Here Are My Ten Choices For Company-sponsored CDL Training

Hello trucking truth users,

I have ten choices for company-sponsered CDL training and would like some insight/feedback with these choices. If anyone of you had ever or is working for one of these companies, what are your views/opinions.

Thank you for your responses and knowledge in advance.

Here are my choices:

1. C.R. England 2. Knight Transportation 3. MCT Transportation, LLC 4. Millis Transfer, INC. 5. Roehl 6. Stevens Truck 7. Swift Transportation 8. XPO Logistics 9. YRC Freight 10. U.S. Express

XPO and YRC are usually dock to driver and they have pick up and delivery or line haul positions. Other than that try looking at these.

• Trucker's Career Guide: Choosing A Truck Driving School
• Article Category: Choosing A Truck Driving School
• Forum Topics Tagged "Choosing A Truck Driving School"

• Trucker's Career Guide: Choosing Your First Truck Driving Job
• Article Category: Finding The Right Truck Driving Job
• Forum Topics Tagged "Choosing A Trucking Company"

I attended Roehl several years ago. It was a top notch school with low student to trainer ratio. After I was hired I had 2 awesome road trainers. I have a friend who just finished at Stevens Transport. They contract with a private school. She said it was top notch. She had 1 road trainer, she didn’t speak very highly of. She was at the headquarters and met several other students that just finished. Seems all the road trainers these students had all received extremly little backing time while in training. After comparing notes all these trainers were lease operators and didn’t want the students burning their fuel. I find this unacceptable. It is their job to train the students completly and they are being paid to do it. I don’t know anything about the others on your list. I’m sure others will chime in shortly. Best wishes.

Professor_Eye_M, here's the first problem you're going to face - those 10 companies aren't all going to offer you a job. People hear that truckers are in demand so they assume they can work anywhere they like. I get emails seven days a week from people saying, "These three companies rejected me but won't say why. I have a perfect driving and background record. What gives???"

I have no idea what gives. Companies will scour your background and talk to you on the phone and then decide if they want to offer you a position or not. There is no shortage of candidates, I can assure you. Some of the large carriers only hire 1 or 2 applicants for every 50 applications they receive.

What I recommend is to decide what type of freight you'd like to haul and how often you'd like to be home. Then apply to every company that meets that criteria to see who will actually offer you a position. Then decide between those companies, if indeed there is more than one. Don't waste your time pondering all these companies when you have no idea who will hire you or not. Apply first, then decide from those who offer you a position.

You can apply to multiple company-sponsored programs here:

Apply For Paid CDL Training

Instead of spending your time pondering companies, spend your time preparing yourself for the beginning of training. Even if you get a position with a company, 50% of those who show up don't last the 3 weeks it takes to get their CDL. Even more don't make it through training on the road to go solo.

Go through these materials thoroughly:

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

Welcome

Steven's Transport doesn't hire out of California. They used to, but not now. Old School works for Knight Transportation he will chime in soon. Swift is good company also, hell they all are. I'm in mentor state now and have some 70 hours left until I upgrade. But in the end you have to make that decision it's the type of hauling you wa TV to do, amount of home time you need, weither you want to do 48 state or regional or dedicated. You have so many options to choose from. But again the deists yours to make. Then do you want dry van , refrigerated, flat bed, intermodal , even some local companies but you probably have to load or u load your merchandise. Read through all the links that Big Scott gave you. It will give you a much better understanding than I can give you. Did you look over the company reviews that are on here? Click on the 3 bars that are in the top left corner of the page and you come to the company reviews and you can see what is what. Talk to the recruiters of these companies, ask questions of them. Etc., etc, etc

Raptor

I hate autocorrect! If doesn't make sense then that is not what I intended to say.

Raptor

I hate autocorrect! If doesn't make sense then that is not what I intended to say.

Raptor

Turn off auto correct on your phone. If you use android it is in keyboard settings. Use the preview button before you hit send

Good luck to you Professor and welcome. Like youI I'm new to the trucking scene. I've applied with Prime but I am going to apply with all the companies through this website that Brett has provided, and see who might be interested in me. Being a newbie I don't have a lot to offer experience wise that is. But I know about hard work, committment and loyality. I am planning on going to school in May. Anyway, I hope you get what you're looking for, and find a place that's a good fit for you and the company you go with.

I tell people all the time that it's just not that critical what company you start with. I usually get some kick back from the people who are investing all sorts of energy into this effort as if I were from a foreign planet. They'll say something like, "Of course it matters! Where have you been? Haven't you seen how all these trucking companies are taking advantage of new drivers, using their cheap labor to make excessive profits, and then discarding them and replacing them with another group of newbies who didn't do their due diligence?"

There can be nothing more false than those assumptions. It's the bane of social media that people can keep such foolishness alive and thriving in our modern world. Rumors and lies have barbs in them that keep them hindering well meaning people in this industry in a way that is almost sickening.

All you need is to have an idea of what kind of trailer you want to pull at the beginning. Dry-van probably provides the least resistance as far as the difficult learning curve goes, and it certainly has the most drop and hook type work. There are plenty of companies hauling dry-van loads. If you get on with a large company that offers other types of freight in addition to dry-van, you could easily transfer over to another type of freight when you're ready for a change or a little different challenge.

