Comments By Patricia R.

My trainer decided he was sick of training and switched to team driving. So I'm waiting on a new trainer and should hopefully be pulling out this weekend. I will update as soon as I head out.

There is a bus that goes to walmart multiple times a day. If you are on a seriously tight budget I suggest ramen noodles because ppl steal food out of the fridge often. They do not provide any food here. There is a restaurant and a store in the building but it gets pricy to shop here every day.

As far as the cold goes.....be prepared with heavy winter gear. I HATE being cold and I survived by wearing half my clothes everyday and still freezing my butt off. If you want something bad enough you focus on your goal and you remember what you came here for. When I involved myself 100% in the training and stayed focused the cold wasn't as bad. But I would have been way less cold if I had come better prepared.

I wanted to do school and training here during this time of year because I wanted to be with an experienced trainer in these conditions.... instead of being out by myself next winter wondering what I should do.

As far as money goes it's really hard to say how much a person will need. I would say as much as you can bring since it will be about 3 weeks until your first paycheck. It's about 10 days from the start of school until you pass your test and get hired. Then you wait for your trainer to pick you up so you can get your 180 hours of road time to move up to the next level.

I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.

I have more awesome news. I was outside taking a smoke break today and ran into a guy who happens to be an over the road trainer. We started talking and he told me he was waiting to get assigned a new student and truck to train. I felt like we hit it off well and I liked the way he respects what he does for a living and his work ethic. I told him he sounded like someone I would like to train with. When I saw him later he let me know he got me assigned to his truck!!

This Is awesome news because I have met a lot of ppl here who had to wait a week before they were placed with a trainer. I should be on the road in a couple days making money!! Woot woot

2 pairs of gloves with hand warmers.... we were practicing in negative 2 degree wheather. Come prepared..... you will need some insulated coveralls will keep you way less miserable. I didn't have the money for those so I wore almost my entire wardrobe everyday to try and stay layered and warm enough. I suggest wool socks as well and insulated boots. They don't care how cold it is here....school doesn't stop for the cold.

Lol...those are cute dancing bananas. Thank u!

So all weekend I spent 12 hours a day practicing backing and pre trip. I tested this morning after only 6 days of training. I got form D for my pre trip....which was the entire truck!! I am happy to report that I now have my class A CDL!!

This is a crazy intense program. If you are not 100% focused and committed to getting what you can from this school you will fail. I am happy with my choice to come here and I will update some more as I get through orientation and picked up by my trainer.

It's being stubborn. We went out to do our pre trip this morning and it was 2 degrees outside. Hopefully I don't end up with something worse after being out in the cold like this. We did mountain driving today. It was awesome. I'm headed to class for 2 hours and then we will be practicing backing for the next 2 and a half days. Its supposed to warm up to a balmy 43 degrees by sunday. It's going feel like t shirt weather after today.

Day 4. We lost the only other girl in our truck today. So now there are 3 of us which works out to more time to drive for each of us. Crappy way to look at it, but getting booted at this point in the game means u lied about something or you failed the pee test.

Today we did a long pre trip in 11 degree weather which sucked because I had a fever. Then we had to let the instructors borrow our truck for 2 hours because their brakes locked up. So around noon we did a lot more city turning and then ventured out on the freeway. I was terrified originally of driving on all this ice!!!! Because I was seriously not feeling good I just wanted to get it over with so I could get back and snuggle in bed ....where sick ppl should be. I wasn't the least bit nervous. Tomorrow is more pre trip, highway driving , and then backing. I will update soon...

Ps. Even though I feel like crap, I still drug my butt out of bed this morning to go stand in freezing weather and do what I came here to do!! Become a trailer puller.

Day 3 was long. I had class for an hour and then we were off to the range to learn pre trip and go driving for the rest of the day. I froze my butt off for 2 hours while we had a fairly detailed review of a pre trip. Then we were off with a total of 4 students in out truck to spend the day learning to drive and do turns. When we got back our instructor gave us the key to the truck and told us we were welcome to come and practice pre trip until 9pm. All of us went back out after dinner and spent about an hour and a half practicing.

Im not used to the cold weather. Also living in dorms is a lot like living in a petri dish. It's 1am and I woke up with the worst sore chest and throat that I can remember. I have managed to get sick by day 4!! I'm pretty sure i can't call out sick and I can't afford to go to a doctor so I sure hope this isn't too serious. :(

As soon as I pass my test next week and hop in a truck with my trainer. So hopefully I will be earning by the end of next week. For your first 180 hours of training you make 10/hr while driving. State minimum wage for non driving hours worked.