Because I have 14 OTR years in people are asking me about schools and the laws and some of the crazy @@@ things instructors are telling them about laws and things they need to include in apps for employment. If you are or have some one in family or friend thinking of doing this please listen. Go to a school? Most who have no one who can each them on the road should. PLEASE check out the dredentials of these schools thoroughly before signing on. MAKE SURE there are thoroughly accredidated and recognized in their State. Not one that has instructors like my EX in Illinois who could not make it in trucking and fired from almost all jobs he had.That they are current and up-to-date on ALL DOT LAWS!!!!That each and every instructor holds and is current with his own CDL and a licensed instructor again up-to-date credentials to be teaching. Check with the DMV and if they can not tell you have them refer them to the appropiate dept or place these schools are governed by.Remember also these schools teach you pass the written test and provide just enough in my opinion Driving time to pass properly drive test in manuevering that truck and empty trailor around a town, maybe 2, and to properly back it into a space or dock. Yes you will pass if you pay attention. You'll watch movies on safety behind the wheel. And they should teach how to properly pre-trip your truck. Sounds easy till you hit the road. And include how to fill out a logbook. The real learning comes on the job.To properly load. Paperwork. Road conditions, snow ice, mountain driving. Make sure they are truly getting therre money worth from experienced instructors who had successful employment with trucking companies. Not the rejects who too many playing the part of instructors and out to make a buck.There are too many schools who should not be in business out there just waiting to releive people of their money.Death comes in an instant when you are poorly trained!! These schools are not cheap! Know one would pay big bucks for a fallen down shack. Why then place your life in the hands of an instructor of a school who is not qualified to help teach you all they can. A really good qualified instrutcor and what you learn can save your life out on the road, if they TAUGHT YOU WELL AND GAVE YOU GOOD INSIGHT IN WHAT TO EXPECT AND INSTRUCTION ON WHAT COULD SAVE YOUR LIFE IN AN EMERGENCY!! Enough said! May all your Holidays be Blessed!!

I will also say they will have newer equipment to train you in. If they do not and the equipment is older especially 7-10 yrs or older keep going. This is not the school you want. They should be teaching drivers with modern equipment. A set of sticks is not modern. It for simple explanation has 2 manual sticks which you have to shift and is a real trick compared to the modern manual 1 stick transmisions!! Tho a real treat to later learn on with a lot of experience. I put this in cause I recently found a school with one, and is it a junk and a joke of a school.

I need to also add. Have a felony on your record. MOST companies will not hire. Some smaller ones will depending on what it was. Have a DUI conviction on your license. Companies either state it must be so old or wait till it falls off your license. Some will except none.Do you have a lot of tickets ? What kind. An honest school will tell you you are wasting your money!! Flat out!! Why put out money for a school for a job you will never get! Check out the companys you may want to employ with online and see what they will or will not except before spending those thousands of dollars for a job you may never be able to qualify for. 98 percent of all the major trucking companies have on line apps you can bring up along with what they say the qualifications you must meet to get a job.

You are offering some really good advice. Who knows how many people you may be helping by posting this.

Thanks Twisted Sheets. My Son is thinking about taking a Heavy Equipment course, to learn to drive bull dozers, ect.

Well said, seems like these "schools" have popped up when the economy went bad. Hubby's been a Truck Driver for years, started as a teen driving grain to the mill from the family farm. Studied on his own to get his CDL, never been OTR, works for the county now.

Very good sound advice :D:D:D

Thank you. I am also a member of a trucking forum, where there are so many people of all ages who have already paid and gone thru schools , who were also misled. Now they are out the money or owe where they were financed for the course, and are not able to get employment because they do not qualify for the jobs. Because of what is either on their license or a past conviction with the law.And some who got such poor training and info they are no longer with us here on earth. I wish these fly by night money grubbers would be put out of business!!

Our American schools sound weak compared to one my SS's girl friend told me about in her home country over seas (forgot which one, but she had to escape with small daughter under a load of potatoes from Communist state. Hubby was taken away by police and never seen again) She and brother took truck driving lessons, took a year. Learned to strip a motor and put it back together. Learned laws/rules. Final driving test was over a huge canyon with only 2 huge boards as wide as the tires, no more. The driving inspector kept his door open, just in case.
She passed test and said almost passed out when she walked back to look at that road.
Do we actually teach how to keep the truck running here?

NO! They will show you how to check the fluids and how to properly do a pretrip inspection of your truck and trailor, and a post trip after you finish your driving time. But you should actually be visually doing an inspection each time you stop your truck, say to use a bathroom, stop to eat or just take a short nap, and before moving your truck agaain. You may have had a tire go flat. Some jokestaer may have switched your airline on the trailor. Some one may have pulled the pin on your fifth wheel. And as you drive away the trailor falls off your tractor, or becomes disengaged while actually driving down the highway. I have seen tires roll by because the lugs were loosened on a truck and came off it while going down the highway!The schools are going to teach you. When you are excepted for employment its time for orientation. The Trucking company is now going to go over what you should have learned again, in part and teach you what they expect from you. You do lots of paperwork and videos and they test you. Do not sleep thru this. Of course they do their drug screening. Fail that your out. Hope you have money to get home. They do not pay your way home YOUR ON YOUR OWN and escorted of the property. Anytime they put you out of Orientation for any reason your thru and they will file a DAC REPORT ON YOU!! NOT GOOD!! Especially when your new!They also give you a drive test. To see where your skill of handling that truck is at and how well you learned to shift that transmission. Backing properly is a must. I have seen supposedly experienced drivers cause the transmission to drop out of the truck. A SIGHT TO BEHOLD!! Before they could get out of the yard and onto the road off the property! If you pay attention and get thru all this, they assign you a driver trainer. You may not get along or feel their hygiene is lacking. One student was assigned a lady weighing 600 lbs. We called her Little Mary. Her student walked back to the company after she stripped naked and layed in the bunk. And tried to get him to service her. He made a good move immediately safely parking the truck and returning to the yard!! I will admit I too was hysterically laughing ! But we took him into the office and more then one of the regular employees had some stuff to say about her. Unfortunately it was several years later before they finally fired her and lots of shippers and receivers complaining about her. Kaiser who shippped coils actually locked her in the trailor while they went to luch after placing a large coil behind her while she was securing the previous in the trailor. Eventually they banned her from her properties. And I had to load her load for her more then once, or another driver who was in her immediate area. Eventually her sexual harrassment to other shipper and receivers got to be too much and they let her go. They had to eventually get rid of the Peterbuilt after cleaning it out, and detailing it because their was such a smell they could not get rid of it. Even after stripping the interior totally out twice! No one should ever put up with sexual misconduxct and report them immediately. A word of warning, it is best to stick to learning your job, and keeping your personal business your own. Sad but true, keep eyes and ears open and mouth shut. Learn what you need to do your job properly . This saves yourself from gossip and people twisting your words and creating problems. Something you might say could go back that you have problems at home and the trainer feels you can not properly do the job, and should be let go. The trainer is who the company depends on for how you will work for them, or if they think you are qualified to continue employment in order to assign you a truck. Do not discourage if you are asked to train longer, just do YOUR BEST! This is often when a new driver decides if this is really the job they want. It Exspect to be away from home 3 to 4 months. And training pay is less. You get paid for experience, you need to get that experince first. You will get trainee pay but not the starting pay till your on your own.