Question:
This will be lengthy but I am posting to help give other newbies like myself more info from a real world perspective.
I had originally planned on attending Werner's school in Indianapolis but there was one thing that kept ringing in my head even after having to get a co-signer, and that was the recruiter told me "They will pay your tuition as long as you work for them" Ok I had done some research on other companies and assumed it was the year contract thing. Wrong ! They pay your tuition back to the school at $125.00 per month until it is paid off the tuition is $4995.00 so that is somewhere in the 4yr range.
So here it is friday at about 2:00pm I had all my plans in place to start school on monday, The next year of my life is relying on it ! I make a call to C1 and spoke to a recruiter who did not act like one he told me to come down fill out some paper work and he'd see what he could do. I go and fill out the paper work he gives me enough but not too much info and tells me "If you like what you see we'll see you monday morning at 7:00am" I liked that already, no pushing or shoving here is the deal take it or leave it ! My kinda place.
Monday 7:00am I am at 35 happy to be at school I have always thought about a driving career but just never persued it. So here I am actually persuing something . The school director calls herself mama bear and us tinnee winnee baby truck drivers suddenly gave me horrible flashbacks of grade school. She also began and ended every sentence with "allright and ok" and repeated the same thing 4 times with different wording."So we listen to her talk for about two hours which would have only been 15 mins had she only said what she wanted once and left out the "allrights and oks". They line us up in a hallway for (edited) testing, While waiting my turn I am observing my surroundings the Director of the school told us of how a tornado had destroyed their old building 2yrs ago and theier new building is not quite ready yet. 2yrs seems like plenty of time to rebuild to me. Luckily for me I live here in Indy 4 miles from the school the folks that had to take their housing are getting a raw deal, They had them at a Holiday Inn due to a vicious hail storm a couple of weeks ago destroying their dorms, Well that lasted a day I guess they found some two bedroom apts out by the airport and got a deal so they moved them to the apartments 4 people per apartment. Mama Bear seemed so proud as she anounced the news and even spoke of the bunk beds. Now keep in mind the school provides no transportation just lodging the holiday inn was like a mile away now the apts. are 10 miles away and several of these guys had no cars (no need). So they are stuck with having to get rides back and fourth a cab ride is about $25.00 oneway.
But anyway back to me,lol Monday goes over I am still happy with my decision I can deal with mama bear for 3wks.
Tuesday 7:00am arrive at class me and several students are chatting finally a teacher enters the room a nice older man and takes about 30 to 45 mins to collect his stuff for class. Turns out our real teacher is out sick, He teaches us what we need to know to go and take our learner permit general knowledge test. Class dismisses at about 3:30 so I feeling confident go to the DMV and take my test and BAM I passed ! 1 day of class and I passed I was happy. I went ahead and tried the Airbrakes and Combination vehicles test which I knew nothing about either and missed passing each one by 1 flippin' point. I wanted to be ahead of the class because I was going to be out wensday due to a prior dental appt. Oh well.
Wensday 10:00am I am out for the count turns out I had severe absest upper front teeth (5) what I thought had been sinus infections were actually my teeth . So with those pulled and a plate put in in I am done for the day.
Thursday 7:00am I stagger up to go to class I cant talk my face is swole up I look just like the grinch ! I inform the new substitute (ours is still sick) teacher that I need some assistance with the two test I failed she said ok no problem. So the study continued throughout the day on logging. I again told her I needed to get some tutoring on the two subjects I had missed on wensday she said ok. 4:00pm class dismissed what about my tutoring ? Ohwell.
Friday 7:00am I feel alot better today, I can talk ! (still look like the grinch)
off to school I go first thing I do is ask when can I get some tutoring in the subjects I missed the other day ? reply : we will get you some. She goes into the truck pre-trip inspection and a breif recap of logging. 9:30am she wants to see a show of hands of people who already got their learner permits about 15 hands went up then she wanted to see who only had 1 test to take before they got theirs about ten hands went up then the inevitible who still has 2 test to take to get theirs about 5 of us. At least I was not alone. She then tells us to go to the DMV and take the rest of the test and pass but be back by 12:00 noon !
What about my tutoring !! Well me being me went to the DMV read the sections I needed to learn in the parking lot and went in and took the first one I needed BAM Passed ! went back to the parking lot studied for another 30 minutes went back in BAM passed again !! When I went and studied for the second time I did not realize that double and triple trailers were not on the second test so when I seen that they were not the DMV ladie told me that is a seperate endorsment, Oh ok give it to me I said, Guess what BAM Passed !! I had also studied on tankers BAM passed that one to !! So I get back to class at 12:30 woops. nobody is there they are all out doing pre-trip class. We all go back in about 3:30 and as promised they doll out the whopping $50.00 they promised and inform us that monday there will be a test on pre-tripping a truck. Also the stupid DMV folks did not stamp my permit so it was not valid so I had to haul butt back over there to get it stamped, The same lady working the couter ask me what test would you like to take now ? I said what the heck Haz-Mat. You got it BAM passed. So for me things are looking up when I get my CDL I will have Double and Triples, Tankers and Haz-Mat endorcments. and what ever else I can get my greedy little hands on. But I do have to say it was not due to the help of the instructors.
More to come................................................................

Answer:
Newb, you're not home free yet. When will your HazMat background check be done? BOL

Answer:
You know, reading through this, I sure am glad that I got licensed the old fashioned way, and didn't go through any company schools. I'm not knocking anyone that has to do it that way, but it sure was easier when I did it.
I was working on a farm and part of the job was that I would have to get a CDL. I'd driven on and off since about age 12 or so, so it was no big deal. I went to the state and got their book, studied it, then took the test. I passed everything (no hazmat) missing only 2 questions which were different from the books answers. I picked up the "F" endorsement at that time, which allowed me to drive the truck for farm use.
Then I made an appointment for the driving road test, and went down there a few days later. The night before the test, I went to the farm and drove the truck for about 15 minutes, since I hadn't been behind the wheel of any semi for over 7 years at that point, and needed to refresh myself on the 13 speed just in case. Did the pretrip, parking lot stuff, and road test, and the only comment from my instructor was that it was obvious that I was used to a longer trailer than the 34 foot 4 axle dump I was pulling.
And that was it. I left there (legally due to the "F") with the truck, and stopped by the DMV on the way back to the farm. And I drove that truck and others like it for the next 5 years hauling grain and feeds around Michigan. When we parked the truck due to declining income and rising costs, I went looking around, and the company that I went to work for looked at the fact that I had been driving for 5 years in Michigan winters and decided that was fine.
I attended their company school after hiring, but I already had my assigned truck, and drove it to school so the shop could do some things on it that my boss wanted done and some things i wanted done.
Sure was easier for me than what many of you guys have to go through. I'm not sure I could put up with their stuff, so I salute anyone who can get through it.

Answer:
Sealord,
I work at fed-ex at nights doing haz-mat before I was hired on by them I had to get federal airport clearence so I am not sweating the background checks.
Burky,
I am coming out of a 17yr deadend career in mobile electronics, I know what you mean about the schools. When I started in mobile electronics there were no schools now for some reason employers will grab a guy up quick who went to some 3 week crash course in how not to burn a vehicle down. My experience used to mean something but not these days. A certificate with unverifiable experience seems to be worth more. Now I know for a fact the same is not true in trucking. I wish I knew someone that had a their own truck so I could have did it the old fashioned way 'cause i know in the person that is going to actually train me on the road is going to be much like I was when I would have to train someone just outta school " What the hell did they teach you ! ". So I will just pay my dues for the first year or so and then I will be able to make a choice. But untill the dues are payed you gotta keep paying.