Sage Technical Services

PTDI certification was started by the trucking companies. Basically it means that someone from a PTDI school will look the same to the employer regardless of where they took their training. It gives them the same set of basic skills. There is no requirement for "one on one" behind the wheel training. But there is a minimum number of hours each student has to have behind the wheel. This does not count time outside the truck in pretrip or observation time in the cab. It has to be actual time behind the wheel. A PTDI program has to have documentation that every student gets these minimum number of hours. By the way these hours also include time pulling a weighted van and nighttime driving. Hope this helps.

 

The STS (Sage Technical Services) class I attended covered, in 152 classroom hours, the material outlined in the FMCSA handbook. Drive time was 44 hours of one-on-one with several instructors, a huge advantage to me. The community college held classes on their campus and is planning to build a new drive range - that's speaks for STS, in my opinion. I don't believe the course is PTDI certified, yet. I got my CDL last Friday.

I'll never know if other schools are better or worse until I get 'out there' and meet people but I will say I got lots of drive time one-on-one. Many companies offered pre-hires. Myself and one other classmate are going to KLLM (Atlanta) next week. Another classmate is going with TMC (flatbeds). The other classmate (there were only 4 of us) hasn't committed yet but he has plenty to choose from.

cj

 

Lurch, I'm going to SAGE in Henderson in June, as soon as I get my financing together. Did you use their job assist? Are you going OTR or looking local? I've got 6 yrs driving concrete mixer trucks w/ Cl B, brakes, so looking to get Cl A and endorsements to get out of concrete. I know of many co's hiring local/city drivers (which is my preferance). Would certainly like to go teamsters, but not necessarily holding my breath. I know some mutual associations of Rob Lyons, including his nephew. Thanks for any input into the local school.

 

I don't think all the schools are but the go by there curriculum....

 

Sage Technical Services in Denver, Co. is everything advertised and more. I couldn't be happier with them, and I just got done with week one. Knowledgeable, friendly instructors, and good equipment.

You can't go wrong with Sage, and if you are paying out of pocket, and not going in debt to a carrier, you can't beat the price for what you get. The one on one in a truck is worth the price of admission alone.

 

What do you mean going in debt to a carrier? I have been thinking about going to the Sage school in Denver but my one and only concern is landing a job afterwards as I historically have a hard time finding a job.

 

If you constantly have a hard time finding a job, I don't know what to say other than ask yourself why.
All I can recommend is going in to see Bonnie or Sam, and discussing your situation. And what I meant about "Going into debt to a carrier" was, having one sponsor your schooling in lieu of paying for it yourself.