Hindsight2020
Germantown,#2Consumer Comment
Tue, February 10, 2009
If you don't mind signing a paper saying you will pay $8000 PLUS INTEREST AND ALL HIDDEN FEES THAT COME AFTERWARDS...this is the place for you. The training consists of 1 to 3 trucks in a yard where the WHOLE class walks for hours around the truck they choose to TRY to drive maybe 10 minutes the whole 10 hour shift. If you are lucky all 3 run but for the most part only 1 truck works all the time. Rooms that have black mold growing in them causing you to get sick? Not exactly anyones idea of housing. It is also NOT gearing you up to get used to living in a truck by those rooms or the food you eat there. Just an excuse why they are cheap. Watching the same 15 minute pre trip video for 3 or more hours is NOT training. Writing the pretrip 7 times or more if you fail it even by one point is NOT training. The truck they use to train you on the pretrip has all missing parts so you have to imagine it all there. You also do not do the air brake test in the real but pretend to. Very hard to learn it by pretending. There aren't any stores, restaurants, or ways to get food even within walking distance of the place. It is actually quite isolated from everything. The only thing available is the convenient store down the hill from it that only serves hot dogs and whatever else they sell on the shelf. The map reading test that I forgot to add to my report is a joke. They passed around a map and asked everyone if they could read a map. That was IT. Once in that truck tho you learn a whole new way to read exit numbers, mileages, and other things most drivers don't do on the regular "4-wheeler" trip. The logging test? They put it on the black board and you copy it exactly as it is up there and you pass. As far as the Padukah, KY school--I am not sure if it reopened under a diff name or not but it closed last I knew. The restaurant at that one is also closed. (I was there a year after I got my license and stayed at the truck stop where that one is), but this school is also NOT highly regarded by the trucking industry. Call any trucking company and you will get two responses. One will be Where's that??? Or the other answer will be oh--that's a bad place. It will never EVER be praised by any trucking company. Believe me--not only do I know from experience, but also by other friends experiences. You will also not get ANY paperwork saying you went there until the last dime is paid to that school. As in way over that $8000. Also when you contract with one of their companies they provide (bottom feeder companies is what they are called in the trucking industry), you drive for 14 months (if you make it that long with these lowdown companies), your loan still won't be paid off. you will then owe the interest on that loan. Another 6-8 months of payments. Then once that is paid another fee is tacked on called an administrative fee. They forget to tell you all that when they are trying to get you to sign asap. The food they do feed you is exactly as you have read. One slice of pizza, ramon noodles, double cheeseburger...all dollar menu items rotated daily. Bad nutrition bigtime that will wear you out within a week of eatting it as it is far from nutritious. No fruit is ever provided. Or drinks other than coffee or water. between the bad food, bad living conditions, bad training, you wear down fast there. If you get sick it is up to you to provide transportation to see a doc. Taxi's are NOT cheap. So....think about it before going here. There are many other better options available out there. This place preys on your desperation to get your CDL.