Pinnacle Truck Driver Training, Inc.

11/04/2026

So here's a quick 360 degree, 15 second cross section of a typical day at Pinnacle. I will miss the noises and the chaos! Believe it or not, once you're a student here, there's nothing chaotic about what's happening. Every student is doing something and moving forward. Professor Clous is actually helping a student with his 90 by watching an "upper classman" successfully complete it in front of them. I only realized recently how what we do in one class is so closely related to what we do in the other classes. One size rarely fits anybody. That's what the overseers want so that's what they get and we pretty much stick to that. Let's just say we cover all of the required standards and then some. I don't mean to run on but we're outta time and I'm not done yet so let's all get busy! Like the Snowman says, "we got a long way to go and short time to get there". Oh yeah, there's the rest of it..."we're gonna do what they say can't be done"....and we did.

11/02/2026

Sorry, I've been kind of busy so I haven't gotten to posting for a while. Like Joie says, we should have had a going out of business sale sooner! I thought I should get some graduates up here so you all know we're still here....for a little while longer. I make light that we're retiring but it's really bittersweet. I LOVE this place but it's gotten too much for me to run and Mrs. Baker and I have decided that it's time to hang out together now. But...8 more Mondays! These guys didn't care how many Mondays are left for Pinnacle because they have an entire working lifetime of Mondays heading right for them! Except Mike, he's retired a few times already. This is a bucket list thing for him. Like Charlie Daniels says, "we got the cowboys and the hippies and the rebels and the yanks" all in this picture! We'll train anybody! If you can get a medical card and a CLP then we can train you. Our failure rate is so low that we don't even count it. Don't get me wrong, some of our graduates are better suited to specific types of driving than some of their classmates but almost ALL of our graduates have passed the CDL test. About 85% are still professional drivers and many of those who aren't any longer have actually retired from driving....THEY DIDN'T QUIT! There is such a culture out there hoping for the worst in people. I WON'T miss them! Congratulations drivers!

10/01/2026

As most of you know, the Pinnacle slogan is "just don't hit nothin". We're thinking of one last shirt. Joie likes "go ahead, call HR". Any suggestions?

10/01/2026

I haven't gotten any pictures lately but we're still training drivers and they're still graduating. We've gotten a ton of emails from our friends out there in truck driving world. We've even gotten them from people we don't know. Other training schools who think that Pinnacle was one of the best when it comes to this kind of stuff. While I think that's true, people we respect actually think that as well. Professor Herweyer and I were just talking at lunch about this. Who would have thought that a bunch of pi**ed off truck drivers would build something like this? All I can say is WOW! Thank you to everyone who believed in us. It truly humbles all of us. But, we're not dead yet!

10/01/2026

https://ruralradio.com/rrn/news/faq-what-nebraska-farmers-need-to-know-about-dyed-diesel-under-pillens-executive-order/?fbclid=IwY2xjawUrHCtleHRuA2FlbQIxMABwZG9mAWJyaWQRMXk1d0xNVG5jaDVJaVFrWEtzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeH_O56DVkwkI5OIZy_Et-lznE0I7Op_-prT6aI9B2Zo6ixDp_Tb2TtP9wIuQ_aem__09aHDCLBXa--0Y8ZbTdWQ

Nebraska farmers, ranchers and agricultural haulers have new guidance on when they can use dyed diesel in highway-registered vehicles under Gov. Jim Pillen’s 90-day agricultural fuel emergency.

09/15/2026

Well, Joie has been on me all week...Did you make your post yet? No, I have not. I don't know what to say or how to say it. Let's just say an opportunity came up, I turned 65 and we're all tired. The property has been sold, the equipment is being sold and Pinnacle will go out on top. We have almost full classes and the rumor is out. People are calling all day long! We haven't been this busy in a while! I did fail at selling the business as an entity but the parceling out of what remains and the memories of all the good we have done makes retirement possible for me and Mrs. Baker. She turned in her paperwork and we will be unemployed sometime around Christmas. I've been blue collar, long work weeks and being gone from home for most of my working life. Pinnacle is still a blue collar place and we're very proud of that! We also are a mission that have changed countless lives for the better. We've trained almost 2000 new drivers and our reputation is, well, surprising. Other schools actually respect us! I never even gave that a thought. We just trained new drivers the best way we knew how and it worked. We've had a bunch of DOT, VA and a ton of other inspections and audits and we've passed with flying colors. We did it all the way we thought it should be done and now it's time to go home. Everything ends so it would be arrogant of me to think this could go on forever. The partners who started this whole thing, the employees who worked for free in the early days, the students who trusted us, YOU are what made this work. I'll be posting photos later and we're still training for a while longer but time is quickly running out if you have dreams of becoming a Pineapple. This isn't goodbye yet but I can see it from here. We have some great memories and hope you do too. Be safe everyone!

08/13/2026

I'm not sure if any of you have been paying attention to things but CDL schools are getting shut down all over the place for some kind of infraction. It's mostly record keeping items but the DOT and VA are deathly serious about this stuff. Pinnacle has passed both with flying colors and we're very proud of that! We're also aware that Joie Kennard made sure that we were good. I just wanted to point out that when she says "we can't do it that way" she's not being obstinate. She protecting Pinnacle like mother bear. Maybe say thank you for a job well done the next time you see her!

08/11/2026

If you have a CDL and are looking for a change, give us a call or send us a message.
There at least 5 very good "rides" looking for the right driver(s).
OTR, Regional & Local.
Big trucks, little trucks and everything in between.

08/03/2026

https://freedomhaulers.dot.gov/

Freedom Haulers, as I understand things, extends the "eligibility time" to sign up for a CDL (if your MOS qualified you for this) from 12 months to 24 months to sign up. This means that if you qualify then you don't need to take a CDL training class to get a CDL. It sounds great until you try to get a job. Just because you have a brand new CDL-A doesn't mean that a company will hire you. It's been our experience that they will not! It simply means that there is a difference between the vehicles that the military drives and those that civilians drive and the rules are different. The good news is this....we can take ALL of that military experience and turn that into civilian knowledge so you can benefit from a custom course at a lower cost. It may even be covered, check your VA benefits for details. Freedom Haulers...I like the name!