Roadmaster

You were smart to comparison shop. Most of these schools, no matter what the price, accomplish the same thing: they teach you just enough to get your CDL A license. The real training comes when you get started with a Trucking company.

 

If all goes well I will start Roadmaster in San Antonio May 28. Mid life carrer change. Wanting flatbed OTR. Getting home is not a big deal right now.

 

Well finally decided on going with RoadMaster driving school. Good bad or indifferent I'm here. Drove from Shreveport to San Antonio, actually was a nice ride. 2 people to a room, La Quinta. No fridg or mic but I can make do. Have no idea where the school is or what will take place first. Not real sure as to what I want to haul. I'm thinking flat bed or tanker?

Will try to give a day by day if I can.

 

I'm not sure why you guys would pay that much for school. Is there some financial aid for Road Master that makes it cheaper? All of the schools in my neck of the woods are 1-3 thousand. (Fort Smith AR) University of Arkansas in Fort Smith is 2500. Crowley's Rdge Technical Institute in Forrest City, AR is 1000 and the other one that I know about is Central Tech in Drumright, OK. For residents the tuition is 2250. Back in 1999 I went to the school here in Fort Smith and had no complaints from any of the companies I checked with about my schooling. It was $2000 back then.

 

Day 1 Roadmasters,

Not a lot got done, 13 people in this class and we all had to see one Doc for our physical. Really a joke of a physical. Urine test done. DOT medical card at the end of the day.

From 1 until 6pm was lecture on learner permit test to be taken this Thursday.

 

Hubby & I went to Roadmaster of Jacksonville Fl for "interview" this week. More expensive then I expected it to be. Didn't like the way they pushed only two companies. I am looking into the community college in Jax instead; much longer but less money. It sounds more extensive with a better ratio. We are finding it harder then we thought it would be. Good luck to you all

 

I'm looking at going to the Roadmaster school in Columbus, Ohio possibly in July. I haven't been told yet what the tuition is exactly except that they do have spcial rates for Ohio residents so I'm not sure what to expect. They are helping me get financing thru a government program which will take a little time, which is one reason for the late starting date. I do like what FloridaFrank had to say at the beginning of this thread: Keep an open mind. Any school and company you end up working for is going to be exactly what you make of it. Granted there are some that are going to be better (or worse) than the others, and some of the concerns about the worse companies may be valid. But, as with any kind of job, it will be exactly what you make it to be. As rookies, we should all expect to get all the crap jobs. I've been there and done that before in my previous career. But I kept at it and soon I started getting the good jobs and before I knew it, I was showing new rookies how to do the work. The trick is staying positive and turning that crap into something good.

Good luck to everyone!

 

I went this week and interviewed at Roadmaster in San Antonio. The lady there, Kelly, was very nice. I kinda had an idea how much it was gonna cost as I did research first. She did a lot of talking about Werner...I just had to smile and nod as I have already read quite a few horror stories about them. I want to go because I live in SA and I liked the facility but $6500.00 is an expense that I really dont need right now. She said they have a $2000.00 cash discount so if I find my own financing I can get in for $4495.00. Still sounds high to me. I work full time so I would have to do weekends for 8 weeks 11hrs a day. I am having a hard time swallowing the fact that I am going to come out of school about $7000.00 in debt only to get a job that I am gonna make about .26 a mile in an industry that is really not booming right now. Ahh but the whole concept of getting out on the road sure sounds good right now as I am sitting in a cubicle looking at a stack of paperwork!!!

 

I'm now entering my 5th week at Roadmaster in Kansas City MO and I wouldn't recommend it unless you are just going for a refresher course. The Director has been very pushy and when I spoke with my recruiter after the 3rd week to see about transferring to the W Memphis AR facility, I was told by the Director that there is no difference there than there is here. They have the same student to instructor ratios. We have 10 students that are now entering their 5th week, and this past Thursday, the Director decided he wanted ALL students (including those in their 1st week) doing all the same skills at the same time. He told the instructors to give us 2 pull ups and if we didn't get it at that time, get us out of the truck and let someone else in.

We have 3 trucks and 2 yard instructors. At any time there are 4-8 students waiting to get in a truck to practice. At this time, I don't feel very confident that I will pass my CDL. Most of the students who have done well have failed their first attempt at their CDL and end up having to go into a 5th or 6th week.

I was told by the Director at the beginning of last week I need to get moving on what I'm doing as I can't make a career out of sitting there training. It generally takes a lot to offend me, but this statement did, as I didn't hear him say it to any of the other students who were in the same class as myself. I freely admit that I feel I've been slower at learning than the men have been. I also am the only one in our class who has never been around anything of this nature. I've never been in a truck/tractor until I got here. Others have already driven or have had worked in airports where they've had some knowledge of how to back the trams, etc, or they have worked on a farm using a tractor/trailer.

I'm not saying I should get special treatment because I'm a woman who has never been around any of this, I'm just saying that they don't seem to understand how to explain some things to a person that has never done any of this before. In fact, some of the questions I have asked, my answer from the Instructor's have been, "I've never been asked that question before, so I'm not sure how to tell you or explain it."

Although the expense of this "experience" was what I consider to be over priced, I did feel I had done my homework and this was one of the best schools. I'm now talking with a couple of friends at Prime to see if they know of anybody looking for a trainee and if I don't get my CDL from Roadmaster, I will see about going to Prime to get some decent training.

This is just my .02 cents worth

 

5th week?

Roadmaster is a 3 week course here in central Ohio.

on edit... never mind. I didn't read all the way through before posting.