My Adventures at Atlanta Truck Driving School

Hi Keb, I have about a month left of school, give or that a couple of weeks. The school calls and makes the road test appointments when they think your ready. Would you guys recommend getting "certified" in doing your own brake adjustments? They are pushing it on us at school for $125.00..

 

True - I guess passing is all that matters. Now off to "real" school huh? Yeah I'll try to start a good thread. It prob. won't be as detailed as Everetttrucker's. That's just good work he's done.


Anywhoo - stay in touch! And I'll see ya on the board...

 

Slack adjuster's are for the most part auto adjusting. If you do find yourself in a pinch and one is out (like if found by a DOT inspection), you have to be certified to do the work yourself...most guys just find a truckstop and let the company pay a tech to handle it. I'd rather do that than crawl around under the truck...up to you.

 

I went to Daly's in Buford GA - My husband has drove for 24 years but for some reason we had it in our heads that I would learn it easier at a school - huge mistake - huge waste of money - huge waste of time - Please if you are in GA and especially if you have the access to a truck and trailer - e-mail me - I will help you with what you need to know to pass the DDS test. Mr Daly is in complete denial over the problems he has at his school - he has very rude, impatient, and easily frustrated instructors and I know of at least 25 people in the classes while I was there that failed over and over - again, I will gladly help anyone with the info they need.

 

new to this looking for help gettin help paying for driving school. with school did u go to how and how much out of pocket

 

KEB 1209,

I was reading throught this Blog and I want to tell you that you are an exception to the rule. The simple truth is, that you have to be ONE HELL OF A TRUCK DRIVER to pass on your first shot going through ATDS or ADF in the Atlanta area. Congratulations!

I was reading another section of your post where you mentioned a couple of companies that you have applied to. I recommend multiplying that by ten. Yes, ten. You should apply to no less than 20 trucking companies, and you should get some good job offers. Let me know if you want some advice on which companies to apply to.

Someone else on here mentioned going through a Tech School, but I fail to see how that could be any cheaper. Yes, the tuition is less but the training is 3 times longer. Multiply $700/wk times the additional 5-7 weeks it takes to train and you come up with a figure in the neighborhood of $3500-$4900 dollars that you have lost. Not to mention the time you have to wait for the next semester course to start, where as private schools start every week. Oh and by the way, many trucking companies will reimburse tuition. Lost wages however, will never be reimbursed.

I can't believe that anyone would spend 8-10 weeks of full time training just to get a CDL.

 

^^^ In the state of Georgia, we have a nifty thing called the HOPE Grant. If you do all of the simple things you need to do (FAFSA and applying to the school and more), you can go to school for your CDL for FREE. Yes, it's 10 weeks, but I paid about $300 total for incidentals, i.e. drug tests, atlas, etc. Plus, I kept my day job while I went to school at night, which included driving and maneuvers. NOTE: I'm still working my day job because I haven't found anything yet. I'm being careful about where to accept offers from.

If a student is unemployed while waiting, s/he can apply to a technical college. If they're unemployed the entire time they're in school, then they're gotten their CDL and valuable skills and knowledge instead of waiting to save up money. There were about 5 unemployed students in my class because that's just an unfortunate reality of 2009. Hopefully, the young man above is not unemployed, but if he is, then lost wages don't factor into this problem.

We got in some great practicing, road trips, and excellent pre-tripping. I honestly wouldn't trade my 10 weeks for cramming in skills in 3 weeks. Some need more time on maneuvers and/or driving than anything else.

 

I don't know what kind of time schedule you're on, but if you have a little time to wait (like the next 3 months) because you want to save money, then maybe consider one of the technical colleges in GA. Honestly, I would still be saving up money to pay for a speedy 3 week program if it weren't for the HOPE Grant. My 10 weeks at Dekalb Tech were AWESOME! There's a student in the current class who commutes from Suwanee (where he works) to Lithonia 4 days a week. It's a sacrifice, but it's a low cost option.

If you're interested in the technical school route, you can start looking up HOPE Grant info by visiting http://www.dtae.org/hope.html#HOPEAWARDS or http://www.cobb-ed-consortium.org/pdfs/Tech_Flyer.pdf. Also, visit http://www.tcsg.edu/college_campuses.php for a list of all of the technical colleges in our great state.

Dang, should I be a career/high school counselor instead of a trucker? Nyahhh, I'd miss the trucks too much.

 

Hi.

I live in Ga and know all about the hope grant. It is a great program, no doubt about it.

I have a student that wants to get into trucking, down here in the Macon area. He quit his last job so he doesn't qualify for WIA. His only choice is a private school, a tech college or contract training. The next CDL course at Mid Ga Tech starts in July, and it's a 10 week program. If you do the math, that is almost 5 months before he will have his CDL, whereas I can start him Next Monday and he will have his CDL by the end of May and receive the same quality of training.

This man has kids, he cannot afford to wait 5-6 months to go back to work with no pay.

Again, I don't think Tech Schools are bad. But, unless your current employment allows you to attend while you are working, you can easily lose more money than you will save in tuition costs.

Also, not everyone qualifies for Hope. Not everyone lives close to a Tech College and Tech Colleges don't provide any sort of lodging at their reduced rates.

I'll agree that each type of program has it's advantages, but I think you should understand why it is beneficial for some people to pay for their CDL School.