My time at Maverick and ASU

As a lot of you know I have been trying to get a CDL for some time. I don’t need to go back and rehash my whole story but I can tell you I looked at all my options. I decided to go with Maverick for their company sponsored training. I was not disappointed and I am so far very happy with my decision.

I will start with the recruiting end of it. To be honest with you I had a few complaints, but all and all not to bad. I will not reveal the name of my recruiter since there are male and female I will just refer to my recruiter as a he. The biggest issue was that he would not call me back. He would say that he would call me back later in the day and I would never hear form him. Then I would call him back at the end of the day and they would say that he only worked a half a day. The other thing was I was under the impression that I would be in the regular flatbed division. One day it came out that I was going to be in the specialized division. I had done my research and I didn’t want to be in that division. Now, the good parts. In the end my recruiter did get it all fixed and put me in the regular flat bed division and got me to school very fast because of a cancellation. I do wish that they would get all there information on the same page. I would call and ask a question and if my recruiter was not there I might get something different that what I had been told. Yes, I asked questions that I already knew the answers to just so I could see the response.


I will now talk about the school. Understand that IT IS NOT A MAVERICK SCHOOL! It is a school in Newport, Arkansas. It is a small campus of Arkansas State University (ASU). I will give the pro and the cons of this school but I will tell you that I was not impressed. At first you start out at Maverick and do your physical before going to the school. Not much to talk about there except it is a pretty long physical. You then drive up to Newport and settle into your new home for 19 days. It is a trailer and if the people ahead of you are not pigs then it is ok. If you are as lucky as I was the people before you lived in a zoo and you spent the first few hours making it livable. The first morning at the school you are there at 7am. To boil down the first 2 days you study for your permit test and the instructors give you about 2 hours total of “training”. The rest of the time you listen to how many times they saw a set of tits or almost saw a set of tits. The point is it is story time more than anything. On Thursday you start doing your 300 foot back. You do take you permit test in the afternoon on Thursday. Except for a little classroom time Friday thru Monday you go backwards 300 feet then forward 300 feet. On Tuesday you start going out on the range and going on road trips. I received 11.5 hours on the road and 54 hours on the range in the 3 weeks I was there. You do this until you test on the 18th day. After you pass you stay at the school doing nothing so they can stretch it out to the 19th day. At 7 am they will give you all the info to go to the DMV then off to Maverick in Little Rock. I will tell you the best Instructors there are Gus, Dennis, Don and Benny.


Now it is Friday afternoon and you start one and a half days of securement training. On Sunday you start orientation. I can only tell you what I know to be true at this time. The talk is great. They give you a lot of info and they are serious about safety. They make you feel welcome but they also make it clear you can leave at anytime. They tell it like it is and lay it all out there before you. The basic theme is they PROMIS over and over that you will never be alone. They are always a phone call away 24/7. They give you a survey at the end of the 4 and a half days. At the end of it says how can we help. I wrote simply do what you have said you will do. If they do what they have promised I will love this company. I leave in 2 days to go with my trainer. I will keep you posted!

 

Yes, they are a third party tester. Now are they all fair? Well I have heard different things. Some are harder than others. That is not from me that is from the testers. If you fail you get one more try if you fail that you don't get another try. Maverick only gives you 2 times on the permit and 2 times on the road test. The school says if you fail the road test they will only test you one more time. In other words $1,400 gives you 2 chances. If you fail you can go to the DMV and rent a truck from a man that is not affiliated with the school. The cost is $200 to rent the truck. Now if you go to the DMV then you start all over with Maverick from what I hear. Thank the Lord I passed the first time!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Ok, the physical is to see were you are coming in to the company. They measure all your movements, like how far you can stretch your arms and how far you can turn your head. They make you pick up a box and a tarp that weighs between 80 - 140 lbs (depending on who is telling you the weight). On the box they keep adding sandbags till either you can't lift anymore or they run out of sand bags. They make you do ONE sit up and just some BASIC exercises. They of coarse do a drug test. They make you get up on a trailer and make sure you can climb to the top of a load. Yes, people failed the physical and were sent home but it was for high blood pressure (210 over 130) or just had heart surgery and was still under a doctors care and things like that. If you put down any medical issues like a bad knee make sure you have NOTHING wrong with it now or a doctors note saying that it is ok and is healed. It is a third party tester that does all this so it is unbiased.

As far as home time during the school and orientation, well the answer is no. I was gone for right at one month . I have been home since Friday and I am meeting my trainer in a few hours. Now I live in SC and they don't have any trainers here from the RAT (Regional Atlantic Division) so I am screwed. I will not be home again for about 40-45 days. Now everyone else had trainers were they lived so they will be home on the weekends I was just the one lucky guy.

As far as what to bring if you are going to Newport to get your CDL then you need food, TP, bed sheets and anything you would need at your home besides a bed and a roof. It is one mile from the front door of the trailer to the front door of the school so you can walk there every morning. I did and I lost 10lbs when I was there. As far as with the trainer I have not met him yet but he said just basic stuff. The time that they gave me was zero. They called me and said we have an opening do you want it yes or no. I said yes and left the next day.There was about 16 hours from when they said yes till I was leaving. Now I went one day early but they called late on a Thursday afternoon and I left Friday morning. I had to be there Sunday. I left a little early but I gave myself one day just in case for a break down.

I can answer any questions but I will be leaving in a few hours so if you don't hear from me I will answer back this weekend when I am in Little Rock. If I convince you to go then put down my name as a referral and I will get 500 dollars. It does seem to be a good company but I also have nothing to compare it to but hearsay about other company's. I will keep you up to date as I go.