Comments By Amanda D.

Kalin, what exactly do you mean by "legal bribes?" My husband is looking at getting his Class B on his own so he can work before he's qualified for Swift school (tried private school already and it didn't work out.) He, like you, is not from the US and is waiting out his year of having his US license.

I've talked about my husband's drama at the tech college he went to for CDL A in a different post. Anyway, long story short, he was pushed out of his program, we believe unfairly. He has put enough time and energy into the CDL thing that he wants to continue. Swift is the best company-sponsored program in the area (we live in FL) and he's not qualified to go to their school until he has had my regular driver's license for a year. So we decided that he should take the Class B test on his own so he can start working and then go to Swift school later (if he's not happy with the job he gets). The reason Class B is because he feels at this point more confident driving a straight truck than a tractor-trailer. Has anyone ever done this? Any tips before he starts calling down the list of places that offer testing?

Brett, you make fair points. And I was against him going OTR. But when he started school, I was supportive as I could be. I still wanted him to go local or dedicated but there were sooooo many companies hiring out of this school, I figured it wouldn't be a problem. In fact, when the instructor started making comments about his English and skills, he asked me if he should just drop down to Class B. I said no because it didn't seem that he was having anything but run of the mill issues mastering the skills.

In fact, I didn't think they'd actually drop him from the class. I thought they were just pushing him around, hoping he'd drop on his own because they had too many students for the amount of equipment and instructors. Usually, they cap the class at 8 Class A and 2 Class B. This time, they took on 10 Class A students. The instructor herself complained to the class about how there were too many students and how no one had dropped yet. I guess usually a few people quit in the first weeks, leaving them with 5-6 students. And right after he was dropped from the class, two students who were struggling with the skills dropped down to Class B voluntarily because they were nervous about what happened to him and didn't want to lose their money. Another student cracked under pressure and quit altogether, although I don't think that had anything to do with what happened to husband. So we've wondered if they pushed him out to get the class to a more manageable number.

Anyway, the day they said they were dropping him, I had an important job interview and I was stressed and distracted. So I advised him to try and get B because I didn't have any time to think about other options, like company school, and because it seemed like the easiest solution. After I got feedback here, I began to change my mind however he had already committed to the B class by then. But we thought he should get the difference in tuition back and when he approached the administration about it, they said yes and then changed their minds.

My husband is not someone who tends to have problems getting along with people, so I don't think it was his problem that the instructor had issues with him. He had impeccable attendance and was extremely dedicated to the class. As far as skills go, he didn't describe anything to me that sounded like more than typical beginner problems - missing shifts, took awhile to catch onto backing. But self-assessment of one's skills is rarely objective, so I would find it more believable that his problems were skill issues rather than personality issues.

Ha, I gathered that Scott.

And frustration and exasperation is right.

So he was led to believe that he could test out for Class B at school this week and get a partial refund. Now, he is being told he is no longer a student (they took his student ID) and that all they can do is give him the number of a third party tester he can go to at his own cost. To the tune of $250. No idea how much of his money he can get back.

He put so much time, money and effort into this and we put a lot of other stuff in our lives on hold only for this school, that we thought was an excellent choice, to treat him so badly. I know there are other options but it bites to have wasted our time.

Lynette, there are several different county bus systems in the area. This is something he's strongly considering, as city/county positions tend to come with good benefits, which is the most important thing. A lot of job postings say they require experience, but I've heard the online posting don't jive with the needs of the company.

The drama continues. He went to talk to the administration early in the week about a refund. They said they would not refund the money for the class entirely, but he could stick with the CDL B program and get a refund of the difference. He was happy with that result, figuring he could get his B and start working, with the possibility of going for A with a company-sponsored program if he was not satisfied with the job offerings. Due to immigration and my health issues, he's been out of work for a long time and he's anxious to get back to it. He got along much better with the B instructor and things were going well. Then he was informed that he would not be getting any refund at all. When he went to the administration, they told him he could only get a refund if he dropped the B class and they would test him out this week so he could get his CDL B but no certificate. He agreed to that. He went to school today to drop off one of his assignments and to get his skills assessment and was told that they may not have time to test him out and that it's no longer their responsibility anyway.

Also, Swift told him that he has to have been a licensed driver in the US for a year before he came go to school with them. He still has about two months to go. And Swift seems like the only possibility here in SWFL. The other companies don't seem to hire from here (I thought Knight did but it I guess they recently changed that) and Prime is not possible because they are super strict on employment history.

All the time, money and effort and this is where he ends up. After all we'd been through with me fighting cancer, we thought this was going to be a new start. We are both feeling so discouraged.

