Profile For Hacksaw

Tuition is paid and all requirements are met to start my 8 week journey to getting my CDL. Class starts 8/13/2018. I met one of the instructors today and look forward to getting started next Monday. I will keep a diary here and do my best to communicate my experiences (and get feedback from y'all). Exciting stuff. Let the journey begin!

Awesome thread! Great job Don. I am currently in correspondence with CFI about possibly using them for my CDL licencing. I had originally planned to go to a tech school here locally in the Florida panhandle (and are still currently scheduled to start Aug 13th) but may take up with CFI after reading a lot of great stuff here on the forum. Again... excellent and thorough thread about what I may have to look forward to. Thanks Don!

Have you tried CFI. They would give you a shot. They would also train you for free. You would just have to drive for them for one year. Easy peasy. I was trained by them and have been solo with them for over a year. You have to get your DOT medical and CDL permit first, however they will reimburse you for the costs of those. In the Training Diaries section you can find several CFI training diaries, including mine. You can search CFI or any company in our search bar at the top of this page. We have someone here who got his start with Carolina Cargo. He loved his time there.

No, I have not Scott. I will check them out now though. Thanks for the lead!!

That's awesome Bill. Chipley is where I am going to CDL school in August. Going to be commuting to Florida Panhandle Technical College for 8 weeks.

Hey Jesse,

I'm just up the interstate in Chipley. Good luck/.

That's where I got my CDL. Went through Aug-Oct it was hot as hell. Drink lots of water and be prepared to sweat your tail off. Say hi to Kevin and Otis for me, if they are still teaching...

Wow, very cool to meet someone local on here already. I did get to talk to Kevin briefly when I was getting ready to enroll. I will tell them!! :)

That's awesome Bill. Chipley is where I am going to CDL school in August. Going to be commuting to Florida Panhandle Technical College for 8 weeks.

Hey Jesse,

I'm just up the interstate in Chipley. Good luck/.

Just ignore the bad reviews. I started at Western Express. The reviews had me fearing I was going to work for Satan's spawn. People who can't seem to make it as truck drivers would certainly make great fiction writers!

Thanks Old School! I would definitely prefer to be solo. I just listened to the podcast about Terminal Rats... didn't even think about that as I was reading all the reviews.

Well that is good news to me then. I was caught off guard by the high number of bad reviews I found while looking into them. If anyone knows the people on the forum who work for there now or in the past I would love to talk with them.

Carolina Cargo is a good company. There are a few here, that work, or have worked for them. PTL is also a good place to work.

One rule of thumb, especially in the trucking industry : take company reviews with a 1/4 grain of salt. 90% of the complaints are by people that failed, and refuse to accept personal responsibility for their careers.

Just kidding with the subject line to get attention hopefully. I have been on the site for about three months and have been amazed at all the great resources. Thank you to all who put this together! I went through the High Road Training (permit portions) and breezed through the tests to get my permit with a tanker and double/triple endorsement. I have just enrolled in CDL school at a local tech college (far cheaper than many other schools I looked at) and start August 13th, 2018 to finish on October 18th, 2018. I do have a criminal record but that life is pretty far behind me now. I did have one incident in a fight with the wife in 2016 but the charges were dropped... everything else is all over 10 years old including two felonies. Finding work isn't anything new to me and I have felt the sting from my old life come to haunt me a few times. My employment record has been great for the past 7 years though and I have some great references. I have done a lot of scouring the internet about trucking companies that will hire me and I have already started filling out some applications. I have a friend who works for Werner that also might be able to help me out. My question for you guys... I have heard horror stories about the two companies that will almost definitely give me a shot (Carolina Cargo and Paschall Truck Lines) but I am wanting to get in somewhere that I can stay with for years to come. I would like to learn well and develop as a driver in a good environment. Any recommendations? Thanks in advance for taking the time to reply!