CDL Apprenticeship Training: Wilson Logistics Vs. Veriha Trucking?!

Howdy y'all!

My name is Dexter, I am 25 years old Vietnamese immigrant from Houston, Texas. I am making a change in career, from being a Chef to being a Truck Driver.

First thing, I want to say thanks to all the people on this site that have helped guide me about which carriers to research for obtaining my CDL Class A-but now I am stuck between two great companies that have both approved me for on-boarding into their orientation. Wilson Logistics or Veriha Trucking?

Please any insight or help with choosing between these two companies will be greatly appreciated. I am making a big leap, a change of career as a Chef of fine-dining restaurant into the world of freight. I will leave detail of each company and please leave y'alls input to help guide me into the right direction.

Wilson Logistics:

Permit Driving: 3-4 weeks of OTR (Over the road) instruction

“C Seat” aka CDL TRAINING Step 1 : 10,000 miles roughly 2-3 weeks $600/ week OR .12 cpm (whichever pays more)

“B2 Seat” aka CDL TRAINING Step 2 : 20,000 miles roughly 4-6 weeks$700/ week OR .14cpm (whichever pays more) Evening driving/ night driving is introduced “B1 Seat” aka CDL TRAINING Final step (1 week solo driving- $700/ week) “A Seat” aka Regular driver! (.44-49 cpm with fuel incentives) Average of 2500-3000 mpw *3-4 weeks out, 3-4 days home*

Equipment: 2019 Peterbilt 579 & 2019 Freightliner Cascadia Evolution ( Both with APU & 1500 watt inverter) Mini-Fridge and Microwave Full Benefits: 401K Plan / Dental Insurance / Health Insurance / Life Insurance / Vision Insurance Must sign a 1 year contract with them, if I left early would need to pay $3,500 dollars.

Veriha Trucking:

Start earning competitive wages on Day 1 The opportunity to earn $70k per year after 2 years of experience. Exclusive continual education to further develop your professional driving career (Must sign a contract to stay on for 18 months, if broken must pay $12,500!!)

Phase 1 and Phase 2 of Skill Development Weekly Course Breakdown: Week 1-3 in Marinette: Classroom / Range / Simulator Training Due to our accelerated program, after class homework will be expected Week 3: Mock tests, and State CDL Road Skills Test (Return home to get your license) Week 4-6: Home Daily/Regional/Over the road with trainer and mimic trainer schedule Week 7: Trainee / Trainee runs OTR Week 8: Back in Marinette for refresher of skills and upgrade to solo

Phase 3: Continue Skill development as solo driver with Monthly learning modules for development of safety and efficiency

12 months: Attend the Train the Trainer course 24 Months: Teach/Lead Train the Trainer course Upon successful completion of each week $500 during training period o 0.36-0.40 Base Cents per mile once you upgrade to driving solo (rates depends on location) o Earn 0.02cpm more by showing up to all scheduled trainings on time and passing CDL on your first try! o Average 2500-3000 miles per week o Day 1 guaranteed weekly pay (or G-Pay) of $900, which increases as your average weekly performance exceeds $900

Seems like there potential to make more money with Veriha Trucking, recruiter tells me possible to earn up to .60cpm with: (Indeed.com quotes average Company Driver makes $69,000/year)

o Congestion pay in addition to short-haul pay; combined total of $0.05/mile o Weekend premium of $0.03/mile, on all miles, when work week starts on Friday or Saturday o 60% drop and hook o 80-minute average live unload to keep drivers moving o Detention pay that starts after an hour

Biggest downside I can see with Veriha Trucking is that there is no inverter or mini-fridge, but the recruiter tells me that the trainer will explain how install a 1500 watt inverter and medium size fridge (which I pay out of pocket for) once I get my own truck.

As for home time for both companies, is a non-issue for me, since I plan on being out 2 months at a time. As I am a single man with no responsibilities or baggage, just looking for the best pay package to build up my life.

I think that is all the info I got from both of the recruiters, apologies for the long post.

I look forward to getting to know this community and talking to each and everyone of y'all

Thank you kindly,

Dexter Nguyen

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.

Regional:

Regional Route

Usually refers to a driver hauling freight within one particular region of the country. You might be in the "Southeast Regional Division" or "Midwest Regional". Regional route drivers often get home on the weekends which is one of the main appeals for this type of route.

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.

CPM:

Cents Per Mile

Drivers are often paid by the mile and it's given in cents per mile, or cpm.

Drop And Hook:

Drop and hook means the driver will drop one trailer and hook to another one.

In order to speed up the pickup and delivery process a driver may be instructed to drop their empty trailer and hook to one that is already loaded, or drop their loaded trailer and hook to one that is already empty. That way the driver will not have to wait for a trailer to be loaded or unloaded.

OWI:

Operating While Intoxicated

OOS:

When a violation by either a driver or company is confirmed, an out-of-service order removes either the driver or the vehicle from the roadway until the violation is corrected.

APU:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

I would be interested in information on Wilson too. I was looking at Jim Palmer Trucking, which I understand they own now, and I was impressed with the APUs on each truck.

APU:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

APUs:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

I was impressed with the APUs on each truck.

Hey Greg, don't take me wrong, this isn't a criticism, but an APU certainly isn't the kind of thing you want to be influencing your choice of a trucking company to get started with. Less than 2% of the trucks on the road have an APU. Do you see how limiting that is? Not only that, it's not even something you need. I've never had an APU, and have never had a need for one.

You want to focus on what kind of freight you want to haul, and what parts of the country you think you'd like to be in - then the rates of pay available to you. Those three things are the most important factors. Wanting an APU is like wanting a lime green truck. It might seem important to you, but it's not.

All of us get some crazy ideas when we're researching this stuff - I get it. I just like to help you guys get focused on what's important.

HOS:

Hours Of Service

HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.

APU:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

APUs:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

I was hoping someone would chime in about theses two companies. I'm especially interested in Veriha.

I was hoping someone would chime in about theses two companies. I'm especially interested in Veriha.

Here's what's probably our most 'recent' diary. Didn't end well, but the company seems great, actually!!!!

Training with Veriha

The search bar above, (the big white empty bar) is your friend, on here... ~!

We have reviews, and an application for Veriha, right on this forum, as well.

Here ya go~!

Everything Veriha ~!!!

Wish you the best!

Wilson is a great company that trains the same way as prime and uses our terminals. They seem to do a lot of Kraft dedicated routes

Thank you Anne!

Thank you Anne!

You're welcome, Randy~!!

Wilson Logistics (Wil Trans) is an excellent company, as well. They seem a bit harder to get into, running under the Prime umbrella. Here's one of our more 'recent' Wilson trainee's threads, but it just kind of faded. (Wonder how this chap is doing, btw!)

Wish you well; please update with what ends up working for you, man!

Wilson Diary

Anne :)

Actually Will Trans/ Jim Palmer and Wilson Logistics are not under the Prime umbrella. The families have been doing business together for decades and they haul our freight but they also pull their own. They are not owned by Rob Low. They are smart that they won't waste money on drivers that Prime rejected though. If they find out someone got kicked out of Prime training or orientation they reject them immediately.

WilTrans has a terminal down the street from Prime and I see Wilson Logistics trailers and day cabs at a lot of Springfield MO warehouses... Especially Kraft. That is why I guessed they do a lot of dedicated.

Jim Palmer's dispatchers are out of Missula MT and they seem to run mostly west (although I do see them at my terminal in sprimo).

I have never heard anything bad from any of their drivers. And considering drivers love to complain, that says something