Team driving is not possible for the reason I can't go OTR with him. I just finished cancer treatment and need to stick close to home to receive follow-up care. The sucky thing is that the follow-up care is only a shot a month, but my oncologist told me it wouldn't be possible to self-administer.

We've been looking at company-sponsored training and there seems to be possibilities with Swift, Knight and maybe Roehl. It seems like a lot of the major companies don't hire out of FL. But it seems like he'd have regional/dedicated opportunities with all of those fairly early on.

How competitive is company-sponsored school? We didn't look at it at all last time thinking that he didn't want to be beholden to a particular company. Also, do you have to live close to a terminal to work there?

This is what I love about this website. Thoughtful, honest perspective.

Reading through posts, I noticed newbies getting dressed down for not sticking with what sounded like pretty rough situations. Some of husband's classmates also said that you have to be really mentally tough because people will disrespect truckers and the teacher is just preparing the class for that (btw, the reason I've talked to his classmates is because we share a car and sometimes I have picked him up when they're still hanging out in the parking lot. It's not like I deliberately talked to them to check up on his progress or anything). That plus the fact that his program is a well-regarded program at a well-regarded community college and I was wondering if it was par for course for instructors to push rookies around, pull this kind of bs on them to "toughen them" up for the road. Glad that's not the case.

As much as I'd love to go with him on the road, it's not possible. I just finished up cancer treatment (the main reason I don't want him to go OTR, I'm afraid something will happen when he's across the country) and I have too much follow-up stuff I need to do. I even asked my doctor and he said no.

I was looking at info on Swift, Prime, etc and was surprised to see that there are some opportunities for regional and dedicated positions for new grads. Others have even better home time options but we're in FL so that seems to limit choice some. But we'll see if he can get his money back first!

Would he make more at a job that only requires a B just for having an A?

Old School, I would never think of you as a bully. You are so helpful on this forum. And you are very right.

I guess I still feel blindsided that he chose this path. He had never expressed interest in driving or any sort of job that would keep him away from home so much. Then, 10 months into marriage, he was looking into getting his heavy equipment certification. The program is run at a trucking school so he called a recruiter and when he hung up the phone, he had decided he wanted to become a truck driver. I was shocked and not pleased. This was not part of the plan at all. We were supposed to be enjoying our newlywed time, not spending 80% of our time apart. I felt out of control about the turn our lives had suddenly taken and I guess I just want to regain control.

Maybe you can give a dude perspective here, but I also feel hurt that he can be away so much so easily. Also feel like he doesn't have faith in me that I can pull my weight financially.

I posted here some months ago when my husband was first considering getting his CDL. I was not thrilled, but agreed as long as he tried his best to get a local/dedicated job before jumping to OTR. I really didn't want him to go OTR as we are still relative newlyweds and I also had a recent health crisis where he was my primary support. So he ended up going with a tech college where he would hopefully have a lot of different options as far as employers.

Well he went for his Class A and the lead teacher took a dislike to him. She started out saying she couldn't understand his English (he was born in a different country). His English isn't perfect but most people understand it fine. She took him to the ESOL office of the school and they said his English is fine. She then sent him to an adult education center and they gave him an English proficiency test. He scored in the top percentile. He signed up for an advanced class anyway, just to fine-tune things. The class started backing. It took him like five days to master it. She sent him for computer work and didn't take him for driving. He was upset because he wanted to practice. She threatened to kick him out. He had what he thought was a good day with driving. The next day she told him he was too far behind and kicked him out. He set up a meeting with her and the administration. They agreed that he would drop down to Class B.

He feels like he was unfairly pushed out and I tend to agree. I've talked to some other students in the class and they said that his driving is good and they also felt like he was singled out and blocked from practicing and learning. There's some speculation that she is trying to push students down to B or out because the class is too full.

He's supposed to start with the new program for Class B Monday but he got angry after talking to a trucker friend and decided that he wants to get his money back and either a) start over at a company sponsored school and get his A, or b) get his B on his own.

I think that's a bad idea and he should just swallow the loss of the difference in tuition money and get his B through the school. For one, although I think the teacher did single him out, she may have detected some weakness that she zeroed in on - and that may follow him to a different program. Two, the drop period at the school has long passed so he may not even get his money back. Three, he would probably be a lot more competitive in Class B if he is a graduate of a good CDL school. Four, there's plenty of good jobs he can still get with his B. I think his trucker friend told him that he would get no benefits working a class B job (and we need good health insurance) but looking at postings, that doesn't seem to be true. Some jobs yes, but not all. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

What do the wise men and women of trucking truth think he should do?