It’s All About Safety at CDL School

When you are in trucking school be prepared to be bombarded about the importance of safety. Especially in a paid CDL training environment.

There is good reason for this. Those things you will be driving will weigh up to 40 tons. You can cause some serious death and destruction with a tractor-trailer. Also – and the cynical person will say this is the main reason – insurance rates can be insanely high for companies that have a lot of drivers with accidents on their records.

So let’s take a look at two of the safety measures that will be hammered into your head while you’re at trucking school.

Spacing between vehicles: Putting plenty of distance between yourself and the vehicle in front of you will be talked about often. Specifically, the formula is one truck length of space for every 10 mph. This sounds all well and good, but if you really think about it it’s pretty unrealistic. Even your trainers will acknowledge that this cannot be maintained most of the time.

Doing simple math we can figure that if the average truck is about 20 yards long then we would need to keep a distance of 120 yards between us and the vehicle in front of us if we were traveling 60 mph down the highway. That’s more than a football field of space. That’s a lot of space and it seems excessive.

There’s good reason for this formula, however. Maintaining lots of space gives you plenty of time to slow down quickly or come to a complete stop if you need to. Maintaining proper distance is one of the easiest ways to prevent an accident. You’ll never rear-end anybody if you’re behind them far enough.

Of course, it’s impossible to keep such a distance all the time. Cars will be changing lanes and pulling in front of you from time to time. You just need to be aware of what is happening in front of you and keep as much space as possible between you and other vehicles.

Braking correctly: One of the easiest ways to get into an accident is to lose your brakes. This can be done quite quickly if you don’t use them correctly when descending hills or mountains. You will learn to never – ever – ride your brakes. This can cause them to quickly burn out and you will be in a whole lot of trouble if this happens.

What you will be taught to do is to use the “stabbing” technique. This is where you apply near maximum pressure on the brakes for a couple of seconds before releasing the pressure, and repeating this process until you are back on level ground.

Obviously, downshifting into the correct gear also plays an important role. But this alone is not always enough to maintain a properly slow speed.

This can actually be pretty hairy at times. Once during my training we were driving through Pennsylvania on a secondary road. This road suddenly ascended to a pretty high elevation and then dropped down just as quickly. Neither me nor my trainer was familiar with this road.

As we descended I forgot everything I learned during my training and did what any car driver would do – I rode my brakes. My trainer quickly and loudly asked me what I learned in school about descending a hill. Then I remembered.

I began using the stab technique and we made it down without incident. But let me tell you, coming down a steep hill in 70,000 pounds of truck can be scary. The truck gains momentum very quickly and you wonder whether you can keep your speed under control simply by stabbing. But it does in fact work.

We will examine other safety issues you will learn in CDL school in other posts. For now, get a quick jump on your learning by remembering that lots of space between you and other vehicles, and absolutely no riding your brakes are two crucial things you must learn.

Lots more information about truck driving schools is available by visiting the website CDL Training Info.

Don’t Let Bad Credit Derail Your CDL Training

If you’ve thought about CDL training but think you have no shot because of bad financial history, you need to rethink. A poor financial history should never stop you from getting into CDL training.

That’s because there are a lot of CDL schools that will give you training for free as long as you agree to work for them for a set amount of time, in most cases one year. This is a win-win scenario for both you and the school. You get a guaranteed job in the near future and the company gets a guaranteed employee who was trained the company way.

You can get accepted into these paid CDL training schools with no money down and with bad or no credit.

The way it works is that you go to the school for about a month. You are trained and eventually earn your Class A CDL. You then go with an instructor on the road, where you will learning how to do your job the right way. After some time, usually 30-45 days, you are assigned your own truck and take to the road as a full-time employee. After you finish your one-year assignment, you can continue to work for the company or you can leave to find a different job.

Why would a company offer free training and a job? What’s the catch? Well, your job will be as an over-the-road (OTR) driver during that first year. You will be on the road for two to three weeks at a time before you will earn home time. You usually get one home day for each week on the road.

