Signed up with Coastal in Hammond, Louisiana

Hello folks,

I signed up with Coastal because they have been around since 1985! They also have a 3rd party license to administer the driving test for students! I passed my physical at North Oaks yesterday and ready to start class at 6am on monday. There is 160 hours of class instruction and on the road driving. Classes are monday thru thursday and off friday thru the weekend.

 

Coastal is just a school only and it was $4995. Some of the reasons I chose the school was because I could commute to it from home, the school said that they will work with me if I fail any parts of the test...in Louisiana you can retest the next day! I also wanted to be free to pick and choose from the carriers. Some of the big carriers like Werner and Schnieder have recruiters come thru the school near the end of the class. There are some folks that use grants pay for the school but lucky me, i don't qualify for any of them! They have a finance deal where you pay $3000 down and then make payments on the rest. I worked for a telecom outfit for 32 years and was laid off in 09 and haven't been able to find anything...so I'm at the end of my rope and have a lot of hopes on a trucking gig! I want this to be something better than working as retail clerk some where! I'd like to get my hazmat and tanker endorsement, maybe drive OTR for Schneider out of Reserve, Louisiana.

 

First day of school at Coastal College and we finished up general knowledge. Recuiters from Covenant will visit this week and Schneider next week. We will take our permit exams sometime on thursday...my guess would be in the afternoon.

 

Second day of school we worked on Air Brakes and reiviewed both General Knowledge and Air Brakes. I'm beginning to feel more confident that I can pass the test because of the thorough teaching. Tomorrow its combinations and probably more review of everything. Thursday we test for the permit.

 

I passed all my tests, general knowledge, air brakes, and combinations. The only road block to getting my permit is to fix my physical...it has a mark thru and so i have to go back to the clinic and get them to fix it. about 70 percent of the class passed the test on the first attempt and the others have to retest today! Next week we start endorsements, hazmat, tanker....I wonder if I should go for doubles and tripples.

 

Lantern, yes it is the best time to go for it...I was wondering, and anybody can chime in, on if it makes you more valuable or not to have doubles and triples endorsement. I think it could but....I'm a rookie.

I was able to go back to North Oaks medical facility and have them fix the "mark through" on my physical...the dmv rejected it because my blood pressure number was unreadable...then I had spend time at the DMV waiting to supply the corrected document....fun fun fun....but I got it all done and that is now "water under the bridge" as they say! So I have my official learners permit to sit in the drivers seat and pilot an 18 wheeler as long as there is a licensed trainer with a CDL A drivers license in the cab with me!!! So monday, we will be in the truck going to an obscure place called manchac on the western side of lake pontchatrain and practice driving!!! Its been two years since I've had a real job and I'm really excited that in 3 weeks I can be in orientation with a big carrier!!!