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Post by truckertom on Jan 25, 2004 14:00:50 GMT -5
Many of you have gone through a driving school, let me know what you hated the most about it and we can discuss what can be done to improve the situation.
I am all ears.
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Post by fozzie on Jan 25, 2004 14:57:51 GMT -5
Well, I'm still in school, but so far I have only one complaint. There are 12 students in my class and one instructor. So, we have to divvy up driving time.
The school is doing what they can to accommodate us. Three people of the twelve are doing their drive time with another class with fewer people. The rest of the class (9 people) will be sharing two tractors and the one instructor. If everyone shows up every day, there's still one odd man out because there are four people assigned to each tractor. That means someone has to sit around for eight hours or take the day off.
There's not much else that can be done about the problem now, but I hope that future classes don't take on so many at one time.
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Post by truckertom on Jan 25, 2004 17:10:31 GMT -5
WOW! You should have no more than 4 students per truck. Most states require a minimum ammount of hours in your training and a percentage of that should be behind the wheel.
If a school is violating this, they can lose their state accreditation. It sounds like they need to do more to get you driving time!
Is this a company school? We aim to have three in a truck per instructor. I am training a new instructor monday Jan 26 trying to accomedate larger classes.
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Post by fozzie on Jan 25, 2004 21:46:26 GMT -5
I did say that we're going out with four students per truck. So the school is definitely going by the book. We will get the hours in too. After all, the course I'm taking is 22 weeks long. The practical instruction includes: The main difference in Bates Technical College from the average 8 week school is that we get a lot more classroom before we get to drive, plus we're getting other things like CPR training, Forklift training and certification, Air Brake training along with the certification allowing us to adjust slack adjusters. We all will have hands on experience with at least three types of trucks and transmissions, working with doubles, plus, driving experience in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest.
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Post by truckertom on Jan 25, 2004 23:07:05 GMT -5
Oh man! I was worried that you were in a chop shop type of school! So it sounds like you have time to get enough driving in.
If you don't mind, send me the information on price of the class and such. It sounds like they may need a new instructor! LOL! I may want to apply!
And who wouldn't want to live in the Pacific Northwest?
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Post by fozzie on Jan 25, 2004 23:19:33 GMT -5
Tom, Take a look at This Link. There, you'll find the tuition list for all the programs and the details of both Truck Driver courses. They offer Long Haul and Local courses at the same time in different parts of the campus. They also run day and night shift classes.
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Post by truckertom on Jan 26, 2004 19:36:36 GMT -5
I wish I had a job there, it would give me alot more time to do things right. I did have a student make a 100 today, but in the small ammount of time we have it is a trick to get it done.
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Post by fozzie on Jan 27, 2004 1:39:45 GMT -5
Yeah, I agree... Bates must be a great place to teach. That's the impression one gets when talking to any of the instructors.
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Post by GLAngst on Jan 27, 2004 14:23:57 GMT -5
Bates Does Bates have any other collages or tech schools around the country.If not they should.There line of study is impressive.I haven't head of any others that measure up to them.The only negitive I can see about Bates is pulling those short trailers around.
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Post by ROCKNSAND on Jan 27, 2004 22:54:54 GMT -5
I went to a Community College sponsered truck school and was happy with the results. The class room part got kind of boring as we had too much time and not enough material to cover. I was lucky in the driving part since there were only 2 of us students in our truck, so we got alot of wheel time. We were the 2 "old guys", late 50's.I think I figured we each got about 25 hours of actual driving time. And our instructor got us out in the traffic and did a lot of exit and entrances to the highway, which meant transitions. Good practice. Then I get a job driving a concrete mixer, ol 3/4 cab junk heap Mack with the 2 sticks. I did get upgraded to a newer single stick after the first summer. Next week I move over to the end dump trailers hauling rock and sand to our plants. No more muddy feet, no more gettin stuck, no more hosin down your truck in 20 degree weather, ah, life will be good. And I'll even get a truck with a A/C in it for the summer.
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Post by fozzie on Jan 28, 2004 2:35:20 GMT -5
Does Bates have any other collages or tech schools around the country?... The only negitive I can see about Bates is pulling those short trailers around. No, Bates is a one of a kind state operated school. There may other technical colleges that offer a similar driver school, but I'm not aware of any. Do you know someone who went to Bates? ...just wondering how you're picking up the bits of information about it. Whoever told you that Bates has only 28's is wrong. They have 53's too. They have few reefers, a flatbed and a heavy haul lowboy. I tried to find a list of the equipment the school has but it's not readily available. I'm just going by memory.
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Post by Rachelle on Jan 28, 2004 23:11:28 GMT -5
The class room part got kind of boring as we had too much time and not enough material to cover. A really quality classroom instructor never has enough time to cover all the material! Let me guess... it was one of those instructors who gave you a worksheet or put in a movie and went outside and smoked?
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Post by truckertom on Jan 31, 2004 19:44:35 GMT -5
We had a classroom instructor that did that, he got replaced recently......
Now he eats breakfast, and pats the students on the head when they miss gears. Every school seems to have one, my problem this has been the same guy starting in 1989! Somehow he keeps owners fooled.
But it also seems the owners are the last to know anything.
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Post by al1460 on Feb 15, 2004 0:19:50 GMT -5
So far school has been great. Our instructors have really gone the extra mile. We have 2 days left then we take our d.m.v. tests.
There are only 4 left from our orginal class, although we have 3 rollovers from the previous class. If I may here is some advice. GO TO SCHOOL,CLASS EVERYDAY!!!!!! DO NOT MISS A SINGLE DAY!!!!!!!!!. Our 3 rolloversw have each missed at least 1 day each week and their driving and skills show this in BRILLIANT, VIVID, DETAIL.
It takes valuable time that we don't have enough of for the instructors to bring these people up to speed on what they have missed by not being in class,school when they should have been.
If there are personal problems that take up time or need to be attended to, take care of these things before signing up for school. Potential employers will look at attendance and the grades we recieve on skills and driving prior to offering employment.
Anyway please excuse the rant. Noah, Bill, AL and RAY all do a great job and are very good at teaching us the skills we need, to have a good solid foundation to work from to become skilled and professional drivers.
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Post by truckertom on Feb 17, 2004 23:17:50 GMT -5
It seems like there are always going to be some that will not take it seriously. They ditch class like they think they are in Highschool...... Now, correct me if I am wrong but if you are ditching class in truck driving school, are you really ready for a trucking career?
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