This kind of lifestyle is not appealing to most truck drivers. They like to be home every night, or at least every weekend. So companies are always in need of OTR drivers. That’s where you as a student-driver come into play. You get paid CDL training in return for doing something that most people in the trucking industry shy away from.

But not everyone is like this Some people enjoy OTR driving. You can see the country and you don’t have a boss constantly on your back. Also, if you aren’t married or don’t have children can bank some good money without a mortgage or child-support payments. You can stay with friends, family or get a room somewhere during the few days that you’re home every month.

You will not be making big money during this time. The company needs to recoup some of the money it spent on your training, so the pay is low. But this is the price you have to pay for getting valuable truck driving experience.

And that experience is absolutely valuable. Most companies won’t hire anyone without at least a year of driving experience. So your OTR experience will be premium when you’re job-hunting down the road.

So don’t think a bad financial situation is a roadblock to getting CDL training.. No money or no credit doesn’t matter. You can start a new career in truck driving if that’s what you truly want to do.

Classroom Study Big Part of CDL Schooling

Your CDL training at truck driving school will generally consist of three areas: in the classroom, in the “yard” and on the road. Let’s take a look at the classroom.

Many students will find this on the boring side, especially compared to actually being in the truck. But classroom study is a crucial phase. Here you’ll learn what you need to know to pass the CDL permit exam and the CDL license exam. Both of these exams are in multiple-choice format, with most questions having four choices.

Studying to get your permit will come first, naturally. In both CDL training schools I attended (one for a Class B and one for Class A) handouts were given to students containing actual questions that will be or had been on the test. You can’t get any better than this for study materials.

The teacher went around the room and students took turns reading a question and then choosing an answer. Sometimes discussion followed to clarify a point.

One thing about these tests that is helpful to the student is that almost every question contains one possible answer out of the four that is ridiculous and obviously not the right answer. So even if you’re totally guessing on that question, your odds have been narrowed from a 1-in-4 chance to a 1-in-3. That helps.

My favorite one of these nonsense answers came from the question: “If your engine catches fire while you’re driving what is the best course of action?” There were reasonable sounding answers, and then there was this: “Speed up quickly so the wind can put the fire out.” Now, even if you know nothing about trucking you know that is an absurd answer.

Those who can memorize well should breeze through these tests. But even those who can’t should not have much trouble because the correct answers are explained in a way that makes sense (at least they should be if the instructor is good). If two answers appear equally legitimate the instructor will analyze them both with the class so you get a clear understanding of why the answer is correct. This is helpful during testing because you can now rely on actual knowledge instead of memorization.

An important part of your classroom CDL training will be learning how to conduct a pre-trip inspection. You are required to do these when you get a driving job in the real world. These are mandated by the Department of Transportation so they figure heavily in the exams. There is quite a bit to go over here, so a lot of your classroom time will be devoted to this.

The pre-trip (or walkaround) involves a lot of memorization. You must learn to identify everything you would check during a pre-trip. There are several dozen things that get checked, beginning with the engine and circling around the entire truck to include practically everything that could conceivably be a safety concern.

Also DOT mandated is the ability to do a brake test. You will learn this in the classroom as well (and in the yard). It basically involves pumping the brakes and checking the pressure recovery times. Again, this is strictly memorization but a necessary part of your CDL training.

You will also learn some basic rules and regulations about hauling hazardous material (hazmat), weight limits, hours of operation and emergency procedures. As we mentioned in a previous article, CDL training schools teach you only what you need to know to pass all your exams and road tests.

So in the classroom, expect almost all instruction to be focused on the written exams. Don’t expect any advice on, say, how to do a blindside backup to a loading dock or how to properly load your truck. In other words, you will not get a lot of “real world” advice during your classroom CDL training. You will get information that’s targeted specifically toward what’s on the upcoming exams.

 

Trucking School a Good Career Move

Going to a quality CDL school to make a career change can be one of the best decisions you ever make.

