Finally Did It. No Longer Just A Spectator
Topic 20023 | Page 1
Is this great local company going to give you a 160 hour training certificate?
Congrats. I second what Susan said about the 160hr certificate. Without it, if you ever decide to go OTR it will be very difficult. A lot of OTR companies don't consider local driving as qualifying experience. If you were to decide to ever change companies you may be stuck starting at square 1 without having that training certificate.
OTR:
Over The Road
OTR driving normally means you'll be hauling freight to various customers throughout your company's hauling region. It often entails being gone from home for two to three weeks at a time.
Is this great local company going to give you a 160 hour training certificate?
Make sure whatever school they put you through to train you has a BARE MINIMUM 160 hrs of instruction. Susan is right about this. MOST companies wont even touch you when you have your CDL unless you have that 160hr minimum certificate.
CDL:
Commercial Driver's License (CDL)
A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:
- Any combination of vehicles with a gross combined weight rating (GCWR) of 26,001 or more pounds, providing the gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of the vehicle being towed is in excess of 10,000 pounds.
- Any single vehicle with a GVWR of 26,001 or more pounds, or any such vehicle towing another not in excess of 10,000 pounds.
- Any vehicle, regardless of size, designed to transport 16 or more persons, including the driver.
- Any vehicle required by federal regulations to be placarded while transporting hazardous materials.
Ok i should re phrase that. they seem great idk yet they talked a pretty good gig so we will see. And as far as the training i know i will be with one for a few months im not sure if they are able to give me a certificate. However with my current family situation i will be willing to take a local job and have to take a 160 certificate course if i go over the road later on.
Over The Road:
Over The Road
OTR driving normally means you'll be hauling freight to various customers throughout your company's hauling region. It often entails being gone from home for two to three weeks at a time.
Ok i should re phrase that. they seem great idk yet they talked a pretty good gig so we will see. And as far as the training i know i will be with one for a few months im not sure if they are able to give me a certificate. However with my current family situation i will be willing to take a local job and have to take a 160 certificate course if i go over the road later on.
If you do end up going OTR , have you given a thought about what company you want to go with?
- Truck Driver's Career Guide
- Brett's Book: The Raw Truth About Trucking (free online version)
- High Road Training Program
Theres the welcome packet that will help you pass your permit tests and make sure you read Brett's Book to see if this is really for you.
Those will help you if you want to find a company that will pay for your training in exchange for working for them for a set period of time, usually one year. We recommend that you stick with your first company at least one year before switching. The next link is if you want to go through a private school and pay your tuition up front and have no contract. Some companies will also reimburse you on the cost of the tuition if you go through this route as long as the school you go through is one that is approved by your company and has a MINIMUM of 160 hrs of instruction. Also if you go the local route and decide you want to go OTR, you can use the last link there once you have your CDL and see if a company will hire you with limited experience.
CDL:
Commercial Driver's License (CDL)
A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:
- Any combination of vehicles with a gross combined weight rating (GCWR) of 26,001 or more pounds, providing the gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of the vehicle being towed is in excess of 10,000 pounds.
- Any single vehicle with a GVWR of 26,001 or more pounds, or any such vehicle towing another not in excess of 10,000 pounds.
- Any vehicle, regardless of size, designed to transport 16 or more persons, including the driver.
- Any vehicle required by federal regulations to be placarded while transporting hazardous materials.
OTR:
Over The Road
OTR driving normally means you'll be hauling freight to various customers throughout your company's hauling region. It often entails being gone from home for two to three weeks at a time.
Over The Road:
Over The Road
OTR driving normally means you'll be hauling freight to various customers throughout your company's hauling region. It often entails being gone from home for two to three weeks at a time.
HOS:
Hours Of Service
HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.
Congratulations. Good luck.
Ok i should re phrase that. they seem great idk yet they talked a pretty good gig so we will see. And as far as the training i know i will be with one for a few months im not sure if they are able to give me a certificate. However with my current family situation i will be willing to take a local job and have to take a 160 certificate course if i go over the road later on.
