I'm not normally someone who writes reviews, but after six weeks at Suburban Truck Driving School,…read moreI feel prospective students should know what my experience was like.
I started August 3, 2026, excited to earn my Class A CDL. Before enrolling, I asked many questions and was told the full-time program was generally four to six weeks and that students would begin maneuvers after obtaining their permits.
The classroom portion moved extremely fast. We covered 30 chapters in three days before testing on General Knowledge, Combination Vehicles and Air Brakes. It was difficult to take useful notes or even follow along at times. I also personally witnessed two students who had not achieved the required scores have passing grades manually entered by an instructor.
I was specifically told students could not be in a truck without a permit. Despite that, I and at least two other students practiced straight-back maneuvers before obtaining ours.
My biggest frustration was the lack of actual training time. There were routinely 15-20+ students competing for trucks. We attended from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., but many days we received only three to six turns of approximately 10 minutes each. We spent the remaining hours outside under a pop-up canopy regardless of the weather, while new students continued to arrive every Monday.
I want to be clear, I liked and respected all of the instructors. My criticism is directed at how the program was organized and managed. Different instructors taught maneuvers differently, communication was poor, and much of the learning became peer-to-peer.
I also had serious concerns about some of the training trucks. We were taught to identify unsafe tires during pre-trip inspections, yet I personally saw tires that appeared badly worn, bald or dry-rotted. It was manufactured in 2007 and was dry-rotted. I later drove that truck full of students to a tire shop to have both steer tires replaced.
On another occasion, training stopped because of a dangerously bald tire. We waited outside in the heat for more than two hours for a mechanic who never arrived. Training eventually resumed, and when I questioned it, I was told, "They can't wait on him any longer."
I experienced the office disorganization myself. When I forgot paperwork required for driving, I asked Kevin whether he could access my records and print another copy. He immediately told me they didn't have them and said I should have brought the paperwork back, even though I had never been told that. He acknowledged, "Yeah, I could've done a better job at that."
Rather than lose a day of driving, I drove approximately 45 minutes to the drug-testing facility to obtain another copy. The employee there told me I was the fourth or fifth Suburban student who had returned asking for copies and showed me that student files were sent to Suburban for its records. I then drove back to school with paperwork it appeared the school already had access to.
The most serious problem involved another student. On August 24, I discovered he had crossed my name off the truck-rotation sheet, put himself in my number-one position and moved me down the list. An instructor confronted him about altering it.
On August 28, we had another confrontation. We exchanged words, he threatened me and began aggressively moving toward me while I was still seated. Another student physically held him back.
On August 31, I submitted a formal written complaint. Kevin said he had heard something about the incident on Friday, told me it would be investigated and said the student would be sent home if he returned while it was being addressed. Kevin and Skip also assured me I did not need to involve the police because the school would handle it.
I was never contacted by the owners about my complaint or interviewed as part of an investigation. The student continued returning to the school after passing his state exam, and I encountered him multiple times, including as late as September 15.
During my six weeks at Suburban, I had very little interaction with the owner. After I eventually passed my pre-trip, maneuvers and road test and earned my Class A CDL, I returned to the office to "graduate out." I was immediately asked to complete the school's questionnaire/review. I declined and said my review would be online.
Approximately 10 minutes after leaving, I received a call from the school followed by a text from the owner saying she had been trying to catch me before I left and asking me to call her. After six weeks at the school and the formal written complaint I had submitted, that was the first time I received that type of direct outreach from the owner.
I went into this program genuinely excited to earn my Class A CDL. I expected CDL training to be challenging. I did not expect overcrowding, extremely limited truck time, inconsistent training, equipment problems, poor communication and what I believe was an inadequate response to a formal complaint involving a threat.
