White Line CDL school Topeka, KS

I've been researching possible truck driving schools close to where I live. I've only found 2 possibilities, Ft. Scott which I was aware of, and White Line CDL Training, located in Topeka, KS.

First, Ft. Scott is farther away. My little brother went through that school years ago. Recently I've been hearing some negative things about it.

I was told about White Line CDL, by a career counselor with the state job services. I called and talked to one of the owners. He seemed to be a down-to-earth guy. The cost is the same for either school. White Line is much closer.

Has anyone had any experience with White Line CDL? If so good or bad?

 

Well I've got my name in for the October class, which is already filling up. Wished I could get into the upcoming Sept 12th one. I learned that the recruiters are from:

• TA
• Schneider
• Swift
• Covenant
• TMC

I was told by them that 95% of the class has a job offer before they get their CDLs. Most leave for orientation the day after getting their CDL.

 

I finally was approved for WIA and well be starting school Oct.17th.

 

The challenge and adventure starts today!! I'm off to White Line CDL school. I'll post updates on what this new school is like.

Day 1
This is not as small a class as what I would have liked. There are 25 students, 1 already dropped. He went to take his DOT physical, he was riding with another student. Upon return, we were told that this guy opened the door to the car he was riding in, hitting another car to the side with the door, stated "I can't take this school" and left.

Today was signing papers, release forms, personal history, and then DOT physicals. Only half the class got to do their DOT physicals today, I'll get mine tomorrow. We also done a lot of reading, getting ready to test for our permit. Their claim is that so far none of their students have failed getting their CDL.

The owner and our current instructor are both X-Swift drivers. Our current instructor told about why he no longer drives. He was going down a mountain pass when he lost the transmission. The stick literally broke. Didn't take long to smoke the brakes, then it was just hold on. He got up to about 115mph before he was able to take a runaway ramp. The front of the truck basically exploded (not in fire). So anyway due to back injury he's not able to drive. He handles the classroom instruction. The instructors are easy to get along with, down to earth folks. It's obvious they are devoted to the students getting their CDLs.

Oh we also learned that even though they have a couple of trucks with 10spds, we will be taking our DMV skills test using a truck with an automatic. I'm not that thrilled about that, but at least I'll get to experience driving a Big Car .

 

Day 2
More reading and practice lessons. Then got my DOT physical card. Oh and I wear hearing aids. The nurse used the high-tech method to test my hearing. She stood on the other side of the room, placed a notebook over her mouth and whispered. I was to tell her what she said. What a crock. I passed, but had I failed, I would have complained, and requested a test from an audiologist. The hearing loss I have, is mainly focused on certain frequencies that oddly enough is what most women's voices are. I can, and have gone for periods of time without my hearing aids, and can hear most all other voices, and sounds. I think that if they are going to use this as a way to fail a person, it should be done using the proper testing equipment.

In the afternoon we took practice tests, covering the General knowledge and airbrakes sections. I missed 2 out of 75 questions. Tomorrow will be the same, so we get this stuff firmly engrained in our brains. Then on Thursday we're suppose to test for our permits.

They also stressed the importance of keeping the DOT Med card on you. I guess in the last class, DOT stopped one of the students just after leaving the yard. He got out of the truck, and while he was outside the truck, the DOT officer asked to see his Medical card. The student left it in the truck, and was cited for not having it on him.

 

Day 3
See Day #2.

I will say this about this new CDL school. They don't give up on any of their students. There are a couple of students from a few classes back. Not just the previous one, but from a couple of months ago, that still had not got their CDL. Today one of them, passed the skills test for DMV and was awarded their CDL. They continued to work with the students until such time they pass!! Oh no extra fee!! How many of these other CDL schools are willing to do that? This might be a small, unknown school, might seem to be a nobody school, but they are very devoted to their students getting what they set out to get. The only way someone does not get a CDL, and that's if the student gives up.

 

Day 4

Tested and passed the permit test this morning. This afternoon 4 of us went to the range to work on straight backing and Driver's side backing. There were 3 other guys from a previous class that needed to work on parallel parking, and were allowed to do that and the Driver's side back. Out of the group I went with, I was allowed to do the driver's side back. Needed just a little help, not much coaching. I was then allowed to drive back to the school.

We were using a T2000 KW, automatic. Took a little getting used to. I'm use to a 13 or 18spd, and having a hood out front.

 

Day 5

Today we had a presentation by BNSF Railroad, Safety. The topic was centered around railroad crossings, and the laws concerning CMV. There also was a short video produced by Gov-Track, I mean Amtrak, that showed people/pedestrians, and trucks being struck by trains. Also there's been a problem with teenagers playing chicken with trains. They will stand between the rails, and see who can stay there the longest, until the train gets the closest to them before jumping out of the way. Been a few where the train has won.

One thing that was interesting, was some crossings located near controlled intersections are a no-win situation for truck drivers. I done a quick mock-up of the drawing he presented.


In this situation the truck driver must choose which violation he wants. In the above if you choose to not run the stop sign, you could loose your CDL. His suggestion was to stop before the R/R crossing, then when there is no traffic on the crossroad, proceed across the R/R crossing and run the stop sign. This situation is not fictional, it really exists, near here in Kansas. They have tried convincing the powers in charge, to replace the stop sign with a yield sign, but so far they refuse to do so. He also does presentations for all the local law enforcement academies, and presents this problem to them. He thinks that most of them will use common sense, and not fault the drivers.

Following the presentation, we worked on getting the PTI down, and had a pop-test over them. Then several of us went back to the driving range. We were going to work on off-set backing, however the driver's door to the truck is malfunctioning, making it near impossible to open from the inside. So we canned the backing, and just went driving around. Forbes Field has a lot of small streets that have tight curves, and corners. So he took us through several of them.

Monday we're supposed to start on log-books.

 

Day 6

Today I done some highway driving on I-70, using the "real truck", a FL with 10spd. The other 3 guys had problems with the shifting. Then this afternoon we started learning logbooks. It's starting to get fun now!!

Tomorrow Johnnie from TA is suppose to come and see if he can sucker (I didn't say that did I ?) I mean, recruit. I've been telling some of the other guys to be careful when it comes to them, they like L/O. I've also been letting them know about this forum. I told them they really need to have a look at this, if they really want to know what's going on in the trucking industry.