Comments By Jacob H.

I'll probably fly unless by the time they confirm my training date the tickets are over $500. Then my inner-frugality will take over and force me to take a 15-18 hour bus lol. Fortunately I can take the Megabus from Birmingham to Memphis to St. Louis and I'll only have to deal will Greyhound from St. Louis to Springfield. Glad to hear you are enjoying going solo! I noticed your truck and another drivers truck on here are full size. Is there a reason you got a full size truck? I'm hoping to get a lightweight for the extra pay.

Thanks for taking the time to create this diary Kori! It is great to read about your success. I am working on getting my training date for prime now, the plan is to start July 24th.

Thanks! Yes, I plan to complete the online application a day or two before I go in. Going in is just to get my name in the managers head and make a good impression to hopefully get my online application to the top of the stack :)

Haha thanks. I figured a button down shirt would suffice. I can proudly say I don't own wife beaters, sweat pants, or flip flops lol

One of the companies at the top of my list is Crete - if they accept drivers from your school, you may want to check them out. $550/wk for 8 weeks with a trainer, then 36cpm for 4 months, then 46cpm. This is on their 21 day out OTR dry van fleet, according to their website and their recruiter I spoke to. I have looked at Prime as well. Seems like a great company. Crete also has a refer division that pays a couple cpm more, called Shaffer.

I'm still ironing all the details out and sorting out my list of potential employers, and getting ready to go to CDL school in the next couple of months. I see there has been a Driver Trainee position in Birmingham AL for Southeastern Freight open for quite a while. I plan to go to the terminal and try to speak with the manager about the position, and give him a copy of my resume and whatnot rather that only apply online. What would you consider appropriate dress for that? I wear a tie everyday now, but I'm thinking that may overdo it a bit. Would a button down shirt and khakis be more appropriate? Every job interview I've had to date I've worn a suit, even for pushing buggies at Publix. I have never interviewed in the transportation industry though.

Thanks for your input!

I'm not looking to contact recruiters this early, as I can't start in this industry until next July (under contract in my current job until then). I have been looking at Roehl because of their focus on safety and excellent training that doesn't require team driving. Could someone tell me the CPM for dry van drivers right out of training? I would also like to know the max CPM for dry van and how long it takes to get their. I know they have a program based on performance, not just longevity.

Thanks for your answer Brett. I've had to think about not using my degree, and that is one reason I'm staying where I'm at for at least a few years. That way I'll have several years of experience at the Director level, which is what I'm at now, and can move to office positions in a trucking company if later on I want to stop driving.

But the sheer number of different positions available in trucking I think will keep me busy for a long time. I think I want to do OTR then local tanker or LTL and then drive a city bus to finish out my retirement fund, but the possibilities are truly endless in this industry, which is one thing I really like about it.

Thanks again for all the answers!

Yeah, I don't plan on having an apartment or anything, I plan on staying out on the road and staying with family/friends when I'm off (which will probably be every 3-4 months to keep my pay high and keep myself busy). And with home time being that infrequent, I could even just pick a cool city and stay in a hotel for a few days.

I'm pretty good with time management and planning, so I think I'll be OK in that realm. Hopefully the guy you are talking about will learn his lesson :) He reminds me of a guy I worked with at my last job. I would have my schedules and employee observations done on Monday, often by lunch, while he'd be scrambling to finish his before we closed Friday.

Thanks for your answer JakeBreak.