Florida State College at Jacksonville’s Commercial Vehicle Driving program

I've actually done both...the three weeker and the FSCJ program. The state college (or community college) program is far superior in my opinion. The second month is all of your drive time. Four hours on the skills pad (straight-line backing, parallel parking, offset parking, and alley dock) and then four hours on the road (usually 2-3 students per truck). At least two of the on the road sessions are at night. They train with dry vans, HHG vans, and flatbed trailers.

 

Ummmm....Ill definitely call BS on that, while some people pick it up better then others, you can in fact learn a ton from those 3 week courses. Im a product of one and assure you that there hundreds of thousands of drivers out on the road today that have gone through the same school. The teaching is the same just at an accelerated rate.....I dont know about you but I dont need to stair at a paper log book (that youll probably never use again) to understand how it works.

Did you also know that a lot of these schools including the one I attended have there own testing that is separate from the states requirments such as drop & hook and a separate general knowledge test?

While a ton of people say they are bad and sure some of them are, its a really dumb statement for a student who is learning to say that you cant learn something from a course in which youve never even been too.

 

CDL school is exactly that. A school that prepares you to pass the CDL test. It doesn't matter if its 3 weeks or 3 months. Your real training doesn't start until you get out on the road with a trainer. Backing up in a 47 acre open lot in between orange cones does nothing to prepare you for real world backing situations. Backing in between two long nose Pete's at the J in Texarkana at 2 am in the rain is a totally different animal.

My point is, it doesn't matter what school you go to, how long it lasts, or how much you pay as long as you get your license. What is important is getting on with a company that has a good OTR training program and has good qualified trainers. The real world is where you learn to be a safe, reliable driver.

 

To give a CDL to a driver, and allow them to drive a truck OTR, with only 3 weeks training ( a good bit of that is classroom ) , is completely wrong. You do not have enough driving time (experience) to handle the job. I do not care what you think, accelerated or not, it takes steering wheel time to learn the art of driving.3 weeks is not enough to be turned loose on our busy highways in a class 8 vehicle.A few graduates may be ready, but most are not.
Call me dumb, old school, whatever. These 3 week schools do not give a graduate enough driving time, and are not producing qualified drivers.It needs to be longer.

 

While I agree with you Jbat, its also unrealistic. The only way your going to learn is by hitting the road.....

 

And hitting cars, bridges, parked trucks, etc.?

No, it is not unrealistic, just not the norm at this time. But it is coming, more experience will be required.
Now going with a good trainer is not a bad thing, but according to our current laws, a new driver with less than a thousand miles, could be given a loaded truck, and turned loose on our busy roadways.
The only thing preventing this is insurance rules, and that just proves my point that experience reduces accidents.

 

Don't waste your good community college training on some junk starter company. Start your career with a good quality company making good money. Choosing carefully may mean the difference of $28K and $65K annual pay.

 

lol, no insult was ever given, you made a statement and I replied as have others....don't get your panties in a bunch over it.

Again, I think its dumb for you to assume your going to be a better driver because of 4-5 weeks of additional training. In reality, IF you drive an hour a day out of those extra weeks your only gaining about 20 hours of extra drive time in the school. You can do those hours in two days with whatever company yous sign on with as your going to be with a trainer anyways.