I can't comment on others because I only went to one, but you would have to get up early in the morning to top Central Tech in Drumright Ok.
You have 102 hours minimum in the classroom (it's more)
52 hours behind the wheels (it's a LOT more)
You take decent sized road trips the last week, 300 plus miles with decent sized cities (Tulsa Ok) and plenty of both interstate and 2 lane roads.
They have a 5+ miles paved 2 lane closed course you will drive well over 200 miles on just getting used to the truck through stop signs, rail road crossings, truck washes, truck stop style parking, alley docks, fuel islands, and so on before you ever see the road.
Every instructor I interacted with there was professional and damn good at what they did.
You spend 2 days of NOTHING but straight backing a 400 ft course with 12 foot lanes to get the feel for it before you ever go fwd.
You spend 4-5 days doing 90 degree backs on 9 different locations so you can't get used to a landmark to make a turn, you have to learn to back the damn thing, not just repetitive motion.
They test you for the CDL 7 working days before graduation, if you fail, they restest you 2 days prior to graduation. (at no additional cost)
You pull both empty vans on the highway and loaded (65k gross) on the highway and if you are going to pull skateboards, they also have a fleet of them both loaded and empty and teach you load securment.
All in all, I could go on but that's the gist of it. The only downfall is the cost, they aren't cheap but they are PTDI and a damn good school in my opinion.
The only thing I CAN say without a doubt is the quality of instructor is top notch and then some. I was in the Marine Corps for 12 years, towards the end of that I was injured and took a position as an instructor (not the drill instructor type lol). We had to complete college level public speaking courses as well as instructor courses prior to ever stepping foot in front of a student and then had to be evaluated daily for 6 weeks following that before being able to teach alone.
The last 6 months I was in I was an instructor evaluator and because of that, I find myself subconsciously nitpicking EVERYONE I see that speaks in public and normally nitpicking them to death.
Both the instructors I had at Central Tech were excellent instructors, knew the material by heart, knew how to convey in a way that was not mundane or boring making you just want to go to sleep or leave. They were also frequently evaluated by the training director without notice. These guys had their A game on and I would recommend them to anyone.
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