Comments By ArcticWolves

If I was serious I would have stayed at home and prepared myself for truck driving school by studying. Well, Monday came and I did not attend Roadmaster as I still wasn't sure. The $6495 was scaring me a A LOT as well as Double Clutching!! Got a call from both the school and roadmaster recruiter. Obviously they weren't happy but, whatever, they will get over it. They tried convincing me I was throwing away an opportunity at making a whole bunch more money than what I currently make, blah blah blah the usual sales pitch.

Day by day goes by and my charter bus job isn't working me and I start getting more anxious because of our monthly payments coming up. I was tired of struggling and wondering if I'll be able to make my payments. Enough is enough, I need to let my job go and do this for us or we're going to be living a constant struggle. I called my roadmaster recruiter and he set me up one more time to attend the next Monday 9/22.

***END PART 2***

****PART 2*****

The perks of my job kept distracting me and I allowed it to prevent me from looking for something better. I eventually ended up trying city transit buses for awhile but didn't last there because I didn't like dealing with the handicap or the public. I went back to driving charter buses and had the time of my life once again but was barely making enough to scrape by in a month. Moreover trying to get a raise from 11.75/hr to 12.75/hr was no easy task after having worked at my company for 3 years. After 5 months of staying on them about a promised wage increase they finally increased my salary. Albeit my hours slowly got reduced where I was barely working 30 hours/week and struggling to make my house payment.

I decided enough was enough and I needed to start looking into other driving jobs. Well I'm sure you all have went to the craigslist transportation section and seen all those truck driver training student ads. I did a lot of research on the trucking industry before I made the decision to attend one of these advertised orientation meetings. This website was a great resource in helping me make this decision a little bit easier, as well as, LittleGuyTrucker and DaSinister from youtube.

I discussed everything with my fiance and she gave me her full support and encouragement. So after more research on making sure if trucking would be right for me, I attended an orientation for Werner that had a deal going with Roadmaster Truck Driving. I am very fortunate to have such a wonderful woman in my life that is totally on board with my decision to be a trucker. We went together to the orientation place and we were not that impressed. For one, we thought that the CDL training was going to be from Werner, but come to find out it was a way for Roadmaster to make $6495 or they would deduct $1500 off if you could magically come up with $4995 - in payment that day. However, the Werner recruiter did say that they would tuition reimburse us up to $7000 if we attended roadmaster. The only problem with that is they pay it out $100/month with $750 bonus at the 6 month and 1 year mark then it's $100/mo. If you do the math it would take you 3 years to stay with Werner before that loan would be paid off if you were to solely depend on that. I totally thought it was a scam and didn't appreciate the tactics being used. Nevertheless, I filled out an application and left quite disappointed plus it was my birthday, lol.

$6495 and $4995 were those big numbers that stuck out in my head. I was determined to find a better, cheaper school. Well my fiance and I went to several trucking schools to tour their facilities and were not very impressed. It just so happened I was going out to tour another school in Fontana, CA when the recruiter from Roadmaster gave me a call and somehow, through his sales pitch, convinced me to go take a look at their facility, which was less than a mile away from the other school I was touring. Long story short, I was blown away by the Roadmaster school. The equipment was just like the trucks I would be driving in the future - International Prostars 2012's. Yes, they were retired Werner trucks and the practicing range was right at their terminal with an enormous amount of practicing space, unlike some of the other schools we toured.

Still, I was not convinced and was determined I could find something cheaper to get my CDL Class A. I found another school that had a pay as you learn program. It was $100/hr and most passed with about 15 hours of experience. I was just about ready to jump on that bandwagon until I found out something very important. Can you guess what that might be? Well I learned there's a magic number in trucking when it comes to training if you want to make it easier on yourself to find a truck driving job. It's the special 160 Hours of training. Sure you can get your Class A license for $1500 or less but only have 15 hours or less hours. I think I actually read a post on here or on the "other forum" about someone attending that exact school, Dootson Trucking, and could not find a job due to not having 160 hours but had his Class A. I finally made the decision that I would go to Roadmaster in Fontana, CA.

