Comments By Brandie W.

No disrespect Brandie, but that plan may be a little short-sighted. Your plan involves potentially more risk, both long term professionally and financially.

Company paid training is also free, provided you hold up your end of the deal. You simply have to cover a little upfront investment by saving enough ahead of time to cover your expenses for a very short period. The return on your investment will come on the back end, in the form of greater training and support from your company.

I strongly urge you to read this before making that decision:

Why I prefer paid CDL training over private CDL training

Ok-- I get what you are saying... but in my case, if I went this route, the CDL training would be free to me (its a local program for people below certain income levels)-- then with CDL in hand, I could still apply to Prime or one of the others and still get the 30k miles or whatever each individual company requires with a trainer.

I'd never consider this route if I were having to pay out of pocket-- its just not financially feasible. Can you tell me what pitfalls you see with this? I'm sincere in asking because I'm too new to this side of things to potentially see where the problems lay...

So... plot twist!!

Was informed by someone local that I qualify for a program that will cover the cost of me getting my license... so I could get my Class A here at home.. for free-- and then sign on with someone-- which means I don't have to lose income!

Thanks for the insight on Wilson-- I did read your diary and I'm so glad you got everything worked out even with that 2 trainer issue. I'm pretty sure if they brought me on-- I'd be going to Springfield based on my location (assuming it's based on your home location-- you're from AZ if I remember right.) The only one of my 3 where I'm not sure where I'd go for training would be Prime-- I'm literally 8.5 hours from Pittston and 8.5 hours from Springmo.

Yeah-- I've been binge watching Kearsey the past couple of weeks. And yeah-- my kiddo essentially finished out his high school career via homeschool-- they went back 5 weeks before graduation, and with him a senior-- he only went 2 of those 5.

I'll check into Knight-- I think they haven't pinged my radar because they never responded to my mass application drop.

As of right now:

Wilson Veriha Prime CRST

Keep in mind CRST is 100% team driving.

Yeah.. CRST is the choice of last resort with me because of that. If they are who ultimately takes me-- so be it, I'll suck it up and ride out the contract...

As of right now:

Wilson Veriha Prime CRST

Also got an email from MAST-- but I'm a little too far outside their 2hr radius requirement.

Ack-- can't edit posts....

Adding-- in my particular case-- as long as I can squirrel away the money to cover my bills that first month-- I'll be fine. I own my house free and clear and my debt load is fairly low.

Ok-- so one more question... and I think this one is the most important of them all.

I'm gonna start off by saying, I don't care much about company pay, etc. I figure the first year-- my main mission is just to learn the job and get as good as I can at what I'm doing-- the money comes with knowledge.

So having said that-- are there any company sponsored training programs that you experts here think are better compared to others? Any programs that a rookie with little to no experience in anything larger than a minivan should stay away from? (I've heard that Roehl is pretty ruthless with their quickness to cut rookies that aren't catching on fast).

Really-- with everything else I've been able to glean from relentlessly reading this board-- I think this is the last important question in me deciding which way to go.

Brandie, I can only speak about Schneider training. I believe that it was top notch. But when you are new, you are a beggar not a chooser. Get on with a big company with a training program. You are right, just take what you are offered and go with it.

There are two of you here. You and Tammy. Both of you have my respect, but I wonder about your ability to follow through. How about your children? When I was young, I didn't get any help from my parents because they were unable to provide any. Instead, I helped my parents financially until their deaths. How about your children? Are they able to help you pursue your dream?

I had kids young-- the "baby" of the family is 17 and leaving for college in a week. Two of my kids are married and have kids of their own.. and the last remaining one is living with his significant other.

I've wanted to do this for quite some time-- but held off because of the kiddos. Now-- that's not a concern.

Ok-- so one more question... and I think this one is the most important of them all.

I'm gonna start off by saying, I don't care much about company pay, etc. I figure the first year-- my main mission is just to learn the job and get as good as I can at what I'm doing-- the money comes with knowledge.

So having said that-- are there any company sponsored training programs that you experts here think are better compared to others? Any programs that a rookie with little to no experience in anything larger than a minivan should stay away from? (I've heard that Roehl is pretty ruthless with their quickness to cut rookies that aren't catching on fast).

Really-- with everything else I've been able to glean from relentlessly reading this board-- I think this is the last important question in me deciding which way to go.

Yep. Read that diary last night!

Timeline largely depends on how quickly I can squirrel away enough money to cover my butt while I'm in school. If I can pull it off-- I'd love to head out by October 1 so that I can get some road time in before the holidays. Otherwise, I'll likely wait until February (tax time.. extra money in the bank no matter what).

I'm still leaning heavily towards Prime at this point....

I submitted the form here on this site and have communicated via email with a couple of companies-- explaining that I may be a couple months out at this point and everyone has been quite pleasant.