This is one of the fastest possible ways there is to gain a new skill that is in high demand in the workplace. Think about it. Getting a degree takes years. Acquiring specific skills such as computer programming or engine mechanics takes many months if not years. Even becoming a hairdresser takes months.

Getting your Class A CDL takes a mere weeks. This depends, of course, on whether you attend full-time or part-time. But the point is that CDL school gives you a valuable new skill that can translate into a lifetime career in a shorter time than almost any other career change.

But you must understand that trucking schools only give you the bare minimum to start your new career – your CDL license. Obviously this is the most important part. You can’t move forward without it.

But CDL school stops right there. You learn the skills needed to get your CDL and your teaching ends. The school has done its duty, getting you your license, and that’s it.

Don’t expect to learn the skills you’ll need to drive out in the “real world.” Don’t expect to learn how to back a truck up to a loading dock or how to successfully maneuver in city traffic. That’s not the function of CDL school.

Of course, you might do some city driving and some backing during your time at school. But that will only be based on whether it relates to passing your CDL test. For example, if you need to do a backing maneuver as part of the test, then you will practice that backing maneuver. If part of the road test includes city driving then you will drive in the city.

However, don’t confuse this with acquiring “real world” skills. Practicing only exactly what you need to accomplish to pass the test is different from learning “how to drive a truck.”

This is not a knock on CDL schools. They are only doing their job, which is to help you pass your road test and get your CDL. Their job is not to teach you how to drive in general.

This doesn’t mean that real-world advice and lessons are not given. Instructors will go over some of the more practical and important parts of being a truck driver. You will learn about general safety and rules of the road, for instance.

But a CDL school is focused primarily on you getting your CDL, and there’s only so many hours in the day. Time must be spent wisely. Instructors need to drill into your head what you’ll need to know to pass the written test, and they need to let you practice what you’ll need to do on the driving test. There is little time available to spend on things that are not part of your CDL test.

OK then, just exactly what is the test all about? That all depends on which state you are in.

In all states there is a written test involved. In all states you must know how to do an air-brake test and a pretrip inspection. You must know the rules concerning hazardous material, hours of service, and keeping a log book. Every CDL school will teach you these things.

What will be different is what you will do when you’re in the truck. In all states you will need to take a road test, which is usually several miles of driving with a tester present.

What’s different in all states is whether you’ll need to do any specific maneuvers on a course and what those maneuvers are. Some states require several course maneuvers and some none at all.

For instance, in Massachusetts (where I got my Class B) there were four course maneuvers required: a straight back (backing up in a straight line), an alley dock (backing up at a 90-degree angle), parallel parking to the left and parallel parking to the right, both while backing. This was done on a course using cones as a boundary.

So we spent countless hours out on the course practicing these maneuvers. We practiced almost nothing related to driving a truck except how to complete these maneuvers.

However in Texas (where I got my Class A) there were zero course maneuvers required. The only thing we needed to do other than the road test was back up along a curb during the road test. There were no maneuvers on a course with cones or any of that stuff.

So instead of spending hours on a course with cones, we spent a lot of time driving along the route of the actual driving test.

Obviously you would want to go to a CDL school in a state that has the fewest requirements to get your license. You might have little control over this, so it’s the luck of the draw on how hard your test will be.

But you can be certain that if you attend a decent accredited school instructors will focus almost exclusively on what you need to know and do to pass your test, giving you the best chance of getting your license.

No Money for CDL School? No Problem

You can get CDL training with no money upfront even if you have lousy credit or no credit at all.

Yes, you can go to truck driving school, get your Class A CDL and land a job in about four weeks. How is this possible? What’s the catch? Well, the only thing required of you is that after training you must work for the company for one year.

This is paid CDL training and lots of companies do it. It involves going to school at a company facility for about a month. Training is focused of you passing the state test and getting your Class A. Once you do this, you will be teamed up with a trainer and you will go out together for training on the road. During this time you’ll learn specific things about driving 18-wheelers and how to correctly do the job the way the company does things.

