To ALL You Newbies out there

Sorry to intrude on someone else's post, but here's my .02/

If you want to really do this right, find the carrier you want to drive for first and ensure that you meet their requirements in all areas. MVR, prior criminal history, etc. Some carriers require attending a PTDI school. Some even require a specific GPA at a PTDI school. Since the truck driver training industry is completely un-regulated, it makes some carriers feel much better that you have a PTDI accredited school behind you. This is because it is guaranteed that you have a specific minimum number of hours behind you in classroom, driving and backing with industry-typical equipment (manual transmisisons, preferably more than one).

That's not to say PTDI schools don't fail students-- they can go years between certifications -- but for the cost and effort of PTDI certification, most schools value it and stay on target with keeping their accreditation.

If the carrier who meets your needs, (pay, mileage, regions run, equipment, home time, etc) does not require PTDI, then perhaps you can consider a training school that isn't accredited BUT ask questions as to how many btw (behind the wheel) hours you will receive, how many backing hours you will receive, etc. This is important! Some schools shove six students in a truck for a day and each student is lucky to drive 30 minutes. That's bs and even if the training is cheap, it is NOT worth it. You're just training to be dangerous. To take it a step further, such crap schools will train you only on the DOT route that you'll be taking for the exam (yes, instructors know exactly what these routes are,) and will only train for the test -- NOT to make you a safe, competent new driver. Just the same route over and over, some with automatics. Steer VERY clear of that kind of situation.

Company paid training has its place for some people. If you just cannot afford the tuition at another school, it should be considered with the full knowledge that if you do not hang in with that carrier for the required amount of time, you'll pay all that money anyway!!!!! The trainer might suck, you might be laid over all the time, the equipment might break down twice a week, whatever! You're staying until tuition is paid. Listen to the trainee horror stories -- could you hang tough until tuition is paid off? For God's sake, please never go with a carrier that offers "free" training on automatic transmissions. What a joke. You'll be a slave to that carrier forever, because you will never in a million years pass a road test with another carrier. Shifting a non-synchronized transmission is nothing like a synchronized trans. in a car or straight truck. NOTHING at all. So many people fall for this -- don't be one of them.

Sorry to ramble on a hijacked post for so long Best of luck!

 

Hey Scott, good to see you on here....I just finished my final day of school at LCC today, taking my driving test Monday..The final day is actually a day on the skid pad in Marshall. It taught me more than I thought it would, and we all had a blast

After a lot of research I settled on LCC just because the instructors seemed to be there to teach you to drive a truck, not hand out prehire packets and tell you how great the world will be. They seem to have good relationships with smaller regional companies, many of them only hiring graduates from LCC.

Overall, very glad I chose them. Equipment was far above the other two schools I looked at, and got a lot of driving time. To anybody in Michigan I would recommend you check them out..As a bonus I found they were cheaper than the other two I looked at as well..by a lot.

 

Do you work for Trainco?

 

LCCTDT you seem to have a lot of knowledge in all aspects of trucking. maybe you can answer this for me. i have been thinking about getting my CDL for months now but i have a couple DUI's from when i was younger,the last being 17 years ago and have not drank since 1993. also i have some things on my record from over 20 years ago. but honestly can not remember dates and if they were fellonies or misdameanors at the time. so how can i answer the questions on the apps honestly. not sure what to do to go forward. iv'e been studying for my permit and feel i can pass that easily. any advice would be appreciated greatly.

 

So - if the application asks: "Have you ever been convicted of a felony?" and it's been 20-something years ago and not a violent felony,would you lie and say "no" or what? I don't lie,by the way. Seems like if you answered no,and they checked and found out you had lied,you'd be "blacklisted" even worse than if you tell the truth.

What do you think?

Thanks for your good advice,sir! This is a great thread.