I made a mistake and need help/advise PLEASE

Stevens Transport in Dallas is a good training company with their own school. Even with your CDL, as a newbie, you will sit through the permit/endorsement classes before they will put you training in a truck. They will teach you all the basic aspects of driving. It will be 3 weeks, or longer if necessary. They will then put you in a truck with a trainer for 4 weeks/8000 miles. You must hit a dock in all four corners of the country, do 5 mountains (2 without engine brake, 3 with), and they will attempt to put you through different weather conditions. Then you return to Dallas to test out before they will put you in a truck by yourself. You can pay upfront, or they will loan you the money with a one year commitment to drive for them.

Check out the Stevens thread on TTR here...lots of good info:

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/truckingindustryforum/stevens/

 

They should of taught you a lot more but it's more of a familiarization thing. They should of covered pti and hooking and unhooking. The whole purpose of school is to get your CDL. Just get your applications out there. Do your homework here and ask questions.

I look back at school and we had very minimal training too but everything was gone over. We were left alone too at times because that gives you a chance to practice without being nervous from someone breathing down your neck. I think I got to drive the truck 2 or 3 times on the road before the test so you are not alone.

Your real training will begin when you go out with a trainer. Let him/her know the scoop on your schooling and a good trainer will take you under their wing. You should be able to read your CDL manual or read online and get a good start on the pti. There's some YouTube videos you can watch. A few days on the road and you'll have a better idea.

 

Go to an orientation with TransAm or Raider Express.
Don't spend any more money on schools.
TransAm, as Cranky Yankee posted, has automatics.
Raider Express in Ft. Worth will team you for awhile until you're properly trained.

My CDL school was 2 weeks or 10 working days and I survived.

 

I don't normally spend much time in this chat room, or any other for that matter. As a disclosure, I do own a state approved CDL facility in Wisconsin. It would be hard for this to happen here.

There may be something that could be done to salvage this.

Do you live in Texas? When you took the CDL test did Texas restrict the license to automatics only?

 

As a former student graduate that chose Conway Truckload as my 1st company. I would follow your own idea and go through Crowder if your heart is set on Conway. Like I politely advised you before, you will not pass their boot camp as is. You would have a leg up on the other students at Crowder. They WILL prepare you for a career with Conway Truckload. They ARE head and shoulders better than most starter companies. Almost every current or former Conway Truckload driver will verify this.

 

Look up Roadrealtor on the Conway threads and PM him. He went through Crowder 's school almost 4 years ago and is currently a trainer for Conway Truckload. He can answer all your concerns with Conway. He'd probably even let you call him. He did me.

 

That is terrible advice. Avoid companies like that no matter what.

 

Swift has an excellent training program though. That would be a good option and no cash needed.

 

Just my $.02....

I would definitely pursue a legal remedy in this case, and hopefully you will be able to recover your fee from these scumbags, expose them for what they are (or AREN'T in this case), and possibly even save someone's life in the process. I DO NOT say this lightly....And good for you for wanting to do the right thing, and making sure you are adequately and safely prepared for your new career.

Years ago, not more than a year after I started driving, a coworker of mine had an unfortunate event happen to him. He had been licensed and driving big rigs for like 3 years (and was a VERY safe and above average driver, IMO) when he was contacted by the state and informed that his license was being temporarily revoked and that he had 30 days or so (Forget exactly how long) to find a new school and retake his entire exam. You see, it turned out that not only was the school he attended a "mill" but they were busted selling licenses (in FL you tested with your school/state licensed examiner at that time, not sure if this is still the case) to recent immigrants with no more than a 10 minute road "test" and approx. $10,000. The way this scumbag operation came to light was when a recent "graduate" took an off ramp near Miami way too fast an turned his load of roadrock over on top of a 4-wheeler killing all 4 elderly occupants. When questioned in depth he admitted that he wasn't even in the country legally and just how he obtained his CDL. So the state immediately raided the "school's" office, arresting the owners, and confiscating all their records. They then notified ALL "graduates" (even the one's who did mostly do it the right way like my buddy) that they would have to go and obtain their licenses all over again. Hopefully nothing like this will happen to any of your fellow "graduates", but thank you for wanting to do the right thing for YOU!

Good luck and Godbless.....

 

I think you will do fine! I suspect your school is not that much different than most. My school used trucks with synchronized transmissions so driving a truck with a 10 speed non-syncro was quite a bit different to shift but eventually I figured it out. I am not sure that driving a stick shift car will help you out much other than learning what the idea of shifting is all about, so you might want to acquire a stick shift car for awhile just for confidence building. Also study everything you can about transmissions and look at the internal pictures so you can understand the "why" of double clutching. I honestly believe that a lot of new drivers don't know why you need to rev the engine up a little when downshifting, and don't really understand when they should do that in the double clutch shift sequence. UP shifting is as easy as cake for most people because the engine naturally slows down when you take your foot off the accelerator and go through neutral and select another gear. SO Relax, most people are not all that skilled truck drivers coming out of school. Oh, one other thing, try to remember to downshift before going down the steep grade instead of on the grade. I am sure your trainer will teach you what you need to know, unless it was like one of my Werner Trainers that mostly slept from day one, but OTOH I was pretty good at the freeway driving. The one thing my school did for me was teach me the safety aspects of driving, I hope your school did not skip on that.