Job security is continuingly being more and more assured. The rising potential of the market will create a never ending demand curve, for truck drivers.

It is imperative that all drivers for commercial motor vehicles that weigh above 26,001 lbs should have obtained a CDL, (Commercial Driver’s License) since the Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1986 were enforced. In an attempt to enhance highway safety the drivers for those vehicles that are categorized as commercial heavy weight motor vehicles such as track trailers, tow trucks and most buses and trucks are obliged to retain a CDL.

If you mean CDL drivers’ school, not all are same. They are divided into three sub categories according to the truck driver training programs they offer. These three types of CDL truck driving schools are private schools, public institutions and motor carriers.

There are variations in the training programs offered by the CDL schools. Additionally the quality in training, the equipment standard, student truck ratio, training charges, job assurance and so on has to be analyzed before choosing one. Essentially there are three types of driver schools; Private schools, Public institutions and motor carriers.

A private CDL driving school is operated for profit and owned by private business entities. Profit being the objective, these schools ensures business benefits by providing high standards of training. Since the charges are comparatively high, these schools are expected to exhibit quality output. Failure to meet the standards by compromising on quality would result in bad reputation and gradually the business bears loss. Therefore Private CDL driving schools offer competitive standards of skill development programs and utmost safety. The private CDL driving schools are licensed and regulated by the state government that enforces laws and regulations to govern such schools.

Private CDL driving schools will probably be more accommodating for special needs. The public funded driving class has driving training programs that typically last longer although there may be the same or fewer training sessions. The good thing about such programs however is its relatively lower costs involved as it is subsidized.

Motor carrier training is more of training program on the job and not exactly a training school. The objective here is to provide maximum number of drivers in a shorter duration. Their primary motive would be to ensure the truck driver gets to clear a CDL test. Not much emphasis is given for the quality in training, neither any structured training programs are focused on. Eventually Motor carrier training do not provide sufficient security measures during the training as well. This is usually not recommended since it may be too risky and doesn’t provide required skills to the driver to handle a heavy vehicle operation.

Before choosing a CDL driving school, a potential student should investigate if the Professional Truck Driver Institute (PTDI) properly certifies the school’s program. PTDI certification is not required but it will ensure that the CDL driving school maintains high standards in CDL education, and most companies and agencies require PTDI certification. One requirement by the PTDI is a minimum of 44 hours of actual driving. This could be considered a standard even if the school’s program is not certified.

Tags: Driving, Driving Schools, Schools

This entry was posted on October 15, 2007 at 4:58 am and is filed under Driving Schools. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.