Have CDL BUT NEED DIRECTION

I have my CDL with tankers and doubles . I got my CDL via self study and pretty much rented a truck to pass my road test. My question now is .. What is my next step and which company is best? I stay in duncanville tx (76236). I see companies offer refresher courses (already have cdl) and some offer training (without CDL) with 1 or 2 agreement. I have no exp driving.

Well, Timothy the good news is that you've got your CDL. The bad news is that no one will hire you.

As much as you tried to avoid going to school, you are still going to have to go through it. This is life in the United States, where every tucking business is scared to death of a heavy lawsuit being successfully waged against them for hiring drivers who are not properly trained.

Timothy, for a new driver to get a job he needs a training certificate that shows that he has successfully completed 160 hours of training. That certificate is perhaps more important than the CDL itself.

You could go through a refresher course if you can find someone to do that for you, but I really recommend that you go through a Company-Sponsored Training program. If you will follow that link you will find a decent list of companies that will train you for free if you will commit to working for them for about a year. It is a great way to go because you will get some decent training and it will cost you very little money. The greatest thing about those programs is that they have a job waiting for you when you complete the program. A lot of the drivers in here have taken that route successfully, and the ones who went through the Prime program came out making some really good money right off the bat.

It won't matter that you already have your CDL. I attended a private truck driving school where there were people in my class that already had their CDL. They were there for the same reason that you will be.

Feel free to participate in the forum and ask as many questions as you like, but one thing you might want to do is read through our Truck Driver's Career Guide, it will give you a lot of information about trucking and the industry that will help you get off to a good start.

Welcome to the forum, and I'm looking forward to seeing how soon you can get started in your new career. You've just got to get it started off on the right foot, or as you have probably discovered by now, it just won't get started at all.

Actually any company with a refresher course and even some without one will hire you. I did the exact same thing and I work for Knight Transportation. Schneider, Swift, Super Service, KLLM, and a host of other companies hired me without the accredited schooling.

Dejuan, let's clarify something here.

Schneider, Swift, Super Service, KLLM, and a host of other companies hired me without the accredited schooling.

Are you saying that all of those companies actually hired you, and you drove a truck for them? Because if that's not the case then they didn't hire you.

Furthermore, didn't you have to go through Knight's Squire program, which is their driving school?

Please respond, because we are dangerously close to putting out some very vague and false information here.

When I say hired. I meant pre-hired after the fact of verifying my employment and background checks. I have the emails to prove that they said it was alright that I didn't go to an accredited school and have no problem posting them in here. Look at the first sentence in my last comment. I said you can get hired with anyone who has a refresher course right or wrong? With the exception of Schneider who doesn't have a refresher course but a 3 week advanced skills training. I said hired because they didn't hang up the phone after learning my situation they still invited me to orientatiok I just chose not to go. I only answered this post because you told him "He won't find a job" which isn't 100% true it'll be a little harder but like I said anyone with a refresher course will hire him. Paid training.

Dejuan, that sounds much more accurate. I stressed throughout the rest of my original response that he would need some type of verifiable training - that includes refresher courses. We are saying the same thing, but for the sake of future readers I just had to get you to clarify your statement.

Dejuan, that sounds much more accurate. I stressed throughout the rest of my original response that he would need some type of verifiable training - that includes refresher courses. We are saying the same thing, but for the sake of future readers I just had to get you to clarify your statement.

Oh no prob Old School

So Dejuan, you saying I can start my career at any company that give thr refresher course and do the 1 year of driving with them. But if I wanted to go off to fedex fright or another company I'm not able due to no accredit school?

So basically I need to go school to get the best opportunities in driving? I don't want no bull**** company all my career.... Most of the (entry level ) companies have poor ratings and I don't wanna get stuck with them.

All you need to do is go to a refresher company and work through whatever contract if any then you can move anywhere because you have experience then. Experience trumps school anyday