Comments By Kolibri

THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH!!! I am to start soon with CRST (Cedar Rapids, though for me unless something changes), so will find your posts a priceless commodity. Please continue, I can hardly wait to see your next posts!!

Best of luck with your new adventure, I shall keep you both in my prayers for your every success and safety.

I do not believe the Company-Sponsored Training Programs are scam.

Many of us on the TT forum attended and graduated from a company school. Does everyone graduate? No. However I believe if you focus and apply yourself during school, you significantly lower the risk of failure.

Excerpt from Ripoff Report Website of 22AUG2012 :

" My class had 115 students enter Kirkwood at the start of the second week. What they don't tell you, is it's an accelerated course with students dropped daily and it's supposed to be a 12 week course in 2 weeks. So here's how it works: You drive for maybe 30-45 mins. per day, but you have to log a certain amount of hours. How do you get these hours you ask? Make you stand outside in the 100 degree Iowa heat and pre-trip, basically pointing at parts with a broken stick. After the "training" was over my class was down to 15 students! 100 people cut in 12 days. Then after all this they check your background and MVR report. We lost another 7. So out of the 115 students, we had 7 to sign a contract. Great pass/fail ratio eh? "

My recruiter said that the pass ratio was about 70% last week. I found the above yesterday.

Anyone who attended CRST that can confirm or refute the accuracy of any of these claims?

Thanks, G-Town!

I am very confident in my ability to succeed academically, and have attended much training for the various career paths I have traveled in the past. My main concern is with the practical parts. Especially backing, but these are acquired skills, and I am sure I will be afforded the time to practice, as well as being able to acquire the skills within the allotted time frame.

I have take your suggestion, and been researching CRST both here as well as other places on the web, getting the good and the bad. It's really tough to sort out the crap, though sometimes. For example, someone complains about getting dropped from their school. Who is REALLY at fault? Is it really set up to scam people into thousands of dollars of debt, or did this person do something stupid that they do not share in the complaint?

Well, I intend to find out for myself, first hand. I intend to make a vlog of my experiences and share with the community here.

Again, thank you very much for your advice and encouragement!

Looking forward with a positive attitude toward starting my training. I am sure I will do well and complete the training relatively easily. I wish to solicit any advice, information, do/don't lists - ANYTHING that might be of use. Anything any of you have learned and made you think "Gee I wish I knew that before I started this thing" or "I don't remember seeing THAT in the brochure" or "There was this classmate in my class that [insert act(s) of stupidity or awesomeness here]".

I begin in about a month, and intend to post a diary here. I have already begun the "High Road" online reading and tests, and gathering the items on the packing checklist. I intend to study such that I shall be thoroughly bored through classroom time, but since I have never driven an articulated truck before, I expect just the opposite during the range/road time.

I can hardly wait to get started putting some paid miles on their odometers!