How Big Was Your Truck Driving Class?

all of my prep work was done on the *High Road Training Program*, and I completed all of their practice tests today, including endorsements for doubles/triples, tankers, and hazmats, and passed all of them well above the minimum 80% required, scoring 100% on many of them

That's awesome, man! Congrats. Hard work early on in your career preparing for the testing and then your time on the road really pays off in a big way. It's nice to have the written stuff totally under control so you can focus on the next set of challenges.

Hey Brett gotta question, how big was your class?

Hey Brett gotta question, how big was your class?

I went to a private school - Alliance Tractor Trailer Center in McDonough, GA in 1993. I don't even know if that company or location are even around anymore to tell ya the truth. I haven't checked out their site in a while.

But our schooling was 7 weeks long, 50 hours per week, for a total of 350 hours. That was a lot of schooling by today's standards. But when I went on the road with a trainer with my first company it was only for two weeks, which is short by today's standards. So it balanced out pretty good.

There were about 25 people in my class. On the backing and shifting range we usually had 3 or 4 people to a truck. When we went out on the road we had three drivers and one instructor in each truck.

The first week was nothing but classroom. The second through fourth weeks were half classroom, half backing and shifting range. The last three weeks were half backing and shifting range, half road work.

We took our final driving, pre-trip, and backing exams on Thursday and Friday of the last week. Saturday we had a graduation party with pizza and soda. A recruiter from Gainey showed up and said to two other fellas and myself that we had jobs waiting for us if we wanted them. All we had to do was follow him down the road to the facility, get our physical and drug test and paperwork completed, and as soon as everything went through they'd hook us up with trainers.

We all shrugged our shoulders and said, "Sounds great. Lead the way!" ...and off we went to Gainey. If I recall correctly it seems I had to wait a little bit for a trainer to become available, like a week or something. Nothing big. But when he came in they called and said, "Come on down. Your trainer is here waiting on ya." ......and off I went.

Gainey as in Gainey Transportation Service?

Gainey as in Gainey Transportation Service?

Yap. Now Gainey's name is gone. They were absorbed into Super Service, which Gainey originally had bought at one point.

My father drove for Gainey at one point, lol. Yeah I know the whole Gainey, Super Service fiasco. I don't remember the name of the reefer company that got closed down the second time the whole big buy out save from bankruptcy thing happened.

G-Town recollects:

My recruiter was very frank; stated graduation rate {at Richmond, VA} was about 20%.

I was in the Memphis school director's office last week. Most recent completed class here is 63% passing. Neener - neener!

Just Speculation
I wonder if different places calculate "pass rate" differently. For example: One school might consider pass rate as:
(people who get their CDL / people on day one) = pass rate

Whereas another school might consider pass rate as:
[(people who get their CDL) / (people on day one - people who fail a drug screen)] = pass rate

The argument to be made for doing it the second way is that people who fail the drug screen are never "really" in the class, as they didn't meet the conditions to get started. This would also result in a (potentially substantially) higher pass rate.

G-Town recollects:

My recruiter was very frank; stated graduation rate {at Richmond, VA} was about 20%.

I was in the Memphis school director's office last week. Most recent completed class here is 63% passing. Neener - neener!

I bet you get this a lot... "Erroool"...

Obviously you brought out the best in all those people around you.

Just Speculation
I wonder if different places calculate "pass rate" differently. For example: One school might consider pass rate as:
(people who get their CDL / people on day one) = pass rate

Whereas another school might consider pass rate as:
[(people who get their CDL) / (people on day one - people who fail a drug screen)] = pass rate

The argument to be made for doing it the second way is that people who fail the drug screen are never "really" in the class, as they didn't meet the conditions to get started. This would also result in a (potentially substantially) higher pass rate.

I have to agree with this. Remove the first week because most of the people leaving are due to pre-qualification issues.

At least with Swift, if they state 6 graduated, it only reflects those who passed the CDL exam.