CDL Training Standards looking for Change
Now if you've chosen an exclusive truck-driving school, that is the trail I decided, you will not have nearly the bologna to manage. The colleges are independent of all trucking companies and they've already gotten your money therefore there's no reason to push any kind of self serving agenda.
They've no reason to BS you. What they DO should do is give you the best experience they can while you attend their school and give you the best chance they can give you at being successful once you have graduated. Their entire future is based upon their popularity. Word of mouth from former students and guidelines from the trucking organizations they send students to are the key to their future survival.
If you don't like your knowledge and the students taken from the school aren't acceptable to the businesses they go to work for then your school will probably die an extended, slow death. No body would want to attend. So they can get straight to work filling you with information.... and a great deal of it.
No matter what kind of school you decide upon the very first 14 days will soon be similar... classwork. Slide-shows, movies, workbooks, maps, and a number of written checks spread in here and there. To tell the truth the task is really quite simple. But be aware... They're going to completely and entirely overwhelm you with the absolute quantity of information... and they know it.
Becoming a great truck driver, especially over the path or regional, requires a lot more knowledge than most people outside the industry would ever start to imagine. Every state has its own set of regulations, rules, and procedures. Get from New-york to Los Angeles and you'll cross through a few dozen states. That is several different sets of rules.
Some rules will be common to each state but each state will have some unique rules you should know about. Now don't let this scare you... everybody has learned to manage it and you will also.
The learning curve is really high at first. The schools have to give you all of the data they can because if you move out there and make a blunder your company may contact the school and say,'didn't you teach this'? The school can often say they gave you the information but you must not have used it. That is the schools job... to give the data to you. It is your work to master it and use it. Again, don't let this scare you. It is overwhelming at first, but you'll learn when you go. Everybody goes through this steep learning curve initially and you will also.
So you'll spend a week or so in the classroom and usually another couple of weeks is going to be a mixture of classroom time and learning how to back up the vehicle through a number of different obstacles. Now if you're like me you might have never even experienced a huge rig until now... and I want to tell ya it's really, really fun.. Specially at a private school.
Private company paid cdl training program will just take their time and won't pressure you. Remember, they want you to appreciate your learning experience so their school will be recommended by you to others. Trucking organizations are hit and miss... some of them might push you and pressure you to keep their agenda alive... it's YOUR privilege to be working there which means you BETTER perform. No longer all of them will treat you this way. A whole lot it will rely on the in-patient teachers.
More details would be found on this website.
But you better revere them and a lot of the instructors in the trucking companies have labored for these companies for many, many years and therefore feel like they're the king. It's the same as anything else.... some people let a small little bit of experience and power go right to their heads.