Smith & Solomon?

My fiance went to the linden school as well. He felt it was crowded [many more students than trainers].
Like Whosedog my fiance paid around 2800 - 3000 but he found his job through the school.
Companies are supposed to visit the schools and try to recruit people. While my fiance was there, Werner was the only company that showed up and gave information and tried to recruit so that's who he went with. Many companies are looking for 2 years experience, Werner [at the time] was hiring with no experience required.
My fiance's been with Werner almost 2 years [will be 2 years in August I think]. Werner has a bad rep and we've had some rough situations with them but he's also got miliage and low idle bonuses [last one was for $500 - before taxes]. He has a regular routine delivering for Sears and I see him usually 1 day a week, even if it isn't his hometime, because he passes NJ alot and can usually park at the truckstop on the turnpike [near exit 12] and I can pick him up and take him home for a night or 2 on a weekend.
I can't knocked S&S or Werner because it's keeping us afloat. And I can't really talk about any other driving school or company because he's only been to one school and with one company.

 

I mentioned this to my bf [the fact that Pavlon's price is higher than when my bf originally paid]. The bf said that he paid less because he paid all at once [on a credit card] but if he had taken S&S's payment plan the price was closer to $4000.

Also, since he entered the school almost 2 years ago the price of S&S could have gone up.

BF says S&S is one of the cheapest school's in the area. He was a trainer for a bit [for Werner] and said his best student was one who went to a driving school that cost $9,000! Expensive but the quality showed because the student could actually drive, lol.

But it doesn't mean that you can't succeed in a cheaper school if you apply yourself. He did.

 

Hey, I "graduated" from Smith and Solomon's Cherry Hill, NJ school in March2004. They taught me exactly what I needed to know to pass the test...which is exactly what they tell thier students they will do! Granted, we had a fairly large class, so each trainer was saddled with five students, but when it came to road time, they made sure each student got his/her fair share. The yard was decent, not too much down time from waiting for a truck...with the exception of one student who was slower than molassas in January! She gummed up the works something *fierce*, it took her FIVE attempts to finally pass her DMV driving test! Overall, I had a pretty good experience, my instructer took a liking to me and gave me any little bit of extra road time he could...one case, we had to drive a trailer loaded with spare tires up to one of their PA schools, and he let me take the wheel for the entire trip up...good experience driving with a load on instead of an empty trailer! No complaints here, I'll use them again if I need a refresher to get a job!

 

jamminfool i was reading about how you went to smith and soloman driving school i will be trying to go to the new castle location i have read the driving book for a cdl but that knowledge is all that ive obtained is there any information that you could supply me with so i could further advance with a proper company that will allow good paychecks coming home to my family everynight and fast employment. i appericate your time i wont be getting on here as often as id like but if you could send me a email with that info i would truly appericate it thanks agian for your time have a blessed day. Eric

e h sh o w in g s @ y a h oo . com

p.s.(no spaces due to program wouldnt allow email to be posted)

 

Hi Eric, I just saw your post and wanted to respond to you personally. I've given your questions alot of thought, and I hope I can help you make the right choice for yourself and your family.

I attended Smith and Solomon's Cherry Hill NJ location in 2004, and they were very helpful in teaching me the ins and outs of getting my CDL-A...they also put some classroom time in concerning log books, load manifests, and other related paperwork you'll need to understand as well as the laws governing the trucking industry (one week, to be precise). While it's not a PhD, they give you a pretty good crash course in the trucking industry and what you'll need to get rolling.

As far as getting a good paying job right out of school, well...not much I can share with you there. Unfortunately, my original search was cut short by an auto accident caused by an incompetent truck driver three weeks after getting my CDL (tractor trailer hauling 40,000 lbs of produce slammed into the driver's side of my wife's Dodge Neon, which I was driving at the time)...ironic, huh? From what I've gathered during my current job search though, you will have to sign on with an over the road company for between six months to a year. This will involve being away from your family/friends/home for many weeks on end, especially if that company only offers team driving positions to beginners. The longer you can deal with life on the road, the better it looks on your resume...companies like drivers that don't hop from job to job, and most won't even look at you if you don't have a traceable work history, the average is six months of current work. How does this help someone who is trying to get into a new career after being unemployed? It doesn't. But, this is the current state of the industry, they will not hire anyone who hasn't had or can't prove they've worked within the last six months to a year, even so called "teaching companies"...this is the main obstacle that I've encountered since I decided to rejoin the workforce recently.

Don't let me discourage you though...there are companies that recruit from the driving schools, and Smith and Solomon does have something akin to relationships with several of them. They will come into the school and give you their information packets and talk about how they are better than Company X, all the while offering pretty much the same terms their competitors are offering. With this in mind, you could try to sign on with one of those and get started...once again, it will be over the road work, and will involve leaving your family and home behind for many weeks at a time. This is really the only way to get your feet wet in the industry, unless you luck out and find a locally based company that hires newly licensed drivers for daily short haul work...they are few and far between, but it does happen sometimes, so I'd advise looking long and hard before signing your life away immediately. That is, of course, unless you are looking forward to hitting the open road. This was always a dream job for me, since I've had an insatiable wanderlust since I was a kid...I just love to drive and I've always been a bit of a loner, so life on the road was very appealing to me! I'm not going to sugar coat it though...it is extremely taxing, very hard work with little in the way of breaks for personal life, but in the long run it will get you where you want to be...in a job that (possibly) gets you home frequently, pays well and is extremely satisfying!