I made a call, and set everything in motion and wow were they fast. They wanted to set up everything instantly, background check instantly, but it went through pretty flawlessly. Boy, was I nervous though. I didn't know if I had made the right decision I was all set-up with my start date and then my charter bus job gave me the opportunity to pick up the Seattle Seahawks and take them down to the San Diego Chargers game in San Diego. Oh, and after the game I would be picking up the San Diego Padres from the airport and taking them to the stadium. This meant I was not going to get back home until about midnight before my start date at Roadmaster. That means I was going to be very sleepy plus maybe my job was going to start giving me some more hours. At least, that was what I was hoping...Dream on...

I called my fiance while I was waiting at the airport for the Padres and she said something to me that has still stayed with me to this day. "If you were serious about trucking then you know very well you would not have worked your other job." My reasoning was it would pick us up some extra cash for the tough times ahead (3 weeks unpaid training and then $400/wk at Werner until training was over for 5-7 weeks). She was right though!

I ended up finally getting my A.A. degree at community college and was accepted into the radiologic technologist (X-ray) program. I lasted about 3 weeks into the program until I had a really bad experience with the professor embarrassing me in front of the whole classroom saying I was incompetent. I didn’t want to return to class and dropped out of everything. There I was again jobless and I needed to find something! Applied everywhere and had to make a decision between being a driving instructor or company paid training to learn how to drive a charter tour bus. I chose to go with the charter bus.

My experiences with the tour/charter bus industry have definitely been a once in a lifetime opportunity. I have had the opportunity to transport many professional sports teams (NFL, MLB, NHL, College sports) as well as snotty rude brat kidlets and elders. This job wore on me due to the people I was dealing with every day. I would go over all the rules of the bus and then they would love testing me on each rule and challenging me. It was to the point I had to pull over and refuse to drive if they would not stop singing the wheels on the bus go round and round or whatever pop song was in their head. They thought it was funny? It was a major safety distraction but they never got it, whatever… I learned how to tone everything out of my head and just focus on my driving.

I had a lot of fun going out on the road in this job. Every day was a challenge figuring out how I was going to get to my pick-up point and destination while keeping the dynamic environment in mind. My best time was when I was all alone traveling back with NO ONE on my bus. I was able to stop for the bathroom when I wanted and not be asked, “Why are we stopping? We’re going to be late.” (Not my problem you thought it would be okay to board the bus 2 hours later than the actual depart time). I realized what I wanted to do but knew it wasn’t going to happen in the tour bus industry. How wonderful it would be to be able to drive and listen to the music that I wanted to and have the A/C temperature set at what I wanted and not have someone complain!

*****PART 1 END*****

Hah now that I pulled you in with my title... I know, I know that was mean!

***This will be a LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG post :P ***

Hello fellow truckers and wannabes (and anything in between ;) )

I wanted to introduce myself and share some of my life with you. In addition, I’ll share with you on how I went from making the hard decision of which truck school I wanted to attend to completing my training. So I hope you enjoy reading my story!

My name is Ron or you can call me ArcticWolves. I just turned 29 last month. I was home schooled most of my life but had the very unique opportunity to be in a chorus from the ages of 8 -16 that toured all over the world. I was always excited to go out on the road in our tour bus and perform for a wide range of people. I attribute my love for the road, being outdoors, and driving because of these wonderful experiences. When I was young, I knew there was one thing I wanted to do and that was to be out in a dynamic environment outside. Something about mother nature and the colors/smells of the environment (mmmm can you imagine the smell of them diesel engine fumes from the trains, trucks, or fumes of that tasty jet-a gasoline exhaust from a helicopter/plane. :P ) drew my interest.

After graduating high school I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I was just happy it was finally over! Then, oh dear God, I soon found out that college was my next step. Now I won’t go into too much detail over that except that I was very young when I started college at the ripe age of 16. My grandmother, whom I lived with my whole life, (I didn’t know my mom and dad didn’t really come around that much) had this wonderful future goal drilled into my head that I was going to become a doctor. I resisted this so much that I failed all my classes my 1st and 2nd years at community college, which landed me on all sorts of probation and disqualifications. Little by little, I started to mature more and took my education a little more seriously, but didn’t have a clue what I wanted to do. I worked butt off to get myself back in good standing with my college and found out they had an Aviation program!!

