Skyway Trucking School Hesperia California

I’m coming at this from a different perspective than many people. I am a retread in the industry, however aside from previously holding a class A CDL, I have also held some other positions in trucking such as a small fleet dispatcher, safety and compliance and, trailer mechanic. I have either been associated with or employed in the transportation industry in some way for a lot of my adult life.

So my needs from a school are very different from someone who is fresh into the industry. I was looking for the most practical, cost effective and expedient way to regain my CDL-A. The only criteria other than cost was that the program be accepted by the companies that I was interested in. Which Skyway is.

Now into the essence of the program. First the cost. Their pricing structure is somewhat variable, if you finance through the company the cost is $2,000.00 with $1,000.00 down. If you pay cash up front, the cost is $1,300.00. In my case since I had already obtained my permit on my own, they discounted the up front price to $1,200.00. I do know that there are some other financing options including government programs but, I am not privy to the rates for those programs.

The permit training consists of a series of videos and practice tests and is basically self study in their classroom. DMV fees are out of pocket. Since I had gotten my own permit with endorsements, I did not participate in this part of the training however I spoke with several students who had. The success rate seemed to be commensurate with the students intelligence and abilities in general. Additionally they have specific clinic where they send you for your physical and drug screen which is again, out of pocket and costs $60.00 for both.

Air brakes and pre-trip. This is all done in the yard. For the air brakes the instructor demonstrates the test and then you practice the procedure following photocopied handout until you are able to demonstrate the test to the instructor. After you have mastered the test procedure by rote you move on to the pre-trip which is taught the same way, section by section, again using a photocopied hand out. Here is a big problem. The student is told what to touch and what to say about it. You are not given any practical instruction on what it is or what it does. For instance students are taught to point to the slack adjuster and say “Slack adjuster, all the way tight and ¼ turn out or 90 degrees and one inch of push rod travel”. Now this will satisfy the DMV examiner ,however this is the only training that is given on air brakes other than how to pass the in cab test. During a break I took the liberty of having a mini air brakes class with four of the students just to help them understand what it was that they were saying and why it was important.

Skills are taught in much the same way, the instructor gets you in the cab, demonstrates the maneuver and then tells you to practice until you get it. Again no explanation of how an alley dock or a parallel maneuver might be used in the real world. You start with straight line backing, proceed to alley docking and move on to the parallel park. The yard equipment is in really rough shape. Broken seats, worn out clutches dented and beaten beyond belief. I will suggest that it is yard equipment used for practice by people of varying experience so I’m really not surprised at the condition. However it would have been nice to at least have seats with seatbacks in the upright position instead laying straight back and effectively becoming an air adjustable stool. Also there are only 28’ trailers for practice with no training at all on anything else.

Road practice is done in a 2 axle Volvo of indeterminate age with a 28’ trailer and a Super Ten transmission. The truck is in sufficient mechanical condition to make it through the DMV test so, for the purpose of getting your license it works just fine. Nothing special just a generic training truck. I’ve seen worse construction trucks and, way better road trucks.

Now here are some of the problems. When I first spoke with the school rep I was told that training is on a Super Ten transmission but that they also had split tens and seven speeds. True, they do but, the only split tens and seven speeds available were in the yard trucks which were not road legal. Fortunately I have experience with 9 speed, ten speed, and, 13 speed transmissions so the Super Ten just added to my skill set. Unfortunately for those students completely new to the industry, they are being taught to shift what is essentially an obsolete transmission.

There is no training in log books/HOS, DOT regulations, any mechanical components of the truck, coupling/un-coupling, load securement, trip planning FMCSR or anything else other than strict test prep. You are given exactly what is needed to pass the DMV tests. Nothing more. No text books are assigned or referenced and the student does not even receive a copy of the little green book. I suggested to some of the more serious students that they get a copy of “Bumper to Bumper” a blank log book and a copy of the FMCSR and study on their own. Other than test prep for your permit, there is no classroom training whatsoever.

Even though this is essentially a self-study program students have a tendency to group together by personality type. I fell in with a group of varying ages and backgrounds and all of us passed all of our DMV tests with varying degrees of success on the first try. However there are two students who have been attending for over four months (at no additional charge) who just don’t seem to get it.

As far as being there for an extended period of time, they will allow you to keep practicing at no addtional charge as long as you keep going to the DMV and testing. Re-test fees are again, out of pocket for the student.

Regarding the two instructors. The yard instructor is a nice enough guy but, is a recent graduate of the school with no measurable real world driving experience. Unfortunately this reduces him to more of a yard monitor than an instructor. The road instructor was competent and patient but not very forthcoming with his own experience other than at one point the worked for US Xpress. To his credit he did add a few things to the curriculum like taking us to a truck stop and alley docking in the lot and, having each one of us pull into the fuel island. Other than that, just DMV test prep.

Skyway is a small relatively unknown southern California school with at least two facilities that I am aware of. One in Hesperia and another near San Bernardino. My experience was at the Hesperia location so I cannot speak to the quality level of the other facility. I know that not many people will be considering this school considering their obscurity and the other options available including company sponsored schooling but, I hope that this will help someone make a responsible choice based on their personal needs and goals.

Lastly the company is associated with a small freight company called Landforce (I believe that it is the same owners) that is 100% owner operator. They will hire graduates out of their school, if you buy a truck (no lease/purchase available) and they pay $1.00 per mile loaded and .85 dead head. California to the mid-west and back with no forced dispatch.

If you are totally new to the industry, I would not recommend this school to you as it is lacking much in some very critical areas.
　
As always this is only my $0.02 and YMMV


……….. Jim