I can't stress strongly enough the sacrifices you'll need to make in your first year of driving, maybe even during your whole career. It is a hard life, and many do not make it, which is why there is such a high turnover rate within this industry. People get their CDL-A licenses, thinking they'll be stepping into another standard 9 to 5 gig, only to be stuck on the road for a long, long time. When they finally realize that they've signed on for a job that does not fair well with the normal family unit's needs or most versions of socialization, they bail. Driving a big rig is a rather solitary existance, but it is also a rewarding lifestyle to those who truly love it...you need to really look inside yourself and honestly assess whether you are ready to commit to this life, as it goes hand in hand with success in this industry. Best of luck to you my friend, and I hope your journey ends better than mine did!

 

I just graduated from Smith & Solomon in Linden,NJ. I thought the school was good,remember you get out of it what you put in. The instructors are very good,the equipment is old and not in the best shape but it gets beat on a lot in class. I agree it sucks waiting for your turn to alley dock especially since that was my hardest thing to learn. I was given several leads upon graduation which I am following up on, recruiters are always visiting the school.

I would tell someone who is interested in going to school to look at several schools before making a decision. There are several schools in NJ that do more 1 on 1 training. I had no experience driving a truck before going to school, I'm very confident in my abilities, I know I still have a lot to learn.

 

S&S gets you started, I initially started back in 2007 with Windsor & felt that windsor had better one on one training HOWEVER, S&S have "real-world" 10 & 8 speed Cabs ( old & beat-up, but U learn ) Ron & Bruce are the yard instructers, both are great & very patient. The Road Instructer ( Gary, from W.Virginia ) is a great instructer, a bit crazy as times but funny as hell & a #### good driver. I needed to get re-certified, went with S&S and was pleased with the results. FYI, any truck driving school will get you to the point of passing your road test at the DMV, but you learn to drive once you're out on the road - no Truck driving school can teach you what its like to drive thru the Colorado Rockies or thru Idaho, Washington, Oregon, the mid-west, etc...

 

Went smith and solomon in bordentown nj, they over fill the classes, have one instructor for each class,yard, road training, they tell you 6-8 weeks or less, but turns out almost double that, yard training is a joke too many students you wait all day for your turn, the yard instructor is cool but jam too many students in,road time is not much, I got 5 hrs road. passed my road test first try but, I quess I got lucky, not happy with the whole school, you should try to find one with more trainers or small classes, checking this out before hand I would have went somewhere else, don't know if all smith and solomon locations are run the same way, but it's something to look into before making a decision.

 

I just finished my cdl class A with smith and Solomon linden, that place is like a adult day care. The yard is full of holes, some of the trucks (1990's) freightliners the clutch is about to give out, 4 instructors for sometimes 40 students on a average day, not counting the ones doing the bus people. good instructors only 2 Freddy and Louis. bad things: you get there by 7 am and good luck finding parking or doing bobtail,not even a water fountain in the whole building, 1 bathroom for all students, stupid long lines to do any training. Good things: after you graduate you can come and train as long as you want, at least 4 recruiter weekly drop by, nj army national guard has a deal with the school and they will assign you an instructor and a truck for one week after you pass the knowledge combination and air brakes 4 days of practice and road test on Friday usually louis if you are a national guard member, their rates are fair if you consider you can go back and train anytime. At the end of the day you are there to take your license and get the hell out but if you leave early ( I was staying until 430 everyday) you are going to be there for an awful long time. Good luck to everybody!

 

I started at Smith & Solomon in Cherry Hill, NJ right before it moved to Bellmawr, NJ. They guarantee to allow you to stay until you successfully pass your CDL test.
The classroom instruction was nothing less than stellar. Anyone who halfway pays attention will pass the written test.
The yard instructors are good. The problem is that while in the yard, there is no shelter other than the trucks and a school bus. Students are exposed to whatever nature sends.
A student's day in the yard is the same thing every day: Put your name on a list and then wait your turn for three shots at the alley dock. While waiting, you may go to a truck and go through the pre-trip and air brakes routine and then take a few turns in the straight-line backup. If you're real lucky, you'll get four turns in the alley dock in the morning and four in the afternoon -- usually three.
After a couple weeks in the yard, you'll be placed on the road rotation. You get out on the road twice a week with an hour of stick time each time you go out. There is no city driving during the training. (The week that the school moved, no one got more than one time on the road.)
I received no paper log or map training, but I received a grade for both. I scored pretty well for both too!
Most of the trucks at the school need some sort of repair. The day I took my test, the truck that was brought to the testing site had an air leak, making it unsafe for the road test. Another truck had to be brought for the road test. The replacement truck had a problem with the shifter and I couldn't find 5th gear on the downshift -- problems known before the test date.
Would I recommend the school. Yeah, I guess so. Expect nothing more than a CDL when you finish.