is I guess. They're prepping you to pass the test, nothing more. If they find that can be accomplished in six then six weeks it will be.

It was 5 weeks when I took it. One week in the class room and then 60 hours one on one with a driver trainer. 3 hours a day, 5 days a week for 4 weeks.

I would have preferred 6 hours a day instead of 3, cut it down to two weeks. I just wanted to get out there.

The instructor we had in the class room was excellent. The guy I had for the driving part I would rate pretty good too.

If your trainer sucks you're not getting everything that you were promised.

Just remember why you're there, to get the licence. The real learning comes later and the learning never ends.

 

I guess that's why they call me once a year or so offering me a job, lol.

I think they go through a lot of driver trainers, guys just want to get off the road a while I guess.

 

Omg I am week 8 into a 10 week course and still don't feel comfortable enough to take the test. Our teachers are great. The first 4 weeks we were in the classroom and did PM also. The last 4 weeks we have been in the yard with 4 teachers ; there are 6 students in our class. The first day in the yard, we were bobtailing on the street, then the next day we were doing straight line backing. We have been on the street a few times with the trailer also. Two guys are good enough to take the test tomorrow. All our teachers were drivers at the bigger companies and are teaching for a few years now.

 

I take my license test day after tomorrow, I think I'm ready but I share a lot of the concerns of JJ. They just started a new curriculum so for the first 2 weeks there was a lot of confusion and a few things weren't covered at all. The driving simulator is ok but it takes more time than they have for everyone to use it and achieve the goals the school sets, once you start driving there is no point in going back on it. The simulator is a video game and it seemed that if a person drove a truck at all before using it they had the most trouble. The variety or personalities of instructors varies thats for sure but none were as unprofessional as JJ's alcoholic.
I found my own impatience and self doubt to be the breakers, I'm 59 and I thought maybe I was past the learning curve but by the last day of driving I felt pretty good. I don't expect these schools to do much more than get you a license as well from speaking to many recruiters they see a lot of EI and other program students who are unmotivated never get their licenses. There were 3 guys for the first 2 weeks then 1 went back to Chatham for his driving Myself and the other guy who stayed both paid for our courses our selves, in fact when a recruiter came to our class she said she could spot who wasn't going to make it and pointed out about the EI students which sort of got the dander up of the fellow on EI. I do think they are too expensive but the other school in town is even more and they use automatics, we had 13spds. As far as learning the pretrip inspections and coupling-uncoupling a person has to study at home just like in a real school.

 

You will never stop learning.

You need to hold on to the Manuals. Here in the States they apply a restriction for those who do not learn manuals.

 

No surprises here. The truck training schools are manned by people from the trucking industry that come from the same culture the rest of us have experienced for over thirty years.
That being there is no training in the trucking industry. Everything they through at you, they just say use this or do that. You ask how, they just say, "you'll figure it out".
So you're in school, they just through stuff at you and think, "he'll figure it out"