If you want to learn how to drive a truck go to a local Technical School. CDI and TDI have several locations across the United States and promise big things but cannot deliver. I went to CDI in Christiana Tennessee with little or no knowledge of trucking, I was under the impression that three weeks would be sufficient time to get a good truck driving education, uh WRONG!!!
First of all in the state of Tennessee a driver has to have 150 logged driving hours with a CDL learners permit before he or she can take the final CDL driving test, the whole course is 152 hours including class time, I had maybe 5 hours of driving experience (including on the yard backing) when I graduated. How can this school legally graduate students without the proper hours behind the wheel that law requires?
The school instructors are all 3rd party Tennessee state certified testers, I passed a coupling/uncoupling test and made a 100 without taking the test. I held up traffic at an intersection because I made a right turn too wide and ended up in the turn lane blocking traffic until the light turned green again, and made a score of 92. I didn't know how to slide tandems or a fifth wheel, and did not know anything about the engine braking system or how to properly log hours of service in a log book.
I watched several students graduate not knowing how to shift properly, or back a trailer up to a dock successfully, "DOCK" "WHAT DOCK? The school didn't even have a practice dock, they had cones set up a hell of allot wider that most docks.
I felt proud when I graduated, I felt like a real truck driver, until I went to work for my first company. I got behind the wheel with a company trainer and then realized that I was not a truck driver, I felt like a danger to myself and everyone on the road.
Why should I owe CDI/TDI $9700.00 dollars for something they didn't do? In reality I should owe the trucking company $9700.00 dollars, as their trainer taught me more than CDI ever thought about. I could have gone through a 7 week course at a local technical school for only $650.00 dollars, and would have been tested by actual State Officers at the DMV, I would have graduated knowing a hell of allot more.
As my final statement I will say "DO NOT" go to these trucking schools thinking you will become a truck driver in 3 weeks, "IT IS A LIE" and actual "HIGHWAY ROBBERY"!
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