Re: Best RR Training School
Author: George Andrews
Date: 06-10-2010 - 11:34
The training situation isn't much different in my chosen profession of truck driving. Anyone with a couple of grand, or a GI Bill, can go through a school and have their Class 1 CDL "... in as little as 4 weeks!", as one radio ad states. Does that make them a trucker ??? Hell no. I feel fortunate to have attended a 16 week course through Orange County Regional Occupation( Adult Education). The 1st thing we were told , was that we would be taught enough to pass the tests, BUT not everything we would need to know to drive a truck. " OTJ ", was the watchword. And since there was no cost for this training, the instructors could spend more time working with individual weaknesses. Many trucking schools are 'Diploma Mills'; only interested in $$$.
As a driver - trainer in a previous job, I had a student/dock worker from the company driving school with me one night over the Grapevine. After disregarding everything I had told him about taking a set of doubles down the hill w/o a Jake Brake, I recommended against the company wasting any more money on him. He got his CDL anyways, had 2 at - fault accidents in 6 months, and was fired. The moral here is the same as others have stated: Don't think you EVER know it all.