Comments By Dustyn A.

From what my class just covered a few days ago if you stay within 100 mile radius of your home terminal you are not required to keep track of your hours of service (100 hour rule), if you travel more then 100 mile radius then you are required to abide by the DOT regulations for hours of service. Im not sure if being a firefighter exempts you from the rules of service if you drive but I do know that firefighters are exempt from having a CDL so I would imagine that doesn't count. I would check the DOT websit/book for exact information.

Add up total on duty hours in the last 8 days from both jobs. If your at 70 hours or more you can not drive. If you have less than 70 you can drive after a 10 hour break till you hit your 70.

Also, do company sponsored programs have nicer/newer trucks to learn on? The trucks at my school seem to also have a host of problems (leaking air tanks, no ABS, the trucks have lots of cracks, and they several different brands) etc. The clutch/brake was also very (my foot was shaking trying hold the clutch in) difficult to hold. While I do see learning on older equipment as beneficial I also want to just learn the basics since I know in the real world I'll be driving vastly newer trucks.

So today in school we started driving and I had major problems with driving with the transmission, the truck were driving is a 1996 Peterblit with over 10 million miles (supposedly) the truck/transmission is old and even our instructors called them b**** for not being up to snuff. My main question is it easier to learn/drive with newer trucks? Towards the end of the day I was somewhat able to get the truck into gears but it (the truck) did like to be stuborn and not shift properly? Does anyone have any advice?

Thanks for the info Brett and Sly! Makes me feel a little bit better I'll have a job out of school. I'm hoping they don't change any other hiring criteria but I'm not going to worry about it.

I know a pre hire isn't a guarantee and I read the article on here stating that, do they do a second interview when your at orientation and then make a decision like most other jobs or is it really an actual orientation and they then verify everything I have told them when I applied? I was fully truthful on the applications and my background check should be fully clear. Thanks!

So I got pre hires from both Knight and Werner and I know they both offer two different home times. Knight offers 10-14 days on and 2-3 home and after 3 or 4 months on that program they could get me on a dedicated route with 7 on and 7 off or 14 on and 7 off. Werner told me they could offer me a dedicated route right out of school and be on the road for 6 or 7 and home for 1 or 2. Does anyone have any advice to help me possibly choose one after school? Ideally I would like to be driving in and around Colorado and stay west of here. I was considering Roehl as well since they offer a program similar to Knight but I don't think they have a terminal in Denver like the other two. Any advice?

I went with WIA here in Colorado Springs CO through the workforce center it took me less then 2 weeks to get the grant. I had paperwork at the wazoo and they were pretty stringent on being at the required workshops and appointments but was overall easy and my caseworker is great to work with.

I would look at local training schools (in community schools or an independent approved one) that may not be a company sponsored one. I called a local private school and they referred me to a grant the employment office had that is paying for my tuition in full, I think the grant I got that is paying for my school is a federal grant administered through the federal government and while there was paperwork I got in less then two weeks. I'm not sure if you can find this program in California or not but it's worth looking into.

Also as for company programs you could look at Knight transportation and Swift, they both are based in Phoenix not to far and both look like superb programs. Good luck!

I would put it on there only if they want that information from the past 12 years or more, if they only want felony stuff from the past 10 years or sooner I wouldn't check the box, I recently took a resume class at the county employment office and the instructor said if they they want misdemeanor information from the past 10 years then only give/tell them about that if it was within the past 10 years. If they put a time frame on it then they only care about that time frame. If they don't say a specif time frame I would click the box to be upfront about it.

I had planned on being up front about the careless driving ticket and I don't feel it being a major obstacle being it was over 3 years ago and the companies I'm looking at don't seem to look beyond the 3 year threshold for it. I'm more worried about the ticket I got today for it though, Knight Transportation has in there qualifications "No serious traffic violations in the last 6 months. Serious traffic violations include: Reckless Driving, Speeding >15 over, following too closely, failing to obey traffic control device, erratic driving or improper lane change" the failing to obey traffic control device kind of confuses me if missing a U Turn sign qualifies for this, it really wasn't serious, I didn't run a stop light, wasn't speeding there was no one on the road. I guess I should rephrase is having a ticket like this right before getting a job going to be a problem? Except for the two things I mentioned I have a clean driving record, clean background, and a stable work history.