The certificate is one you should enquire about - but most in-house local stuff, usually doesn't issue one.
Keep in mind - the 160 hour certificate is an FMCSA Rule that is under review, but not actually a "regulation" - YET. But OTR companies have been looking at this as the "magic number" for a quite a few years already.
Also, as others have mentioned - most OTR companies do not consider "local driving" (as in, home every night) as OTR experience - because there is a big difference in local/multi-stop driving, and long distance driving entailing being out for weeks. If you opted to go OTR later on, you would still end up having to get some training (probably go right into a PSD or onboarding situation, where you get road tested, then sent out for 30K miles with a trainer running team - depending on how long you were driving local).
Keep us posted in the Training Diaries Section on how they do their training. It'll be interesting to see the differences in how local trains, versus OTR.
Keep in mind, most local gigs require some dock work, and usually driver unloads - so get ready to WORK.
Congrats and best of luck to you...
Rick
OTR:
Over The Road
OTR driving normally means you'll be hauling freight to various customers throughout your company's hauling region. It often entails being gone from home for two to three weeks at a time.
Over The Road:
Over The Road
OTR driving normally means you'll be hauling freight to various customers throughout your company's hauling region. It often entails being gone from home for two to three weeks at a time.
CSA:
Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA)
The CSA is a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) initiative to improve large truck and bus safety and ultimately reduce crashes, injuries, and fatalities that are related to commercial motor vehicle
FMCSA:
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
The FMCSA was established within the Department of Transportation on January 1, 2000. Their primary mission is to prevent commercial motor vehicle-related fatalities and injuries.
What Does The FMCSA Do?
- Commercial Drivers' Licenses
- Data and Analysis
- Regulatory Compliance and Enforcement
- Research and Technology
- Safety Assistance
- Support and Information Sharing
Fm:
Dispatcher, Fleet Manager, Driver Manager
The primary person a driver communicates with at his/her company. A dispatcher can play many roles, depending on the company's structure. Dispatchers may assign freight, file requests for home time, relay messages between the driver and management, inform customer service of any delays, change appointment times, and report information to the load planners.PSD:
Prime Student Driver
Prime Inc has a CDL training program and the first phase is referred to as PSD. You'll get your permit and then 10,000 miles of on the road instruction.
The following is from Prime's website:
Prime’s PSD begins with you obtaining your CDL permit. Then you’ll go on the road with a certified CDL instructor for no less than 75 hours of one-on-one behind the wheel training. After training, you’ll return to Prime’s corporate headquarters in Springfield, Missouri, for final CDL state testing and your CDL license.
Obtain CDL Permit / 4 Days
- Enter program, study and test for Missouri CDL permit.
- Start driving/training at Prime Training Center in Springfield, Missouri.
- Work toward 40,000 training dispatched miles (minimum) with food allowance while without CDL (Food allowance is paid back with future earnings).
On-the-Road Instruction / 10,000 Miles
- Train with experienced certified CDL instructor for 3-4 weeks in a real world environment.
- Get 75 hours of behind-the-wheel time with one-on-one student/instructor ratio.
- Earn 10,000 miles toward total 40,000 miles needed.
Congratulations on finding the right fit for you and your family. I wouldn't worry about the certificate if you think this local gig will work out well for you. It's not often that someone is burning to go from a local job to OTR.
Best of luck to you!
OTR:
Over The Road
OTR driving normally means you'll be hauling freight to various customers throughout your company's hauling region. It often entails being gone from home for two to three weeks at a time.
It's not often that someone is burning to go from a local job to OTR.
Ha ha yes agree with this. This is not heard of very often. Also Best of luck to you in your new adventure keep everyone updated and please do a training diary as I too would be interested to get an inside view of how a local company does training vs. an OTR company.
OTR:
Over The Road
OTR driving normally means you'll be hauling freight to various customers throughout your company's hauling region. It often entails being gone from home for two to three weeks at a time.
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Well after alot of years im not sure even how many i have been on here without looking. I can finally say i am now starting my driving career. Found a great local company willing to hire and train me.Put in my two weeks today!Excited and Nervous is about all i can think about.