How many don't make it?

Do your research before even going to school. I had people telling me swift would train me, this company would train me for "free". Then had schools telling me to come for 15 days and have a new career and then sign on with Werner and get it paid in full. Then got to reading about these companies and all the negative stuff people were saying outweighed the good. Research some of the 15 day schools and people were saying they pretty much made the students drive the road test route 3 or 4 times and that was it. There would be 15-30 students every group with one road truck. I knew there was no way I could learn and feel comfortable like that. After a lot of research I found a community college about 15 miles from my house that had a 4 week program, and only took 3 students per class. Same instructor for the entire 4 weeks. After talking to them there was a state grant that covered the schooling for anyone that was looking for a better career. And I could choose where I went to work. I have a wife a kid so hometime was very important to me. I had 2 or 3 places I was interested in before I Went to school. All 3 would get me home weekly. Anyway. I ended up paying 200 out of pocket for school. Books and such. And ended up going to work for a whole different company that recruited out of the school. Get home every weekend, and usually once in the middle of the week. And I'm on track to make 60-65k in my first year. And they treat me like a person.
Sorry for the book but do your research no matter your situation. If it's a bad company chances of you making it a year prob won't happen. If it's life or death for you. Do the research there are good companies out there. And community colleges are usually better schools and usually cheaper if you have to pay and usually better companies recruit from them. I know the company I work for won't step foot in the 2 local 15 day schools that are 6000 to attend. Hope this helps

 

Always Temp work/ factory work.

 

Good for you. Not everyone lives in a state that has various community college cdl programs though. I think California has only one, which is College of the Redwoods in Eureka,CA.

 

25 of us at my CDL school. 8 passed the school and went to dmv. 6 passed the dmv test the first time around. Others got it on second try.

Since I saw some talk about failure rates, I have to add this. My school (Swift driving academy) advertised 98% pass rate at dmv. What they didn't advertise was that they had a dmv test set up in house that has to be passed before the real one. And considering the 8/25 ratio, that's a 32% pass rate. Not 98%...

Anyway. Don't stress. youll be fine

 

Also you can call some of the better companies you are looking at and most times they have schools they recruit from. The better companies only recruit from the better school most times. I know averitt has a select few they will take students from but I know they don't even go to CA I don't think but just giving you some ideas. And Chinatown usually knows what he is talking about on this stuff so listen to him also

 

Everyone in my class of about 12 passed. Anyone that struggled got extra help and attention to get them through it.

This was a county school district community college program, had to provide past transcripts to enroll and we got college credits upon completion.

Basically, it was an actual school that existed to teach rather than generate profit.

 

As for getting the CDL, schools have every reason to try for a 100% pass rate. With states like MI that do 3rd party testing, I'm sure it is no worse than 99.9% As for quitting the industry, when I was with Swift I asked in orientation and the answer was in 6 weeks 50% of us would be gone. Now of course some of those people tried another mega, but likely didn't last long there either.

-Steven

 

We drivers are an elite group of professionals. Only the finest, and toughest survive the intense training involved......


Lol nah, just make sure ur missing a few teeth and have a background in hard drug use and you should be thoroughly qualified lol

 

I think the large majority pass the driving test yet manage to fail at driving.

 

^^^^ True!!!