Tennessee Truck Driving School
Truck driving may have a slightly rough reputation. You can thank Hollywood movies for that, and the way they’ve portrayed truck drivers in horror movies for the last 20 odd years. Rather than think of a toothless creep, you should be considering the positives that working in the trucking industry can bring. It can be flexible; the pay is good; and it’s consistent. On top of that, your truck can become your home away from home.
That’s important in this day and age. There are so many things going on in the world that can affect your employment opportunities, but truck driving is something that will always be needed. We will always need to get things from point A to point B. It really is a worthwhile industry.
If you’ve considered all of the above and decided you want to give it a try, the next step is to get your license. Your best bet in doing that is through an accredited school, so that you can give yourself the best starting tools. Choosing that school can be difficult though, as there are so many.
Tennessee Truck Driving School could be the best decision for you. To make sure of that decision, we will review them further so that you don’t have to. To do that, we’re considering things such as the company’s history as well as the pros and cons. If you’re interested in this school, read on to learn more about them. This might make your decision easier.
Who Are They?
The Tennessee Truck Driving School is located in Louisville, which is near Knoxville in Tennessee (not to be confused with the one in Kentucky). They are the only privately owned truck driving school in Tennessee, and they only have one training center. Don’t think that being privately owned takes away from their credentials though. They are authorized to run training by the Tennessee Higher Education Commission.
This opens them up to regular audits and their entire training program is reviewed every year in order to keep it current. This also keeps it relevant, which is good news for you.
They only focus on the training side of things, rather than having this as a side business to a transportation company. It shows that they really are committed to the training and that they will be focused on helping you to achieve the best results.
What Do They Offer?
You may have decided you want to drive trucks, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you know anything further than that. That’s where the Tennessee Truck Driving School comes in to play. They will get you started off with a Category A commercial driving license. This is the easiest way to get you started in the industry.
With this license, you can work with vehicles that have a weight of over 26,000 pounds. You can also tow vehicles that are over 10,000 pounds, so there is a versatility to what you can do with this license. Now, you may just look at that and see numbers, so let’s break it down further to see what they’ll actually teach you.
With the license and training you receive through this school, you’ll be able to legally operate truck and trailer combinations, even if they are doubles or triples. You can also work with tractor-trailer combinations, flatbed trucks, livestock transportation and even tankers.
These categories cover box, straight, and dump trucks, but they also cover working with buses. In regard to buses, it covers both general commercial buses as well as segmented ones.
The school aims to provide you with as much training as possible across all of these vehicle combinations. This is to ensure you are as confident as possible when you graduate. The on-site testing facility even has areas for you to crash, just so you can learn to control your responses.
The Pros
When training with them, one thing you are sure to notice is that they offer a low trainee-to-instructor ratio. This is to make sure that you get the most one-on-one help with your instructor. The school stated that they have found the best results by employing this method.
The same goes for trucks too. They keep the ratios low so that you are able to get more time in the trucks themselves. By doing this, you get the maximum hands-on time possible during your 3 weeks of training.
When it comes to the payment side of the things, they also have their own in-house financing system. This helps to keep the payments low, as they don’t outsource to any finance companies that will tack on extra fees. You’re always welcome to pay your fees up front, but if you don’t have a few spare thousand dollars, the financing will work well for you.
With the financing, you don’t have to pay to start. You will only be required to start making payments once you have graduated and found work. Depending on who you find work with, you may even be able to get your new employer to cover your training costs for you.
The Cons
They have a 100% job-placement rate to protect. Because of this, the acceptance process is strict. They check all the industry standard things like your health as well as performing drug and alcohol screening. They will also check your past convictions for driving and non-driving related offenses. If you have passed all of this, they will also conduct a personal interview
If you don’t interview well, this might be where you fall apart. In this, they’ll be paying attention to your verbal and visual cues. Some people just don’t cope with interviews even though they could do spectacularly well in the job itself. This is definitely something to consider.
When looking at schools to obtain your license, you’ll probably notice that a lot of the schools that you find are off-shoots of transport companies. This means they have a business and they can hire you into as soon as you graduate. Tennessee Truck Driving School doesn’t have that. They are purely about the training.
While they claim to have a 100% hiring rate, due to their strict entrance process, it’s a little unnerving to some to know that they are not necessarily backed by a big transport company.
The Final Word
Throughout this article, we’ve examined the Tennessee Truck Driving School to help you decide if it’s the right school for you. It’s such an important decision, as it could lead to your lifelong career. That’s why you need to consider all of the factors we’ve considered.
The cons might look intimidating. The interview process especially might put some people off. But rest assured that if you do make it through the interview process, it’s because they’ve seen something in you that they believe will carry you through into this career path. And they will help you to find work.
When attending some of the bigger schools, if they have large numbers or they are running transport businesses alongside it, you have the potential to get lost in the mix. By keeping the numbers low and just focusing on the training, this school will really treat you as a student rather than just another number. They will help you to succeed in this business.