Comments By Troy S.

Thank you Stacie :)

Well a short day 2 (week 2 day 2) is done and a successful trip to the DMV as well! I took 6 tests, General Knowledge, Combination Vehicles, Air Brakes, Doubles-Triples, Hazmat, and Tanker. Im happy to report that I passed them all! Definitely breathing a sigh of relief! Im glad I studied as much as I did, since the actual tests were much harder than the practice tests! If you are preparing for the learners permit written tests, make sure you study study study. The High Road training here is a great way to do that!

Now we begin trip logs starting tomorrow and will be in the trucks soon! I can't wait to finally be able to get my hands dirty! Until next time...

Troy

HDHP,

I'm not sure about Stacie, but I am in a private trucking school as opposed to company sponsored. The main difference is the private school is like any college where you have to pay for tuition either out of your own pocket or with student loan and any available grants. I was fortunate enough to qualify for the Pell Grant since I'm laid off and unemployed, so the student loan portion wasn't too bad. Many companies offer tuition reimbursement to help you pay back student loans if this is the type of schooling that you chose to do.

I personally chose this route rather than company-sponsored because I like the slower pace of learning as opposed to the short period of time and then jumping on the road quickly as is how it is with a company sponsored program. Dont get me wrong, many people choose that way and it works well for them, and many have become successful drivers that way. It just wasn't something I was comfortable with. Also, my school is about 10 minutes from my house so I don't have to go to another state for 4 to 6 weeks and be away from my family while I'm in school which is a huge advantage.

I Hope that answers your questions. Good luck with your decision, there area many great options to choose from!

Troy

Week 2, day 1 is in the bag. Today we finished going through the CDL manual and took 4 tests, 3 on general knowledge and 1 on air brakes. I aced all 4, so I'm now 5 for 5 at 100%! This is really helping me feel confident going into the learners permit written test at the DMV tomorrow! I plan on taking the Hazmat, Tanker & Doubles/Triples endorsement tests as well to get them out of the way. I'll let you all know how I did tomorrow - here's hoping for good results, wish me luck!

Troy

Good luck to you too Mark, Keep us posted!

Agreed Stacie! I'm much more comfortable going at a slower pace. Especially when you hear horror stories of new drivers getting in accidents because they were pushed through too quickly. It is a long time to wait, but I'll be so well prepared when I'm done. Good luck to you in your new career!

Troy

Kenneth it's 4 1/2 months but who's counting lol This school covers a lot in more detail and at a slower pace and also get a lot more time behind the wheel than the company programs I believe. Plus there are other courses that cover fork lift use, dispatch, advanced mapping etc that isn't typically covered in a shorter program.

Troy

Mark, I'm not sure about that particular school, but here the graduate to placed job percentage is in the high 90 percent rate. In many cases students are hired before even finishing. We have recruiters here each week sometimes several a week sharing about their company's specific benefits.

The cost is fairly high here as well but most carriers offer some tuition reimbursement incentives and/or sign on bonuses. Unless a student didn't want to work, the possibility of getting a job right out of school is practically 100%!

Good luck with your research and decision, the number of options is mind boggling!

Troy

Well day 5 and week 1 came to an end. I feel very prepared for the learners permit test on Tuesday. Once that's complete we can focus on some real practical learning . We also had our first company come for a visit, Gypsum Express. Pretty interesting presentation, and a place that I could see myself driving for. They did have a few negatives however, such as no tuition reimbursement, so I'll have to see what others offer. Still it's nice to know we are all wanted for the most part!

Next week I'll start a new blog and call them NTTS WEEK NUMBER 2 (and so on) from here on out (hopefully that's acceptable Brett?)

Anyway look for my continuation next week and have a great weekend!

Troy

Day 4 has come and gone! Today we focused on air brakes and took our first general knowledge test which I scored 100% on (woot woot!). In our school, not sure about others, it is an accredited school, so our test grades count towards being able to graduate. Students have to maintain a minimum grade in order to qualify to be able to take the DOT road test, so I'm glad I was able to start out strong. Tomorrow, Friday, we will take our air brake test for the school. If I do as well on that, I know I'll do fine on the written tests at the DMV, which happens on Tuesday.

Today I got my first recruiting letter in the mail from a company called H.O. Wolding, which is one of the carriers I'm interested in. It was a welcome to school letter and a brochure about what they offered. It's weird ( and exciting) going from the regular job market where no one would even respond to a resume, to being sought out before I'd even finished one week of school!

Thats all from today, there's not much more to report. Next week we will start to dig in deeper so if you're reading stay tuned. Also GOOD LUCK to my fellow rookies just starting out or preparing for school!!

Troy

Well today, day 3, went similarly to days 1 & 2 with one exception. For about half of the day we had a different instructor come and teach which was quite interesting. He has over 30 years experience driving just about every type of route imaginable so his stories were entertaining and educational.

One thing I like about having more time at this school is we get to spend a lot of time asking questions and hearing different experiences from the different instructors. I'm definitely getting more and more excited about getting started in this career, and right now 18 weeks seems like an eternity but I know I will be well prepared .

Next week once we have our learner's permits, we will continue in the class studying log books, map reading and trip routing.

See you after day 4!

Troy