Anyone know anything about Allstate career school? They have a few locations and one is here in Pittsburgh. Just wanted to know peoples thoughts on school vs. company sponsored training? I know I will have to do some training with a company when I sign on, but no contract means a ton to me. That just seems like they hang it over the drivers heads and use it to give them tons of grief if they feel like it.

I went to the all state career school in North Versailles, PA to see about taking my road test there as they are a 3rd party tester. (I was trained by an owner/op)

It turned into me getting lectured by a voodoo lady who sat and told me for over an hour that since I didnt go to their school, I would not be a safe driver, I would know nothing, she wouldnt feel safe riding next to me on the highway, no company would hire me, and pretty much did her best to make a joke of me.

As I insisted that I would be just fine and didnt need their school, she still felt she could no longer just give me the information I came for to begin with, but instead, called in the head instructor. He began to tell me the same gargonzola, I continued to roll my eyes :roll: , and then he felt compelled to start asking me random cdl permit questions such as "do you know the minimum tread depth for tires?", "do you know how to detect that a lugnut may me loose?", "do you know how long it should take to reach full air pressure in a combination vehicle?"

As I aswered all his lame questions, he became frustrated and said "Ok, I'll give you the test, but if I think you may have missed 1 thing on the pre-trip, or screw up just a hair on the road test, I'm going to fail you!"
He and the voodoo lady both got a kick out of that and were grinning from ear to ear.

I said, Thanks for all the info and walked out the door.

If you want to deal with people like that, then go to all-state in North Versailles, PA. Well, they may be nicer if your spending $6000+ for their training.....

In all seriousness, if your not going to be trained by a company (which I WOULD do), then check out TDI (Truck Driver Institute) it's in Irwin, PA.
I dont think they have a website, but I'm sure you could find a phone #.
The guy who trained me attended their training (although about 6 years ago), and said it was pretty good then.

If I can be of any assistance, let me know.

Jim.

Thanks for the response. I went up and spent about 2 hours with them. They seem pretty up front. I was hoping to hear from someone who went to school there.

yeah allstate will try to sell you on their school for 2 hours straight buti think 24 weeks is way tooo long in my book. 8300 bucks sounds kinda expensive

i am about to complete thier program, although they do charge alot most dont know anything about the finacial aid programs they have. all things considered i would do it all over again. while the classroom time is a little long for me the range time is great as you can never learn to much, and not to mention all the safty courses you get. now school vs company, school any day i was going to go through swift's program, they had me drive down to millington tn for a 3 week course and let me tell you it was a joke. i would not want to be on the same road as some of the guys there, plus they lock you into a 1 year contract and if you leave befor the year they charge you 5995.00 for the trainning so if you dont like otr or the co. pull out your checkbook. wasnt for me but everyone has thier own style and preference