Company Paid Training Or No?

I've been looking into Swift and their Veteran Scholarship Program. Their website says they only offer 1000. Without talking to someone at Swift, I don't know how many they have left. The last few days, I've been looking into Maverick a bit. It doesn't look like they offer the CDL school, but I can cover that with my GI Bill. Their rookie payscale looks a bit better than Swift's. I'm saying Swift and Maverick only because they're the main two companies I'm looking at right this second. I'm definitely open to more options as I come across them. With the non-company paid training bringing in recruiters from various companies, I may find a completely different company. My main desire is a balance between rookie pay (I know it's going to be low with any company) and minimal down time between CDL school and orientation/driving. Thoughts? Thanks.

Are you planning on being out a lot? What reasons are you looking at them for?

William, I did the Swift Veterans "scholarship". I promise you, you be in that chosen 1000, no problem.

As for choosing companies, don't look at pay. It's all within pennies. (The difference of one cent, if you drove 2000 miles/week, is 20 bucks. Honestly that's not a big deal.

Look at other things that may be important: is team required? Home time policies? APU/ inverter? Regions covered? You really can't out a price in these.

HOS:

Hours Of Service

HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.

OOS:

When a violation by either a driver or company is confirmed, an out-of-service order removes either the driver or the vehicle from the roadway until the violation is corrected.

APU:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

I agree with Errol. The problem (at least for me) is mostly a team requirement (aka Celadon) which is a definite no-no. Not because I don't play well with others...but making $0.17cpm vs. $0.32 is huge. Granted your only driving half the time...but time is (after all) money.

Maverick has some great pay and benefits. The school is through a local community college and requires 6 or 8 months of service upon school completion. Their class size us limited to 12 so you may have to wait to get in. I talked to them on Monday and was told it might be Feb or March before I could get in.

I plan on being out however much is required to get paid. Time away from home is nothing new. I just mentioned Swift and Maverick because they are the first two I'm researching. Researching them is showing me things that I didn't know I need to look for in other companies. Once I feel confident I know enough about these two and what I need to look for in others, I'll be researching other companies. I just don't want to confuse myself too much right now. I won't even be able to attend CDL training until May/June since I'm still active duty military.

That actually brings up two more questions I thought of earlier.

#1. I've been reading about people showing up to training and being surprised with "hidden fees". If I pick a company that pays for the training, like Swift, would there be anything they don't cover other than a few meals, laundry, etc.? Would I need to bring a few hundred for some random test or background check?

#2. I have ZERO experience driving a manual. I would imagine I'm not the only one in this situation. Is the short training enough time to be able to pass the road test for a CDL?

Honestly I would go do it on my own. Now, I'm not a veteran, but I financed my training, and I was bent on going with maverick because they seem like one of the best companies out there for rookies. But then, the recruiter for Averitt express came in, and now I'm employed with them. I never even knew they hired rookies. Lol. Just my experience lol. And thank you for your service friend! Good luck out there with whatever you do.

And depending on where you're located, I attended TDI. I would recommend them to anyone. They trained me beyond what they were required to. They definitely care about training new drivers the best they can.

I'm currently stationed in Florida but will be going back to Texas toward the end of May. Swift's training is only about 20 miles from my house, and TDI is about an hour away in Dallas. I completely forgot about the permit. I may have missed it or forgotten, but do I need to get it before I attend training? If the training is in Texas, that's easy. If I go with an out-of-state company like Maverick, that's a whole different story.

Charlie Mac thinks:

$0.17cpm vs. $0.32 is huge. Granted your only driving half the time...but time is (after all) money.

Granted you're making money while you sleep! What's wrong with that?

It's better to think double on that 17¢. Since you and your partner split driving about 50/50, for every 11 hours you drive, you sleep 11 hours and still earn money. So it's more like 34¢ team, vs 32¢ solo for the same effort.