CDL Training

I am currently finishing up my first week of training (3 week course) I got my permit on the first attempt thank the good lord, but four out of six people in our class did fail but that I feel is because they didn't study the curriculum. Next week we will get in the truck and start straight line backing and doing our pre trip. All of the instructors seem to care and want to see you succeed. They haven't praised or put any company down they tell us to pick the best situation for us. I'm leaning more toward a flatbed company, but a question I do have is what can I expect to make my first year and yes I know it depends on a lot of different factors like cpm , mileage etc. Any other advice or input is appreciated. thanks in advance

Hopefully you get the amount of drive time that you need to learn what you need to learn. I have been seeing to many posts lately of other students who don't get enough time to practice and as a result they fail or do really bad on test.

Schools like that I think are the reason why so many trucking companies, even ones without cdl schools go and make you learn just about everything you learned or should have in school over again in their company. They can't trust that the school taught you certain things so they make sure you know it. Like USX, their new training program... man oh man... it's literally CDL school all over again except you need to have your cdl already to be hired. gotta watch a bunch of old boring videos, gotta learn and practice the same driving and backing maneuvers... I understand after seeing so many recent posts about schools not getting their students the adequate amount of practice or class time (if any class time at all) to learn why, it's just frustrating than when someone goes to a good school that does teach em all that, they still have to go through it, it's like I'm being punished for someone elses mistake... even though most would consider it a reward to get extra training, I do not when it's broken record player type training.

I kind of went off on a rant there, but make sure you get the amount of practice time you need. I myself got 40 hours of practice driving time, 4 hours each practice, 10 times plus 1 extra that the school holds onto in case you fail dps test or need to get more practice at a later time. instead of having to pay more money you got 1 left (a good example would be if your first company is all autos and you forget manuals, but want to go to a company with manuals, you can go back and re learn manual with that extra 4 hour session they held onto). Needless to say I passed my driving test on the first try. Also my school was 1 student 1 truck 1 trainer. you had your scheduled 4 hour time slot and that truck / trainer was not shared with anyone during that 4 hours except during in yard practice when it would be 2 students, 2 trucks 1 trainer but in the yard it didn't matter, you were shown how to do something, then he would sit and watch and make sure you got it down or show you again or tell you what you need to do, etc, once he thought you understood he'd get out and go help the other guy and have you practice on your own for 30 min or so then come back and help you more or teach you something new... street drives though it was always 1-1-1 so you got your full 4 hours of practice drive time with a dedicated instructor. and yard drives were not shared truck either, you still got your 4 hours of practice for that drive just sometimes you shared your instructor.

For the record I went to Sage truck driving school in San Antonio. They didn't bad mouth any companies either, occasional jokes but no bad mouthing... schools on the other hand... man roadmasters got ripped up one way and down the other. higher tuition, 4 students per truck per 4 hour session (lucky to get 1 hour of drive time per session), etc. Also heard they have a higher fail rate at DPS. How much is true, no idea, don't care.

Curtis wrote:

I am currently finishing up my first week of training (3 week course) I got my permit on the first attempt thank the good lord, but four out of six people in our class did fail but that I feel is because they didn't study the curriculum. Next week we will get in the truck and start straight line backing and doing our pre trip. All of the instructors seem to care and want to see you succeed. They haven't praised or put any company down they tell us to pick the best situation for us. I'm leaning more toward a flatbed company, but a question I do have is what can I expect to make my first year and yes I know it depends on a lot of different factors like cpm , mileage etc. Any other advice or input is appreciated. thanks in advance

Welcome Curtis.

You can expect to make about $35,000-$40,000 your first year. Try to think of your first year as a paid apprenticeship that includes additional road training beyond getting your CDL. There is an incredible amount of information on this website designed to assist folks considering this as a career and for new drivers.

Trucking Truth has a link called Trucking Company Reviews summarizing numerous companies that will hire a trainee. This might help you select prospective employers. We have many experience flatbed drivers who regularly contribute to the general forum. They'd be happy to answer specific flatbed questions for you. In addition if you type the word flatbed and flatbed companies in the search bar (upper left corner) and press enter, numerous threads of previously posted information will be returned for you to review.

Good luck on your journey and let us know how else we can help.

Thanks for the input guys. I'm in my second week day 4 is tomorrow. We straight line backed monday started at 7 am and ended at 5:30 pm, Tuesday we off set backed start time 7 end time 5:30, today we parallel parked start and end time was the same. We got in a lot of practice on all 3 skills, we have 5 in our class and have 3 trucks. Tomorrow we go on the back roads to do some driving and shifting. There will be 3 students in one truck and 2 in the other truck. We will begin at 7 and end at 5:30, so we should get in some pretty good driving time. Lord willing all will go well.

We drove on the road Thursday and Friday. We got a lot of driving time everyone done pretty well we all grinded a few gears but all in all we all done good. We are driving again today then tomorrow we will do our night driving

We finished school Friday and I passed my CDL test yesterday. Now it's time to go to work

We finished school Friday and I passed my CDL test yesterday. Now it's time to go to work

Congrats...

Rick

Thanks

Well I have an orientation date with McElroy March 7. I'll try to keep and a better update of orientation and training than I did for CDL school lol