Premier CDL Training Services - Granite City, IL

I noticed that it has been a while since anyone had done a review of this school, so I will fill everyone in on my experience.

First off, I was not what you would call a "traditional" student, I am still active duty military and was not able to take the time off to knock the course out in 4 weeks like everyone usually does. Premier let me come on board and even scheduled weekend classes for me when needed, and for that I am grateful. Looking back though I would not recommend people doing a part time training program since it is best to keep practicing day after day so you retain everything. With that said, everything worked out really well. Here are a few observations prospective students should know-

-Yes, they do a good job training you. The vast majority of students pass on the first try and if you have a bad day, they will do whatever is needed to get you over the finish line.

-Bob and Chuck (the main instructors) are both great. Just listen to them and you will pass. There are supposed to be a few new instructors starting soon to help them out.

- Bob might be retired from the Marine Corps, but he never really left. So expect him to constantly talk about his time in the Corps.

-They just got some newer road trucks from US Express right before I was done because they are supposed to be training a lot of their new drivers. All students can use them as far as I know. My favorite truck though is Bob's "Belleville" truck. It is an older white International with a Cat diesel and it has some balls compared to the newer ones.

-Speaking of that, the only sort of negative thing I would say is that they have a lot of perfectly good trucks (5 road trucks and 3 yard from what I counted) but almost all of them are broken and just sitting around. Towards the end of my time, they were down to 1 road truck and 1 yard truck. Most of the ones that were broken were down for simple things like a leaking outer wheel hub or brake line that needed to be replaced. One of the road trucks just needed a new defroster switch... Everything worked out ok, but a lot of students thought that the owner was cutting it a little close because if one of those "good" trucks went down right before test day, we would have been out of luck. The reason for letting things go might have been the new contract with US Express, but I still did not like the fact that there was not a backup truck for us on test day.

Once again, they are worth the time and money because they will teach you everything in order to get your CDL. In the end, that is all that matters. From what the state examiner told me, they are better than the other schools in the area, and that is worth something. If anyone has questions, PM me and I would be happy to answer them.

 

I think so, some of the other businesses in that area are Groendyke, Andrews Logistics, a school bus barn, and PGT just to name a few. Pretty much right off 270.

 

Sorry for the delay... Since I paid out of pocket, it was only $3895 and they let me do it in a few payments since I started earlier than originally anticipated. If a company is paying for training, I believe they charge around $6500 or so but you would have to double check with Rich who works the phone and does all that paperwork. They probably have a few other options, I got the feeling they are willing to work with people and get something figured out. Hopefully this helps...