How Did You Learn To Drive

Sorry I wasn't very clear on my last comment. I think it is the company for me.. I know my **** up os on me. It just doesnt define me and has no reflection on the man I am now.

Jerry, you should read this Local Food Service as a Rookie . You are looking at jumping into trucking the hard way. Sure you could do it. Just be ready for hard work out the gate. The link I provided is by one of our active members who went through a dock to driver position. It can be done, however, that is the hard way to jump into trucking. Good luck.

Jerry, I'm not sure what your goals are. If for now, it is just a short term goal to get your CDL , then this approach may work. I just want you to be forewarned about a common problem we've seem happen many times to folks who take this path into the trucking industry. You are starting with a local small company who is quite possibly communicating some not so accurate information to the insurance company that is going to be covering you. They can get away with it as long as you don't have an accident. When (not if) you have your first incident/accident, where there is a police report required, you will probably get thrown under the bus by the company that seems so willing to help you right now. These smaller outfits are willing to take a chance on a new driver knowing that they are kind of disposable. When a new driver with no evidence of training or experience screws up, they get tossed out and the company moves on to the next one, willing to take their chances again. They simply cannot afford to keep that driver on board at the outrageous rate the insurance company is going to charge them.

You may think, "Well that isn't that big of a concern to me, at least I will have my CDL at that point." Here's the problem with that approach. None of the major trucking companies consider local work as "experience." Well, maybe I shouldn't use the word "none," but it is very unusual for a person who has a CDL and no recent verifiable OTR experience to be able to land a job in the industry. Now, if you don't mind skirting around on the edges of the industry, and seeking out jobs that are questionable to many professional drivers, then you may be well satisfied with your approach. I think you would be far better off to have long term goals that will set you up with a much brighter future in trucking. I taught my children to never allow the "tyranny of the urgent" to dictate their decisions and choices in life. That seems to me to be exactly what you are doing here in your situation. You don't even want to practice the small amount of patience it takes to wait until January, which is only a couple of months from now. It just seems very short sighted to me. You may well be able to find local jobs in your area that pay a decent wage, but if you were to take a professional approach to this you could possibly make $80,000 dollars or more as an annual income. Using your approach I would bet you are going to be limiting your income to somewhere down in the $40,000 dollar range and have the usual frustrations of working for small trucking company operations. Those frustrations include poor maintenance of equipment, pushing drivers to exceed their legal working hours, and having to do a lot of physical labor that usually brings about serious wear and tear on your body, and sometimes even workplace injuries.

Millis is all around a great company. My father worked for them before he picked up local work. I think it would be well worth your wait to go after the holidays. But that's up too you. Those food service companies can be some hard work and a good amount of mom and pops are shady. If local is more of you're goal I'd say check out the big ltl's like FedEx, old Dominion, ups etc for Linehaul positions. Alot of those companies are now offering training of their own. Good luck

It was very easy for me to ride

Thanks for the advice I'm not set on getting it without school just wanted to see what the general consensus is on that route. I have an interview with ups for seasonal help hoping having my cdl permit might help me with something long term with them. If not Millis is where I would like to try and start. My job just ended so now I'm setting at home and want to get to work as soon as possible so that may not be driving a truck right now. But I do understand what y'all are saying and surely know I dont have it all figured out.

Hello friends,

My name is Joe and I am from New York. I would like to know if an 8 week 304 hour school is appropriate for finding work in this business.

152 hours classroom/152 hours driving instruction. Company sponsored training no longer appeals to me because of their degree mill type way of doing business. It's not in depth compared to a private school.

The school I am interested in is called Commercial Driver Training, www.cdtschool.com

Welcome Joe.

The short answer about CDL training is simple. There isn't much you can learn about driving a truck by sitting in a classroom or watching videos. You have to get out there and do it. Not only that, but do you want to pay a ton of money so you can spend months sitting in a parking lot practicing or would you rather get out on the road and learn your trade in the real world while you're getting paid for it?

Also, think about what you said:

Company sponsored training no longer appeals to me because of their degree mill type way of doing business

Joe, the school you're about to pay for is going to make their money off of you before you even step into the classroom. The cheaper they can train you the more money they make. Then, once you graduate, you're out of there. You're not their problem anymore. If you can drive worth a darn it doesn't really matter. They've made their money.

Joe, these Paid CDL Training Programs are paying you to learn how to drive so you can drive their trucks. Don't you think they're very, very interested in making sure you're trained the right way? They're investing their money in you up front. They don't make any money from training you unless you go on to become a safe and productive driver for them for at least one year following your training.

So think about that for a minute. Would you rather pay someone to train you that has no long term interest in your success, or would you rather be paid while you're being trained by someone who is financially obligated to make sure you go on to become a successful driver for them?

We're in the middle of a long conversation on this topic now. Have a look here:

Five Month Professional Driver Program??

Also, I did a podcast on this topic. Check it out:

Episode 5: Why Is Truck Driver Training Done In Such A Rush?

Part of Joe’s first post:

Company sponsored training no longer appeals to me because of their degree mill type way of doing business. It's not in depth compared to a private school.

Welcome Joe.

Not gonna be that easy. Please expand on the above claim; false on several levels. But please, enlighten us...what do you base that on? And how did you come to this conclusion?

With my PERMIT at Prime i was out delivering loads OTR and did almost 10k miles. so how much more in depth can you get????