Another Newbie Here

Hello, and thank you for this page. My wife and I have been going through all the information here and it has been very helpful.

We are both older. I will be 58 next month and my wife is 50. I have a great job as a gunsmith here in Idaho at a large training facility and indoor range, but don't have any health insurance. The wife has a crappy job that doesn't pay much more than minimum wage and also has no health insurance, so we have decided to take a different route.

At the end of this week we leave on a Grey Hound bus headed to Keenesburg, CO for CDL school. We will then be going to Oklahoma City for orientation with CRST. At the end of training we will be team driving with each other. We have had many concerns along the way, but have been able to put most of them to rest. The two that bothers us most are that in doing our research we have found that CRST has been sued several times for allowing male trainers to sexually assault and even rape trainees with little or no recourse against them. We have been assured that she will be paired with a female trainer once we start out on our 28 days on the road. If they don't hold true to this, I'm afraid it will be a deal breaker for us. We'll just get back on the bus and come on back home.

Our other concern is being able to pay our current bills while in school. We have all the usual, a truck payment, rent, a credit card, medical, and she has child support. We have been told that once we get out with a trainer we will start getting paid, at least a little. Our worry is just how much will than amount to? Will it be enough to cover our expenses on the road and pay bills? Do they pay on time like they say they will?

We have no intention of going into this with all kinds of demands on the company we work for. We just want to get through training, work hard and put some money back in our retirement account so that in five or six years we can sit back in a shack on the sand some where and enjoy life. Any advice on either one of these subjects or just advice in general is more than welcome.

We'll keep you posted as to how things progress;

Fred & Mable

Hi, Dan, welcome to Trucking Truth. It's great you have looking into your new career. You might want to take a look at all the resources we aher, dedicated to new and rookie drivers. Tap on the three-bar menu at the top left, then explore away!

On other web places, it's just so easy to find horror stories of every kind. The way you quoted someones story about CRST,

allowing male trainers to sexually assault and even rape trainees with little or no recourse against them

is an example. Trust me, no company would allow this. True, some instructors might try this but any company will get them walking papers the same day if they found out. "Allow" is not operative here.

As for pay, all but the smallest companies have the resources to get paychecks out on time. Yes, you and they may disagree on a particular dispatch, but that will get straightened out with a phone call or two.

I drive for Swift. I did get some pay as soon as I started driving with my trainer. It's close to minimum wage, but I got paid. Once you start First Seat you can look for quite a bit more.

Here are some things to help you get started:

• Truck Driver's Career Guide
• Brett's Book: The Raw Truth About Trucking (free online version)
• High Road CDL Training Program
• CDL Practice Tests

You can enter "team" in the search box above to see everything that mentions team driving. And this forum will get you custom answers to any question you may have.

I went thru training at Careers World Wide in Keenesburg myself, a bit more than two years ago. Got my CDL and started with CRST, too.

Welcome aboard!! First of all I wouldn't worry myself too much over any past troubles the company may have had or the lawsuit. I can pretty much assure you that no company would allow anything like that to happen without swift action being taken. I don't know the details of the CRST lawsuit, but they seem to be a pretty solid company. I honestly never really see their trucks sitting anywhere so it seems they have plenty of freight and plenty of miles, which in turn means bigger checks for you. Best of luck and I am looking forward to your updates.

Well, we are now in our second week of training at Careers World Wide in Keenseburge, Colorado. We arrived here last Saturday and they placed US in separate houses. That was a bummer, but not unexpected. We were told that since we were a married couple that will be driving together they would try to move us into our own apartment. True to their word, on Monday they put us together in our own apartment. This has been great, because it allows us to study together without the distractions you face in a house full of strangers, some of which are not all that interested in studying.

We both passed our DOT physicals on Monday, took our cal permit tests on Wednesday and both passed them too. So, we're on our way! We spent the rest of the week learning pre-trip and straight line backing. Both of us picked it up pretty quick. Today (day one of week two) We started out with just the two of us in a truck with an instructor out on the road. Bill was super patient teaching us to shift and how to make our turns. After lunch we started alley backing, fun, fun, fun! We'll be working on both of these most of the rest of the week.

So far the school has been great! If you come here be prepared to work. There's not much down time. Also, study, study, study before you get here. We've lost people for several reasons. Some can't pass the cal permit tests, some failed to pass the drug test, and some refused to follow the school rules of No Alcohol. They are serious about this one. You can't possess, purchase, or consume alcohol while here in school. First offense and you get sent home. We started with 20 people. We are now down to 8 and I expect we will loose another one tomorrow.

Got homework to do, so we'll post more later.

So, yesterday my wife and I graduated from Careers World Wide in Colorado. We are now newbie class A CDL holders. Tomorrow we leave for Oklahoma City and orientation with CRST.

The training here and the instructors were great. The facilities and equipment could stand to be updated. All of the yard trucks need work. Of course you don't expect them to be 100%, because after all they are yard trucks and don't get put on the rode. But, things like drivers seat adjustments, clutch breaks, air pressure leaks really should be fixed, as they slow down or hinder training. The apartments all need a really good cleaning and repairs. Smoke alarms not functioning, hanging from the ceiling by wire, dirty carpets, blinds, ceiling fans and broken pots/pans. All of these could be easily fixed by having a cleaning crew come in between classes.

On the positive side, the instructors were all great.They took their time and showed unbelievable patience with each student. The pace was very fast and you had to work hard to keep up! The evaluators on the skills test were more than fare. All in all, it was a good experience and we learned a lot. I would recommend this school to anyone coming into the field. Keenesburg is very small so make sure you bring everything you need with you. By the way, we started with about 20 in our class. We had 7 graduate, Some couldn't follow the no alcohol rules and got sent home, Some couldn't pass the permit tests, Some failed drug testing or had criminal histories they didn't disclose and a couple failed the final skills test. On this they will recycle you one week and give you extra practice before testing again, but if you fail again, with rare exceptions, you get sent home.

Will keep you posted concerning our adventures in OK City!

Their trainer trucks are lacking, but they can get you through the basics. While I was there, we had the same daily problems. I think our class was like 15, and only one got sent home, aftet failing every test at the DMV 3 times each! She still wouldn't study. We also had one guy get held back a week for extra instruction. Congratulations to you both!

Good luck to you both and I hope it all works out and you can begin to make a decent living, I am at CFI in Joplin in Missouri and very pleased so far with all that they have to offer. CFI is upfront with all that is expected and required of students and has a good reputation as a company. I am happy with my choice and have begun a diary that will detail all my experiences with them, be sure to check it out. Be safe and learn all you can.