Greetings!!

Hey everyone. Just wanted to introduce myself on here. Hoping to get into a college program here in Austin Texas with the desire to acquiring my class A cdl. Looking for local work after that. I have a young family and wife to support so need to make some better money!

That profile photo looks familiar.

Hey! Yeah it was my old avatar from my last profile I had on here. My old one was hacked by the infamous Todd!

That profile photo looks familiar.

What do you mean it was hacked?

Hey Slim, welcome to our forum!

I commend you for putting in the effort to do better for your family. For me, that says a lot about your character. I want to encourage you to spend some time with us before jumping into your plan. If you really want this endeavor to turn into a successful career, I want to suggest a few alterations to your approach.

First off, we never recommend starting your trucking career as a local driver. We've got a few members who have pulled it off, but brother let me tell you, the odds are highly against you. We've seen countless people try to start out local. Most of them come and go with very short lived trucking careers. It's a really tough way to start. More on that in a minute.

Secondly, the college programs are drug out too lengthy just so they can get grant money for them. A typical standard timeframe for obtaining a class A CDL is a 160 hour course. That can be done in three or four weeks. There's no reason to spend an entire semester obtaining a CDL. The longer programs really give you nothing more to help you succeed. Either way you go about it you've got a license. You don't learn anything during that extra time that's going to help you adjust to the job.

We highly recommend the Paid CDL Training Programs. You won't be laying out your own money, the company has an investment in your success, and you have a guaranteed job upon successful completion of the training. It's all win win.

I'm sure you've looked into this already, and I may not be convincing you. That's okay, I have no agenda but your success. Nobody pays me to pimp these programs. I give free advice all the time, but it's been proven time and again to be worth a lot. Here's just a couple of article I want you to read. They will trigger some thoughts and questions for you. I recommend you have your wife read them also. Starting a trucking career is best done by sharing the research with your spouse and making the decision together. After reading these let's begin some dialogue. I know we can help you.

Why I Don't Recommend Starting Your Trucking Career Locally

Why I Prefer Paid CDL Training Programs Over Private Schools

I understand why you want to work locally. There's probably some great local jobs in your area. We teach best practices because we focus on success. The best path to a successful local driving career is by committing to one year as an over the road driver. It's the gold standard in the industry. Most local driving jobs require it as a prerequisite.

I understand you don't want to be away from your family, but if you want a long term successful career, that one year commitment will have a huge impact on that goal. There are even considerable OTR opportunities now that can get you home every weekend.

Read those articles, and let's keep a dialogue going. We only want to help you succeed. We have no other agenda.

Brett- by hacked I mean it was taken over by someone else who wasn’t me! I’m not sure how it happened tbh, but it did, somehow.

What due mean it was havked

Thank you old school for those two articles. I read them both and have no doubt that it is true. It’s a tricky situation that I am in, what with my wife in nursing school and working full time and trying to both raise to young kids!

I agree with you on this one. We both have be on the same page. It’s the only way I can be clear on going forward.

Starting a trucking career is best done by sharing the research with your spouse and making the decision together

Have a look at this thread Daniel B posted a couple days ago about Getting stuck. Many times local drivers need to take roads that aren't truck friendly to deliver at businesses (or houses!) That makes you scratch your head how you're going to do that. As Old School mentioned make sure your wife and children (if old enough) are involved in the decision making. 1 year is a small amount of time in the grand scheme. It'll be difficult to support your family if you have a loan out for CDL school and get terminated for hitting something multiple times. I was 1 of maybe 4 members here that got lucky starting local and making it out unscathed. Getting 1 year OTR will help set a solid foundation for your career but also make you a more desirable candidate than a freshly minted CDL. Depending on the job local work could very well only be off work 10 hours. I recently moved further away from work. I usually only have 10 hours from the time I clock out until I clock back in but its 45 minute drive each way. My 10 hour break is now down to 8:30 Shower, eat (dinner and breakfast) I'm down to about 7:00. Now I'm stuck with the decision of going to sleep or staying awake to see my wife and kids. Need to stop and grab something from the store on your way home? Even less time. Lately I've been getting 4 to 5 hours a night when I work then take an hour nap during the day on break.

I’m just going to have to test that theory for myself. That said, I do appreciate your advice. Thanks

I was 1 of maybe 4 members here that got lucky starting local and making it out unscathed

I’m just going to have to test that theory for myself.

Slim, one of the worst ways to start something is to try to force it to fit what you deem is ideal for your situation. It's pretty obvious you're not going to heed our advice. We do this stuff because we genuinely want to help people succeed at this. Anytime you have a collective group of successful professionals giving you advice that goes against your naive thinking about something, you really should sit up and take it seriously.

We're not giving you theories. We've witnessed many folks who want to take the path you're on, end up with absolutely no way to get hired into the trucking industry. Once you've messed up, your usually done for good. Have you noticed that you don't see Marc Lee posting about trucking jobs anymore? He's done - he killed his chances. If there ever was a guy that we tried and tried to help it was him - he's tapped out now.

There's a slight chance you'll be okay. Rob is one of the few I've seen make it work. He knows how trying it was. I certainly hope you pull it off, but my history here of watching people go this route is really disturbing. This isn't just like changing jobs. You don't make a mistake at one and then just move to another. Your record follows you and limits you. A guy who starts a local job, and has an accident after three months, is a pariah in this business. He's considered as having zero experience and an extremely high risk.

That's why we encourage you guys to go the Paid CDL Training Programs route. Those companies have an interest in seeing you succeed. They have an investment in you. They will forgive some minor stuff and work at helping you improve. The local jobs who take on inexperienced drivers do it knowing they are taking a huge risk. They have almost zero tolerance for error. Their insurance underwriters give them no wiggle room.

That's the last I'm going to say about it. I wish you the best. I hope you'll keep us posted.