Comments By Florida Phil

Again, thank you so much to everyone who had been kind enough to reply to my questions. Your personal accounts shed some much needed light onto this new path I find myself embarking on.

Thank you everyone for your replies. Truly do appreciate your detailed answers.

Work history

How do I prepare for this?

Sure I have all my W-2's from the past 10 years but what I don't have is accurate contact info to all my previous employers. Is it my responsibility to go out and obtain accurate contact to hand over to a recruiter, so that they can go out & verify my work history?

Greetings everyone,

I am asking of you to take a trip down memory lane and try to remember that first interview you underwent for your first real trucking job. Although I am many weeks away from finding myself in this scenario I do like to research before hand and try to visualize myself going through the motions.

So, let's say you are a recent grad w/ CDL A in hand and no experience. How does the interview go? I am sure it's by phone but with smart phones being prevalent can SKYPEing or iPhone FACETIME be implemented as a way of providing a more intimate interview experience? What are some standard type questions and can you remember and left-field questions that caught on off guard?

Dude, no problem.

There is a lot of knowledge to be gained on this website alone! The members of this forum are quite friendly, sincere, and honest. Feel free to ask any and all questions. Any advise from Brett Aquila is golden, so I recommend seeking out any articles and the such with his name attached to it.

Hey, there Rick.

I happen to be a newbie to this forum. I recently passed my permit test as well as all endorsements (tanker, D/T, HAZMAT) on the first try. I, too, am the type of student that must re-read materiel in order to fully absorb the knowledge in front of me. My primary source of study materiel was my state's CDL handbook. This websites CDL training tools complimented my primary source materiel very nicely. Shoot, I'll go out on limb and say that I'm quite sure I would have passed the permits exams solely studying High Road CDL materiel. Yea, it's that good! I personally completed ONLY 54% of the High Road training program. I did not complete 100% the High Road Training program because I wanted to thoroughly study my state's handbook.

Here was my routine for preparing for the exams:

-studied CDL handbook

-made flash cards

-practiced High Road program

-took several practice test online

I studied for approximately 8 months. Yes, I know that's a bit excessive but I wanted to be more than prepared for the permits tests. I have never been inside a tractor nor am I mechanically inclined which is why I chose to study that much.

If you can afford to take it slow then do so. If you cannot then I have faith you will succeed under the pressure of time constraints.

Wuz'up Bill,

Happy to hear you start driving school Nov. 21. I see that you had considered attending company sponsored CDL school yet decided to pay out of pocket. Am I understanding that correctly? If so, would you share your reasons as to why? Just curious is all. I ask because I myself had considered that route but decided to pay out of pocket.

Hey, Patrick.

Thanx for your time and input. If I graduate from private CDL school, paid out of pocket, I simply present my receipts to the company I sign on with? I mean, I'll have official print outs from the cashiers office at the community college I'll be graduating from and the such.

Greetings everyone,

I see that companies who DO and DO NOT offer Company Sponsored CDL Training promote Tuition Reimbursement. Does this apply to new CDL holders whom are hired on immediately after completing private CDL school? In other words, after I complete my program at a local community college my new employer will reimburse me my tuition? Am I understanding this correctly?

That depends on your company system. At Swift, trainees are paid by the hour: On Duty Driving and On Duty Not Driving time. The miles, all of them, go to the trainer. The Driving time is what gets you out of training when you hit 400 miles.

Hey, Errol. Is ON DUTY when the trainee is behind the wheel and using his personal clock? Also, without prying too much what were the wages like? No offense taken should you not wish to divulge. What is considered ON DUTY TIME NOT DRIVING and is there any time when you do not get paid whatsoever?

Nice to meet you, Old school. Greatly appreciate the anecdote. Your words of wisdom do not fall on deaf ears. Personally speaking I do not have a preference whether I fall into a SOLO or TEAM training set-up. I came across these options when researching companies here on TT and I simply wanted the forum to respond.....and respond it has! I pray to the heavens that when it comes time for me to step into that trainers truck that it will be a human who is as eager to bestow their knowledge & wisdom on to me as I am to absorb their teachings.