I enrolled in an aviation class and was hooked! I wanted to become an airline pilot. I loved reading maps, plotting my courses with our special calculator and doing all those really neat pre-trip things pilots do every day. I even had a job fueling and washing aircraft hangars at a local airport. My grandmother despised that job so much she did everything to make sure I was unhappy about it. I eventually caved in and left. It was the only job I ever loved so much. Unfortunately, that dream got crushed when I realized how much flight training would cost and that my job was going to be depending upon having perfect corrected 20/20 vision. The financial risk was too great to gamble with. I didn’t want to have my job on the line every 6 months and then be told, “Sorry you can’t fly because of your vision.”

Yes I was devastated and was so tired of my grandmother’s control that I dropped out of my university to join the Air Force. Oops, one small problem! The recruiter said nothing should be a problem at MEPS and I should be ready to ship out to basic the following day. So there I was at MEPS and the medical doctor there was a real piece of work, looking back on it though I guess I understand his reasoning and it wasn’t meant to be. My eyesight didn’t meet any of their uncorrected standards and that I would be a hazard to everyone if I lost my glasses in combat. I was like but I just want to work an office/desk job surely I don’t need uncorrected vision for that. Nope, he was not having any of it. He disqualified me amongst every branch of the military and laughed when he said, “You can try to petition this to the surgeon general, but I doubt you’ll get it approved. Do yourself a favor stay on the ground and find something else to do with your life.”

The idea of being a trucker first entered my head when I was 23 after I was laid off from the company I used to work for back in 2008. It was totally unexpected and I was unprepared for it. For the first time in my life, I didn’t know what to do. I considered advancing my career into driving more. I went to visit a few truck driving schools and got scared away when I went for a test drive in one of them. The instructor was nice but when I saw his fancy footwork with the clutch and then timing it with his shifts I was like nope! I have never driven a stick before so how am I ever going to grasp that concept. Besides my grandmother made sure I wouldn’t have enough money for trucking school by increasing my rent on me whenever she pleased. She must have felt so good when she said I would have to pay for my own training when I was unemployed and not making any money.

I put the idea aside and went back to college to see what else I could do with my life. I ended up being a Math tutor at the college and had the unique opportunity of being able to work at the same college I attended.  It was there where I met the love of my life, my fiancé, whom has been so encouraging, patient, and supportive in whatever I do.

Hey Ron I just graduated from there 2 weeks ago. Probably ran into you out in the yard at school and didn't even know it. Good luck with your test at the DMV. How come your waiting 1 1/2 weeks to take the test? I ended up going with Swift. Just finished up orientation and waiting for a mentor to go out with. God luck to you!

1 1/2 weeks were there earliest options. :\ I tried asking for earlier but they didn't have anything available. Oh well, this gives me a little time to find some other trucking companies besides Werner. I just want to know what some of my other options are before I make my final decision. I do like that Werner has the tuition reimbursement plan up to $7,000 and $450/week training pay which will pretty much translate into about what I was making in my other job. Then after training once that goes up I'll be a happy camper. :) However, I want to see if there are other companies out there that I missed.

Hello, I just finished up my school from Roadmaster Truck Driving School in Fontana, CA. I will be taking my CDL Driving Exam in about 1 1/2 weeks to finish attaining my license. Currently I have my Class A permit with all endorsements including HazMat. Now this school is on the Werner Terminal so it makes sense that all's they want to me go to is Werner. So I already have my pre-hire letter from them. However, I'm not to sure if I want to go with them as I have many other companies on my mind. Here's my list in order of priority:

Knight Transportation Schneider Gordon/Heartland Express U.S. Express Navajo

It's not that big of a list because I couldn't find anything closer to me online.

I am from Whittier, California if that helps anyone. If you know of any other companies that perhaps do local work that is also welcome as well. Keep in mind I am fresh out of trucking school. I Have had 3 prior years of experience driving charter buses though.