Now you have decided to become a professional truck driver and the very first step is picking a CDL school to help you to get your license. There is the option of attending a company sponsored CDL school but we will cover that in a separate article
When it comes to selecting a CDL school to get your license there are a number of factors that will help determine (A) Your Chances Of Obtaining Your License (B) Your Chances Of Obtaining Employment
Reputation Of The CDL School
Since COVID took place there seems to be a ton of truck driving schools pop up out of nowhere and to be honest most of them are horrible. What we have seen is CDL Schools that promise the World in the shortest time possible at the cheapest price. Of course recently we have seen the US Government go after these CDL schools and hundreds have been shut down with a ton more to come. This is also seen in Canada with a number of schools being shut down for failing to produce safe drivers
When I started to drive I signed up with a large company and the new driver orientation were filled with drivers who had attended a variety of different schools. The trainers were quick to comment on how some schools would produce drivers who would be on the road quickly without a lot of training and others were like starting from scratch. It would get to the point where if a driver applied to the company who attended a specific truck driving school their resume would quickly be thrown in the trash
What I have learned in my decade of working in the truck driving industry is the best thing a prospective student can do is call up a company that they would like to work for and ask their recruiter what CDL school they would recommend
CDL School – Requirements
Before you even attend a CDL school there are a number of requirements that you must meet in order to enroll. If the truck driving school you are looking at does not require them then that is a major red flag and you should be seeking out a different school
A) The Student must be eighteen years old to drive within the state and twenty one years old or older to drive interstate
B) The Student must have proper documentation including a valid driver’s license, social insurance card and proof of legal registry
C) The Student must have passed a DOT physical and some school may have their Students take a DOT drug test in which they must pass
D) The Student must obtain their driver’s abstract and it must be clear of major violations. Some schools will not take on new students who have recent DUI’s
CDL School – Hours Behind The Wheel
One of the most common ploys used by CDL schools is to falsely advertisement hours spent behind the wheel. What a lot of CDL schools do is advertise the amount of time that a student will spend in the truck. They may say fifty hours but what they mean is twenty five hours behind the wheel and twenty five hours spent watching someone else drive
Needless to say the more hours that you spend behind the wheel of a truck the better off you will be in terms of getting your license and operating safely on the road
CDL School – Equipment Available
Obviously you are not going to be driving top of the line trucks at a CDL school and the trucks that you will be operating will have seen their best days behind them. I believe the trucks I drove during my school days were at least ten years old.
An important consideration in this area is the number of trucks available for students. If the school has a limited number of trucks than the scheduling for getting your hours behind the wheels can get pretty tiresome. The same issue happens when a truck breakdown and has to spend a lengthy time a mechanics to get it moving again
When it comes to trailers it is important to have a variety so you can experience how different loads affect the way a truck operates. If you are pulling ten thousand pounds or thirty thousand pounds the difference is pretty significant
CDL School – Instructors Experience
A problem the new fly by night CDL schools deal with is that their instructors have little experience operating in the real world. It is important to find a school where the instructors have a long documented truck driving career for they will have experienced the majority of the problems that truckers encounter day to day and how to overcome them
CDL School – Manual Versus Automatic
When it comes to getting your license it use to be that everyone would train on a manual shifting truck however since then the majority of the industry have moved to automatic trucks.
With my first company back in 2015 I was in a manual shifting truck for approximately six months before I was given a newer automatic truck. Within a year the entire company was driving automatics
If I was given the option today of training in a manual versus an automatic I would pick the manual for once you have it then you keep it forever. If you are on a manual exempted license you are limited to automatics which is not a big deal in the dry van world however in some specialty areas of trucking having a manual is necessary
CDL School – Accreditation
If you fail to do anything at all make sure that the CDL school that you attend has accreditation through one of the licensing bodies. I would also do a bit of research on the school to see if there has been issues with their accreditation in the past
Needless to say when it comes to picking a CDL school there are a lot of factors that need to be taken into consideration. The temptation to just pick a random cheap CDL school is tempting however in the long run it can cost you a ton of money.
Remember this is a career that you are looking it and you want to have the best foundation possible to ensure that you get off on your driving career on the right foot
