Comments By Joshua

Are you training in Ft.Worth ? ,I start there on July 7

No I will be at their training academy in Jackson, MS.

Well I have known for awhile now that I was approved to attend the KLLM driving academy in a little over a week. I'm pretty nervous (which is normal I hear) and very excited. Although this may not have been my first choice, I believe this company is going to be a great fit for me. I have never been around reefers so that is certainly going to be interesting to learn all about. From what I have read, it seems KLLM is a pretty good company to drive for and has a great training program. I'm just ready to get started! I don't believe there any TT members that drive for KLLM so I may be the first and will try my best to put together a good CDL training diary as well as my other experiences.

I know with a company I went through a physical with you had to pick up a 40 pound box on the ground and put it on a shelf above your head then remove a 50 pound box from that shelf and put it on the floor and lastly pick up a 60 pound box and put it on a shelf about 4 feet high. As for height, I know you have to be able to fully depress the clutch and brake but not sure how tall that is

Thanks for all of the replies everyone. I had a feeling they were way off on their "estimate" of how long it would take to reach 240,000 miles. They should definitely remove that lie from their website! ha

Well I have started researching trucking companies again due to my recent setback. One company that really stands out to me is Celadon. It seems like they have a great training program and a good company to drive for. The only thing I don't care for is that they make you team drive after graduation. They say that you must drive 240,000 miles team before you can go solo and that it should take about 6 months. For some reason this just does not add up to me though. If you do 240,000 miles in 6 months that would have you doing 40,000 miles per month which is 10,000 miles a week. Is this even possible? From what I have heard that most team drivers can barely get 5,000 miles per week which at that rate would take about 12 months to do a combined 240,000 miles.

Keep us posted! Celadon is actually one of the companies I am currently considering but the only thing I don't like about them is that they make you team drive for like 6 months after you graduate. Other than that, they seem like a great company to train with and drive for.

Why though did the bus not pull over onto the shoulder itself instead of stopping in the middle of the highway? Sooner or later something like this is going to happen and someone will get killed.

I wonder the same thing as buses around here going down a major (four line) highway with a 65 MPH speed limit do the same thing and stop in the middle of the road. It seems they should make a law stating school buses must pull over to the side of the road to pick up and drop off children.

That bus should be over on the side IMO..... One thing I noticed if you take it frame by frame it would seem the lights on bus came on at the last second and the traffic coming the other way never slowed down....

You're right. I think the bus driver should be at fault some here not giving very much warning for the driver to know they were stopping. True he may have been going faster than he should but the bus driver also has a responsibility to warn others of when they are stopping. Also everyone is beating up on the driver for passing on the right, however, according to the state manuals THAT is exactly what he was supposed to do to avoid hitting the bus!

Thanks for all of the replies everyone. I think you're right that there are a lot of applicants and they are more or less having to pick and choose who to accept. Also I think part of this problem was when applying to get a CDL with knight is that you are dealing with two companies, Knight Transportation and their sister company Squire Transportation which is the company that handles the training part. From my research about this, it appears Knight wanted me but it was Squire that rejected me. Oh well it was just strange to me that I haven't had any tickets or accidents but was declined. Not giving up though! Going to start applying at other companies soon.

So now I have a new question! Who in everyone's opinion is the best company to go with that offers company sponsored CDL training? I have been through the Company-Sponsored Training page on this site and used it to research them but not sure about some of them. I would prefer dry van for various reasons which is making companies like Pam Transport, USA truck and Swift look appealing but since Pam and USA don't have their own truck schools and use driver solutions, it makes me weary. Swift seems like a great company with tons of options but have a lot of upfront money needed for their schooling which isn't a deal breaker but the less needed the better. There is one company though that I cannot find anyone who knows anything about but seems like a company with a great training program and good equipment. That is KLLM. They are the closest to where I live but they are a reefer company so that has its own concerns for me as a new driver for reasons like having to worry with fueling the trailer or "jumping" the trailer off if it is not running or even worse having the trouble of dealing with if it breaks down. I mean I'm not exactly brand new to the trucking industry (my dad has been a driver for 20 years and my father-in-law is an O/O making a killing hauling regional flatbed) but I haven't had any experience being around reefers. Again thank you all for the great advice so far and I look forward to hearing what else everyone has to say!

So here is my story... After months of researching I finally decided on Knight transportation as the company I wanted to go with. After reviewing their website, I found out I would need my permit so a few weeks ago I got my DOT physical and passed the written tests to earn my CDL permit. So last week, applied with Knight and shortly after my recruiter called me to explain everything to me and to get more info. A few days later she was done with my background check and said everything came out fine so we proceeded. Next I had to fill out tons of pre hire forms and once I finished that I had to go get a company physical and drug test so yesterday I drove to the Gulfport, MS terminal and passed the company physical/fitness test and drug/alcohol test. Everything was looking great and my recruiter said she was just waiting to see when my start date would be for training, however, for some unknown reason she emailed me today and said that she had passed my application and information to safety and safety had decided to pass on me. She said they did not disclose to her the reason so that is all the info she had and that I could try and reapply with them in 6 months. My question is this, if I have passed every test they have thrown at me and had no issues with my background, why would they just pass on me?

Why though did the bus not pull over onto the shoulder itself instead of stopping in the middle of the highway? Sooner or later something like this is going to happen and someone will get killed.

I wonder the same thing as buses around here going down a major (four line) highway with a 65 MPH speed limit do the same thing and stop in the middle of the road. It seems they should make a law stating school buses must pull over to the side of the road to pick up and drop off children.