I would suggest sitting on a new CDL no longer than 6 months before getting hired somewhere. It may be a longer grace period now that a potential employer doesn't consider your new license as "stale" with the Covid situation, but the sooner you drive the better.
The question I'm wondering is your private school going to be accredited and recognized by a perspective employer? Some programs are not, so I hope you did your research well beforehand.
A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:
Back in 2017 I graduated from private school in February and wanted to wait until after my grandfathers funeral in May before I got a job so I could have a week off with no problems. I started my first job toward the end of June so 4 months and that wasn't a problem with any of the companies I applied to.
304 hour Training Program I am attending is PTDI (Professional Truck Driver Institute) Approved Course and school will issue Certificate. Werner or Schneider recruiter visits here every time new class begins with company presentation. The course meets Minimum Over the Road Carrier Program Requirements for Entry Level Employment. The instructors are accredited to issue certificates like deffensive driving, straight truck driver 2, etc. Even we have many hours dedicated to road test, they keep telling us that the school is about teaching us about many other aspects like open road & city driving 6,9,10 speed transmission, coupling/uncoupling, tandem sliding, alley docking... This program better be recognized for price tag of $7.5k
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.
A set of axles spaced close together, legally defined as more than 40 and less than 96 inches apart by the USDOT. Drivers tend to refer to the tandem axles on their trailer as just "tandems". You might hear a driver say, "I'm 400 pounds overweight on my tandems", referring to his trailer tandems, not his tractor tandems. Tractor tandems are generally just referred to as "drives" which is short for "drive axles".
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I have a road test scheduled for Jan 27th and wanted to add some endorsements, get fingerprinted and close other things before applying for job but my present situation might not allow me to start new career and hit the road for months. How long after graduation from private school employers consider students as “recent graduates”?