On my way to CDL A without Trucking School

What a joke. For starters, why don't you take a look at how long RickG has been driving? He's got 34 years on your 1 year. I think he's seen a bit more of the industry and has a bit better hold on what and where a good place to start is.

I never went to a driving school, I never believed in them, that 90% of the driver's coming out of them shouldn't be on the road. Can't tell you how many times I've sat at a truck stop waiting for a six-week wonder who can't back their truck up get into a hole. The sum total of my training for backing up was "turn the opposite direction and learn to follow your trailer.", and my work has required some very tricky backing maneuvers. I was taught to drive by oversize load driver's. I don't have a certificate saying I completed some contrived, month-and-a-half long classroom session with a couple of miles out on the road, but I'm 21 years old and I do oversize work. I've hauled heavier loads than you will see at TMC, I've hauled taller and wider loads, too. Get up to 15ft. 10in. tall and tell me how much you think that training program really taught you. Drive a set of sticks and tell me how much that driving program taught you.

And, if you have a CDL-mill certificate saying that's how you earned your CDL, the vast majority of oversize companies will laugh you out the door.

Like G/Man said, back in the day you learned by doing, and that has been lost along the way, and its a big reason why the driving pool has deteriorated so much. There are good driver's coming out of the schools and the training programs at the big schools, but, they're few and far between.

 

How much of the time with a trainer is just running down the interstate ? Very little is learned doing that . I delivered to a customer that a driver with another tank carrier had to get step by step instructions over the phone on how to unload the tank . The customer asked him how much training he had . He had trained for a month but had only unloaded 5 loads . A customer in Easley , SC told me a Schneider driver was a day late because the previous day he got so shook up coming down a " big mountain " (in NC ? )that when he got to the bottom he just pulled over and stopped for the day . 9and probably changed his boxers ) . Not everybody can be a truck driver no matter how much training they get .

 

All good points both pro-driving school, and anti-driving school. Here's something else to consider. I've seen folks posting here who have gone the no-driving school route, and things worked well for awhile. When the local small company went under or the money started not being enough to cover the bills, the folks I'm thinking of started looking at the OTR companies for a job. No dice. No driving school or training means many won't even consider you for a job.

Just something to think about. If nothing else, the school certificate does open up doors for drivers without a lot of experience.

 

Yes , but is it wise to pay thousands of dollars to go to a company with a high turnover rate ? Leave on bad terms and a negative DAC is worse than no certificate

 

I skipped the driving school, got my cdl a on my own and had no problems getting hired. I now drive a truck for coke and couldn't be happier.

Sent from my cappy using tappy...

 

Get more posts and pm me !

 

I think you'll see a high turnover rate at any training company - simply from the folks who have a jaundiced idea of what "trucking" is, can't deal with stress, shouldn't be a truck driver in the first place. If one can't deal with driving for a year at a training company, they probably are going to have difficulty any where they might go. Which is worse... spending some time with a more experienced driver (how about that wonderful first experience on a snow-packed highway?), or spend some time taking CDL written tests, buffaloing your way through a CDL driving test - then show up at some outfit that gives you 10 days of orientation, sprinkles some magic truck dust on ya and pronounces that you are now a "truck driver?"

I think the point is that at some point there needs to be a process that weeds out folks who have no business behind the wheel of a CMV. 35 years ago was a different time in the industry with much lower traffic densities. How many owner ops are going to step-up in these law-suit-happy times, and will offer to show a newb the ropes? Years ago that was the norm. Training companies that forgive tuition do offer a way into the industry without spending thousands at a CDL mill or a community college - and I'm not necessarily impressed with the community college product either.

 

Other countries have aptitude tests to eliminate unqualified students . That would deny CDL mills too much revenue here.

 

Heh! Yeah... I used to deal with the output from the aptitude test crew. Got aspiring Air Force maintenance techs who could read but not comprehend, and folks who could read, go to school but couldn't for the life of them figure out which end of the screwdriver was the business end.