Which CDL School In Indaina To Go To

I recently decided to join the truck driving industry but have no idea which schools are better than others. I need for it to be in Indiana and Preferably charge nothing up front.. I recently tried C1 Driver Solutions and that place is a joke!!!! theres no one on one time your pretty much just a paycheck to them. On top of that the driver agent lied to me about literally everything and i mean EVERYTHING! From the transportation to school from hotel, the hotel itself, the pay, where I'd be going afterwords.. everything and I want to make sure that doesnt happen when I find another school. Someone please help any advice on schools would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks, Devin

Devin, I'm concerned that you might be getting yourself started off in this business with the way too common attitude that some schools are bad and greedy and some are good. This is a prevalent attitude among new drivers today concerning trucking companies also. It is really based on a false premise which comes from so many losers ranting and raving on the internet about how this or that trucking company did them wrong and cheated them out of their career.

Let me just encourage you to work hard and put your best foot forward when attending a school. There is no perfect truck driving school - I saw plenty of things during my training that I thought could have been done better, but that didn't keep me from persevering on through so that I could get to the point to where I was captain of my own rig. It takes a pretty tough skin to make it in this industry, especially during the training and first year of running solo. I'm not saying you did anything wrong by quitting at C-1 Driver Solutions, but just prepare yourself for the next attempt that you're gonna have to endure some things that you may not think are done the way you thought they should be. I'm not speaking in platitudes here, I went through training with a crazy trainer, and wanted to quit several times. You cand read about it if you like at learning to drive from a nut!

We've got a section on this site for Company-Sponsored Training schools. These are schools that will train you with little or no money up front. Take a look through there and see if you can find something that will work for you. Devin, most of these training companies will buy you a bus ticket to their location, put you up in a hotel, and feed you while you are there at their training facility. You don't have to have a school located in your area because of that. I wish you the best in your new career, but please don't fall prey to the current trend in driver attitudes about good companies versus bad companies, or good schools versus bad schools. As long as you are cooperative and willing to learn, there is no reason why you can't succeed in this career, but it is tough at first. Forget about any of your pre-conceived ideas about how it should be done and just go with what you are being taught. If you get a nut for a teacher like I did, just remember that it will soon be past and you will soon be on your own in a big rig. Once you get to the point where you are running solo on your own, you can make a few adjustments to how things get done. As long as you are delivering on time and making sure you don't hit anything then you will be considered a success.

Devin, I agree wholeheartedly with everything Old School said and you should take that as the best advice you'll ever get. Regardless of what happened with C-1, I can assure you that everything you expect truck driving schools, trainers, trucking companies, and life on the road to be is almost entirely wrong. How do I know this? Because it applies to everyone.

People have no clue how training is done or how trucking companies operate. They have no idea what life on the road will be like. Unfortunately everyone goes in with these pre-conceived notions of everything and when they find that everything is upside down from what they expected they assume they're right and everyone in the trucking industry is a bunch of idiots. But I can assure you that millions upon millions of drivers have been trained the same way you're going to be trained in the same schools, at the same companies, in the same trucks. The system is crazy - trucking is a strange beast indeed! But the system will work if you work within it.

The Company-Sponsored Training Programs are a great opportunity to get your career underway. But you have to approach it like you would going into the Army. This is nothing like you've ever experienced and you're going to have to endure a lot of challenges, a lot of hardships, and a lot of ups and downs to get where you want to be as a professional driver. So just roll with things. Go with the flow. Focus on yourself, work hard, and learn all you can. Reserve judgment until you've been solo for 6-12 months. Then you'll look back on the way things are done and it will make a whole lot more sense than it did when you were going through it.

I would just apply to all of the programs you feel might suit you and get a dialogue going with the recruiters. Pick the one you feel most comfortable with and make sure you stick with the company for one full year no matter what. If you'll do that, you'll be thankful you did.