Where did you get your CDL? Roadmaster, Prime, etc?

I got mine from trainco

 

I got mine from Prime back in '03. They are/were a good company to get my CDL, I was trained by my now ex-husband and quickly discovered that he was not the best person to be helping me as his patience was not the best..~lol~ but a good friend of ours help me out and I passed with flying colours. The best thing I can say is that provided you get a trainer that you are comfortable with and him with you, you can take as much time as needed and you will get good training. They have their own tester (or used to anyways) so that you dont have to go thru DMV for your road test which makes things a little less stressful. Your trainer will know the testing routes and you can probably drive them till you are comfortable. Prime will not give you your own truck until them and you are confident that you can handle it. Some companies out there get you your CDL very quickly and then dump you in a truck and set you free, which probably works for some but most of time does not...IMHO.

That being said the only thing is that you have to stay with Prime for 1yr so that you dont end up paying for your training.

Please note this information is based on my experience in '03 and I am sure things have changed a lot since then..~s~

PS. They have great facilities !

 

I would recommend going to a independent Trucking School. They have no obligations to any trucking companies and they just want to teach you. Don't believe everything that the trucking companies offer or say. You have to do some research on the companies that you are applying for. DO NOT LEASE A TRUCK!!!!! You don't have the experience and some of these companies will want to talk you into doing so.

Do your research first. Watch your DAC.

Good Luck and I hope to see you on the road.

 

I got my CDL from the DMV in FL. I got out of the Army in '95 and borrowed my brothers truck to go take my test.

My brother let me drive his truck for the first time when I was 11 years old. I got that diesel in my blood and now I'm doomed to a life on the highway.

Don't make the same mistake!

 

I got mine through a local technical college. I almost went with Prime's program but decided I didn't want to owe a company a year of my life.

 

I went through a school called "Northeast Career Schools" based out of Manchester New Hampshire back in 1991. It was an 8 week course that cost $7400.00 total. This also payed for an apartment I shared with 5 other guys. 3 of us were day time students, 3 were night time. The school assigned the roommates and we carpooled back and forth to the site.

I received great training and passed all my tests with flying colors at the end of 8 weeks. I think they closed up a few years ago though.

 

I total agree with you - Leasing a truck with no experience is definately the wrong thing to do.

Yes going thru a school is the 'ideal' solution provided you can afford the $6k it costs to do so - in my opinion if you have to borrow this money to do this then you are starting out in more debt and most of these training schools are afilliated with compaines like Swift, JB etc (you only have to read some of the posts elsewhere to see that they appear to be a bad choice) and you would have to probably stay with them a year because now you have this extra debt of $6k. and need the experience to move on. Hey what is a year in the broad scope of things these days esp. if you are young? We all know that out here a year seems to disappear in about a month anyway....

Each to their to own...