Now what?

I have been thinking very seriously about getting into trucking for several months now. After researching, asking questions, talking it over with my family and friends and reading nearly every thread in this forum I finally made the decision to take the leap and do it.

Naturally the first step is school and there just so happens to be one not even 10 minutes from my front door. This school is off campus but is ran by the university so, guess who I called. You guessed it, the university, and they gave me the number to the Commercial Drivers Training Facility and also transferred me, how nice of them. The phone then began to ring... and ring... finally someone picks up and, nope just the machine. I leave a very pleasant message stating my name and number and then hang up happy that this was the first phone call that will lead the way into my new career. Well the rest of the day passes and no return call so I thought to myself that they must be really busy and fell fast asleep as visions of shiny trucks and beautiful open highway filled my head.

The next day I wake up refreshed and have to go take care of some business and ask my wife to ask whoever calls what the enrollment dates are for the class and that I would have to call back. I hoped that there would be no calls until I returned but with my fantastic bad luck he called no more then ten minutes after I vacated. My wife was able to acheive the information I was looking for and the gentleman said he would be looking forward to my phone call and helping me with the remainder of my questions.


Being as excited as I was I called back immediately the next morning and someone picks up the phone and then hangs it up. Trying to keep the worst case scenario at bay, I think out loud that they must be as excited as I am and just could not hold onto the phone and accidentally dropped it. To help them out I called back, because I know that excitement riddled fingers don't dial phones very well, and then all of the sudden no one is there to answer. Now I am dumbfounded because 15 seconds ago someone was able to at least move it enough to hang up. Then it hits me like a Mack truck, everyone there is so excited, as am I, that they had to immediately evacuate the building for fresh air to prevent hyperventilation, safety first ya know. I decided I would eat lunch so to give them time to recover and then I would call back to discuss my new found passion. About 30 or so minutes go by and i have now gained a few pounds, because my wifes cooking is like a trip with no 4 wheelers in your path, and I proceed to call them back and still no answer. Their excitement must have been worse than I thought and they must have all been sent to the ER to get checked out. So now what do I do, I know, I can call the university, surely they will have some information that will assist me in my quest for knowledge, they are a university. I make the call and a very nice lady answers the phone and I ask if someone there would be able to help me with a few questions I have about the course so that I may be fully prepared for the new adventure that awaits. She then states well of course, I will transfer you and have a good day. The phone begins to ring and I start to pace with excitement, then it happens, this nice lady must have misunderstood me when I said that I wanted to speak with someone there and I am now listening to the same voice recording for the umphteenth time. Not letting this detur me from my quest for know-how, I promptly call the university back. I am now speaking with a different nice lady, so I explain myself again to her, this time I make sure that I emphasize "on-campus" and she asks me to hold. I can hear her asking someone close to her what to do and then she returns and says ok, I will transfer you to them and then the ringing begans, AGAIN. Hoping that I will finally get to actually speak with someone instead of a recording I take a deep breath and relax to prepare for my much awaited conversation with someone in the know. As you have probably guessed this was not the case and I was stuck with the recording, AGAIN.


At this point I am so frustated that I leave a message that goes kinda like this "This is me, AGAIN, can someone please call me and leave me with a number that I can use to talk with someone that has time to answer my questions because no one answers this number so you must be too busy and no one at the University of Trailer Parkansas seems to know anything so I would appreciate a moment with someone who does, Thank You." Of course after a few minutes of grumbling and growling I realize that I may have vented a little too heavily into this machine.


So, even if someone does call me back, I may be black balled at the establishment before I even figure out the requirements to become a student. I guess my question at this point is, does anyone know of a school close to my location that is willing to help a wannabe instead of avoid me? I havent been able to find anything close enough for me to drive to. Is there schools that provide room and board for students that will have to stay there during classes? I really need help because I now have this goal to achieve and I can't afford to let it go. Thank you in advance for any info you can provide.


P.S. I would prefer to stay away from cdl mills and would like to go somewhere for no less than four weeks because I have never driven a semi before.

 

I did go up there yesterday and there was no one there.

 

Its not the only school but it does seem to be the only one close. the others are 2 to 3 hours away.

 

I am starting to think that the instructor is the only person there. A local guy I spoke with said that most people in this area go to a company that has its own school. So there very well may be only one guy running the show. If that is the case I am going to feel really bad about thrashing the machine like I did.

 

I finally got a phone call this afternoon from the school. Turns out that the instructor is the only person at the school and takes care of it all. It made me feel bad that I went off the handle the way that I did and I apoligized. He said it was ok, he understood and that he has problems with the communication between him and university as well. He was happy that I am as excited as I am. The reason that there is only one instructor is the class size is a maximum of 4 students per class. The class is 4 weeks long and most of that is drive time. He answered all the questions that I had and told me that he will even get some paperwork ready for me to pick up monday. I am now even more excited then I was to begin with. I will keep everyone updated right here as the ball starts rollin.