Rent A Truck For Backing Practice

Trainco's automatic transmission program is two weeks long. It's 6 ten hour days a week for two weeks. You test on the Monday after the second Saturday. All of the instructors tried to help me many, many times. I simply wasn't getting the hang of it though all my classmates did, to a greater or lesser degree. The school is in Ohio so during the backing skills test you get: straight line backing one free get out and look and one free pull up before points are deducted (11 passes 12 fails.); two free get out and look and two free pull ups on offset backing and parallel parking OR alley docking. The examiner chooses which of the last two you perform and which side you'll do (driver's side parallel or passanger side, for example).

After trying it and failing to manage offset over more than a week I was feeling sure I would not become just proficient enough to succeed on the test pad, never mind paralell and ally docking. Schneider sponsors most of the students but if you fail the course (too easy to fail) or do not pass your CDL test (first try) you have to pay Schneider for the cost of $3410 (course plus lodging for automatic, more for manual students because they stay and extra 4 days).

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Did you ask the instructors for extra help? It takes most people more than two weeks to get the backing maneuvers to pass the test. What did they expect of you for that first test? Why would you not at least try? The CDL test is in three parts, pretrip, backing, and road test. In most states, once you pass a section you don't have to retake it. Also, most states give you three tries per section. That's 9 potential tries. Is the school only 2 weeks long? Did you know that quitting is not the answer?

Hi Patrick, I know EXACTLY how you feel. I finished at Trainco in Perrysburg Ohio the second week of June. I failed my test on manuevers(alley dock) so I came home for a week to NJ (right outside of Philadelphia). I went back the next week and I failed again on the alley dock. I really didn't know what to do. I scheduled another test for a week and a half later and came home again. I called up a local CDL school, Mike's CDL school in Clayton, NJ. I knew the owner Mike a little bit so I asked him how much to rent a truck to practice. He called his local Schneider rep and was able to get me 4 hours of practice and a test covered by Schneider. Now of course I had to redo everything because the test portion I banked in Ohio didn't count in NJ, but it was easy. I passed pre-trip and maneuvers no problem here in NJ, but what happened with my road test is that I allowed myself to get distracted because I was having trouble downshifting in a jughandle and I glanced down and didn't stay far enough to the left. I hit the curb. Automatic fail. Well, I basically begged Schneider to cover another test, but I reached my limit, unfortunately. Mike helped me out though by letting me pay for the test when I had the money. He also let me have practice driving on the road test course and didn't charge me for it, just the $500 for the test. Luckily for my health and sanity, I passed the test on Monday. You can do it too. I had a tough time when my classmates all seemed to grasp everything immediately. Maybe you can call a local school over in PA and see if the local (not the national recruiter that you get through Schneider jobs.com) rep can get Schneider to cover a retest and practice in PA.