Tidewater Community College (Hampton Roads Virginia)

I posted several months ago about the Veteran's grant for truck driving school at Tidewater Community College and wanted to follow up with a review of the training program for anyone in the area looking for training.

I have nothing to compare the program to since this is the only program I have attended and can only provide feedback on the night class instructors, but I felt like the program was top notch and that the instructors made a real attempt to pass on as much of their knowledge as they could and not just train you to pass a DMV test.

The first two weeks were classroom based and geared to prepare you to take the permit exam. The instructors provided in depth exam reviews and I went to the DMV confident I would pass the required permit exams. After that the class moved to the range/road two nights a week from 1600-2300. Every night there was more than enough time to practice on the range and the range instructor provided plenty of one-on-one attention to help you master the backing maneuvers. We started off driving the course around the campus to get used to shifting and turning then moved out in town. Every night each student drives in town with the rest of the night used to practice the backing maneuvers. I never felt like I was being shorted driving time either on the range or on the road.

Once DMV testing came I felt completely comfortable and passed first attempt. The Virginia DMV testers changed a bunch of things last minute (adding stuff to pre-trip checklist) and did a considerable amount of nit picking (Instructor's observation, I have nothing to compare it to.) resulting a few student failures first time on pre-trip inspection but in the end all 24 students passed.

The school brought in several trucking company recruiters to give their presentations throughout the program (Including Schneider, TMC, McElroy and others).

Overall I was very satisfied with the training provided and the instructors. I would recommend TCC to anyone in the area, especially if you are a Veteran since you can get the program paid for with a Veteran's grant through the school. I will also disclose in case anyone is wondering about success finding a job after the program, that I have nine months before I retire from the Navy so I have not obtained employment after training yet (I understand that I very well may have to take a refresher course prior to my retirement) but my classmates actively seeking employment had no issue having a job lined up upon graduation.

If anyone has any questions let me know. May take a day or so to get back to you because I am in shift work right now but I will do my best to answer anything as soon as I have a free moment.