This one-the-job training will last around four to six weeks. Afterward, you’re assigned your own truck and you take to the road as a full-time company driver. This is all accomplished without a dime out of your pocket for training costs. Why do companies do this?

They do this type of CDL training because they want to train certain kinds of drivers. Specifically, over-the-road (OTR) drivers. Now, let’s not beat around the bush. Many truck drivers don’t care for OTR gigs because you’re on the road for a week or more at a time before you get home time. Many truckers hate being away from their families for these long periods.

But OTR driving is almost a must when you’re just starting out. You need experience. Most companies want at least one year of experience when they hire drivers. So by doing the paid CDL training opportunity you’re acquiring precisely the experience that companies want. It will benefit your career greatly down the road.

I said that “most” drivers don’t like OTR jobs. That’s because some people don’t mind them at all and still other drivers actually like doing it. I did this training and thought it was OK for the most part. It was even kind of fun at times, traveling the country and taking in all the sights.

And if you have no wife, kids or mortgage you can save some serious money during the year because expenses on the road aren’t high. And you can stay on with the company for longer than the first year if you want. Most companies will pay you a cash incentive to stay on after the first year is over.

The way most people look at it is, “It’s only one year. No biggie. When I’m done I’ll have valuable experience that will benefit me for the rest of my career.” And that is true. One year of OTR experience is seen as solid experience in the trucking industry.

So don’t think CDL training is out of your reach because you have bad credit or you’re broke. With paid CDL training that doesn’t matter.

CDL Training Opportunities Abound

If your goal is to obtain CDL training to drive tractor-trailers, there are many opportunities available even if you have no money and bad credit.

Really, only two things will hold you back: a bad driving record or a serious criminal record. Other than that, if hitting the road as a trucker is what you really want to do, getting trained is a snap.

The main reason why people don’t attempt to attending truck driving school is because they don’t have any money or they have no credit or bad credit. They think this excludes them from getting enrolled in a school. Not so.

Most CDL schools offer financial aid. The aid is available for those who qualify, however, which means in this case you will need decent credit to qualify.

However, the way around this is with paid CDL training. There are companies that will pay for your Class A training at their own facilities. In return, you will agree to work for them for a certain amount of time, usually one year.

This is a perfect opportunity for those who are financially strapped to get training for a new career. It gives you the chance for a fresh start without all the financial worries. Here are the three main steps involved:

1. You attend the company’s training facility, usually for about four weeks. During the first few days you will take a written test to get your CDL permit that allows you to drive an 18-wheeler with an instructor at your side. During the last several days you will take the road test to earn your actual CDL Class A.

2. You will be assigned a trainer and will hit the road making actual deliveries for the company and doing everything else that’s required of the job. You will learn how to do things the company way and will hone your driving skills. This on-the-road training will last anywhere from two to six weeks depending on the company. Some companies divide this into two parts, with two different trainers, which will extend the training to up to eight weeks.

3. Once this is done, you will be assigned your own truck and will start your new career as a full-fledged company employee. Some companies will allow you to partner with someone else, including a friend or spouse, and drive as a team.

The benefits of paid CDL training are tremendous. You will receive career training with guaranteed job placement, all at no cost to you, even if you have bad credit. Where else can you find such a deal? And just as important, you will gain experience. This is vitally important in the trucking industry. Click here to find out just how important.

Most companies only hire drivers with at least one year of experience. With your paid CDL training you will have that. After you have completed your one-year obligation to the company, you are free to leave and look for work anywhere you choose. But you also might want to stay on because most of these companies offer bonus cash incentives to stay for another year.

One negative aspect about the paid-training option is that your pay will not be up to industry standards during that first year. You will be paid at the bottom of the pay scale. However, most people consider this fair considering the investment the company has made in providing you free training.

Another negative for some people is that you will have to stay on the road from two to four weeks at a time before getting home. Some people are OK with this while others hate it. Just remember that it’s only for one year and that you’re gaining the crucial experience you’ll need later on in your career.

So if you’ve ever considered CDL training but dismissed it due to a bad financial situation, you might want to reconsider.