You don't have to determine at the beginning who you want to work for the rest of your life. Your first job and your rookie year is where you just start learning what you're doing. Therefore the pressure to perform and do a great job is on you. It has little to do with the company. They need you to get the hang of things quickly, but they are going to depend on you to take that initiative. There is no company out there that can put that kind of determination and commitment in you.

Really successful truck drivers focus on their own efforts and results. Focusing too much on the company is how we got to this ridiculous idea that these companies are responsible for this mythical phenomenon of "driver churn." If their is such a thing, it is definitely caused by slackers and others who didn't realize they were going to have to have "skin in the game" to succeed at this career. Yeah, I said that. Driver churn is the result of poorly performing drivers - it has nothing to do with corporate greed.

Thank you everyone who had responded to my question with your wisdom and knowledge. As I'm a newbie on here, I'm not familiar with how to do add "quotes" from responses onto my reply.

To PJ and Raptor, I will be looking into some of the links Big Scott had posted on here to get a better fill about schools.

To Brett Aquila, I had venture into most of those links last night. I had especially read "Brett's Book: The Raw Truth About Trucking (free online version)." Even though it was only 88 pages, it was very, very, very insightful. It had really curved and narrowed my focus. I loved how it had breakdown between OTR , Regional , and Local. Furthermore, how it had breakdown between dry van , reefer , tanker, and let's not forget Dump Trucks. I had started reading this book around 10pm last night and finished around 2am with a throbbing headache (in a good way due to soaking up every word into my rookie-sized brain). It's not that I'm a slow reader, I wanted to envision and have a great understanding with every word. I didn't want to skim through it like the average joe and at the end, feel like I'm now Mr. Know It All. When I had posted this forum, I wasn't aware of this book and my choices were oblivious. After reading the book, I had re-approached my choices, it's now a totally different viewpoint with different questions to ask myself. I kind of feel dumb now for posting this forum because I'm learning now it's not about what school/company you go to, it's all about the mindset and the willingness to know that this industry is a HYPER-COMPETITIVE industry and you have to keep those wheels turning to make money. Oh yeah, let's not forget about attitude. I had witness through YouTube videos, there are a lot of negative mindsets on the road and so many videos on how people quit the company because of A, B, and C. Not sure why? After reading that book, now I have an idea as to why. I can see trucking isn't for everyone. Not to throw out my life story out there, which I won't right now, but I think trucking is for me. Somehow when I had evaded that thought throughout my life because it sounded extremely intimidating, somehow I get re-approached with the idea, like BAM, a smack in the face. Rather it be through a conversation with someone out of nowhere or through a subliminal, lucid-based dream that I can't seem to explain (and this had happened countless of times). That internal feeling seems to follow me a lot lately. Maybe the time is now to follow that internal instinct that perhaps God and the universe are constantly throwing at me. I don't know, call me a spiritualist. I know trucking can't be that bad that to where I want to bash a company who had gave me a chance to get a CDL with no money down and a truck to make money and get the experience needed to solidify my career. I don't know. So much to learn, especially those logbooks lol.

To Doug C., I wish you nothing but the greatest of success in your trucking journey. My plans is to start in April 2019. From my research and understanding, it will be tough and bittersweet in the beginning as a rookie. At least for me as I have 0 experience on my end. Not sure if you have any experience with those big rigs. Hopefully we'll continue bumping into each other on here throughout our first year and give encouragement to one another. I'm sure we will need it.

To Old School, thank you for your response in my last forum and I had listen to both podcasts/recordings you had posted. After listening to them, I have to admit, I was discourage for a second. Not sure as to why? Maybe after reading Brett's book for about a few hours or so and suddenly listening to your recording, I think I was just overwhelmed. After with an adequate amount of sleep, I'd waken up this morning with a fresh perspective on things and I'm coming to understand that it doesn't matter if I go to a CDL school or go to a company-based CDL training. The reality is, it's all about your drive and motivation. True, going to a CDL school you're able to better hone into your skills, get more of training with adequate time, and get all the practice you need prior getting a CDL and going OTR versus going to a company-based CDL training and cramming about only a certain percentage of knowledge to you in such a short period of time (between 4-6 weeks, give or take) before going OTR. So there are pros and cons with both sides of the fence. It's all about knowing that this OTR lifestyle is right for you. And the only way I can find out is to take that leap of faith and JUST GO FOR IT! Hopefully, this all makes sense. I'm just a rookie with 0 experience whose only speaking for instincts, however, I am doing constant researching every chance I get. Rather it's reading this and that, watching YouTube videos of people praising companies or giving companies the middle finger, telling their opinions about the lifestyle on the road, or even watching videos of truck accidents. If it involves trucks, I'm absorbing as much as I can so once I'm accepted to a CDL school or company-based CDL training, I am more aware of what I'm getting myself into, than opposed to, not knowing a damn thing going into this head first, only to put my trustful heart and soul to those salespeople (The Recruiter), only to tell me what I want to hear. I surely don't want to get caught into the "Matrix."

Once again, thank you everyone for responding and I know I will have tons of more question along the way of my journey.