Bsmjuem
palm city,#2Consumer Comment
Sun, March 24, 2013
if you show up and can shift gears you can get a CDL hope you all feel safe. 3RD party testing gives the trucking industry a non government official the right to grant a person a CDL based on their observations in a given test. Who pays this non official CDL TESTER........ THE BIG TRUCKING COMPANIES LIKE werner crst......... THIS WAY THESE COMPANIES CAN FILL THE DRIVING SEATS OF TRACTORS THEY OWN. Because after a nearly 92% turn over rate after a year, drivers quit their intial year to find work elsewhere......
JC
St. Petersburg,#3Author of original report
Wed, March 20, 2013
My day at the DMV was as tough as MTC was. Got up at 2AM to drive 3+ hours to the CDL place across the state. Took the test in a truck that I, and the other students had never driven, and of the 4 students that went, I got called last, so I sat for almost 6 hours, after a 4 hour drive, on no sleep, until I got to take my test. While everyone else got only 1 or 2 parts of the pre trip, I drew the whole truck.
While I was doing the pre-trip and inspecting the alternator, I touched one of the wires and it came off the alternator. The end was corroded and when I touched the wire, it just came off. So I really got rattled thinking that I would be able to take my pre-trip and yard tests and I would have to return next week or something.
Now know this. I am not mechanically inclined. I know nothing about fixing things. But the instructor, yes our instructor, the guys who all the other people slamming MTC on ROR are complaining about, walked over to the store, bought some tools with $$ out of his own pocket, and spent about 45 minutes jury rigging the wire in the cold, so I could take my tests. And he fixed it. Thanks again Mark. That was really cool of you to do.
I finished my pre trip and Air brakes with an excellent score. I did my maneuvers, a straight line back, and off set back, and a blind side parallel, and I did them flawlessly. I went to the road test, and I was beat tired, I missed a couple signs, grinded a couple gears and I passed, and got my CDL in 16 days of attending MTC.
I went back and thanked Mark and Paul and Lee for all their help. Thanked Joe (the night boss) for pushing me along and backing me up. Missed Gary, (I'll see him tomorrow), and went to the office to speak with the ladies and found out that for sure, Werner won't hire me, so I got no job.
Sandy, the lady that more than a few people complained about here, while she had waited for me for 30-45 minutes to arrive (on her last day working with the company) Stayed an extra 30 minutes off the clock, on her last day, and got me like 5 pamplets to fill out and return tomorrow for companies that she thinks will hire me. Asked me to fill them out and return them to the lady that is taking her job, Deborah.
She didn't have to do any of that. She didn't even have to wait on me. It was her LAST day, and she was off the clock, and she took the time to try to help me get a job, and I appreciate it. I haven't spent too much time with her, and she didn't have to do that, but she did. If the tables were turned, and it was me, on my last day, staying late at the job I quit, off the clock, I really might not have stayed. She did. She isn't the evil person a lot of the people in the other ROR's made her out to be.
Oh, and of the 4 guys that went to the CDL with me, all from my class, all on their 16th day, 3 of us got the CDL A. The other kid just choked the parallel, plain and simple and didn't do what he was taught. Had he either not choked, or had 2 more minutes, he would have came away with his licence too. He will pass next time.
So, here we are at the end of a journey, and the whole truth about MTC.
If you are a dumba**, a clown, a wuss or you don't know how to shift a manual transmission, you probably should not come to Hazelwood to attend MTC, without expecting to be here 4-6 weeks,or more, and you still might not get it. Some people just shouldn't be truck drivers.
If you are tough, motivated, willing to work and study, and come prepared and willing to do whatever it takes to get the CDL and you need the CDL, you should be on the next thing smoking to get here.
And lastly, and I am going to add this, and it probably won't make me popular with the class action suit people above and some of the other complainers, but the very worst thing about MTC, really, the worst thing, was having to deal with them. Having them in the way. Having them taking away time from people that really wanted to learn.
Watching them hide up stairs and find reasons not to come to school, or being in the yard, doing maneuvers, and looking like a monkey trying to screw a football. These people were the worst thing about MTC, not the instructors, or even the crappy food, but trying to get yourself ready with a lot of people that had no business being there in the first place, in your way.
But....... MTC is a for profit school, and they are making money of the dumba**es the same way they made $$$ off me, so I understood. I wished they weren't there, but I understood.
So there you are once again. The whole truth about MTC. A lot of it isn't pretty, but they got the job done for me, and everyone that I saw, that wanted to get in and out of there, and they had the patience to TRY to help a lot of dumba**es.
So come if you dare, but you better be ready for it, because it is intense.