Truck Driving Jobs Increasing Slightly - Student Truck Drivers Finding Work

CDL students are having better luck finding truck driving jobs as we move deeper into 2009 than they were at the beginning of the year, and many trucking companies have either begun increasing their hiring numbers or are removing the hiring freezes they've had in place in recent weeks. A couple of authors of their own trucking blogs on TruckingTruth have found success landing class A trucking jobs by taking two different paths through their CDL training. We've also heard a number of success stories from visitors to our website about landing jobs with companies that provide CDL training or getting pre-hires that will take effect after they graduate from truck driving school.TruckerMike, who has a blog here on TruckingTruth, just graduated from school on February 20th and got his CDL from an independent truck driving school in Illinois. A few weeks prior, while attending classes, TruckerMike was pre-hired by a national refrigerated carrier and was thrilled because it was his number one choice of trucking companies to work for. Unfortunately, soon after that the company told Mike they had to postpone his orientation date until after April 1st because of a hiring freeze.

Well, Mike had another pre-hire from a dry van carrier, but it certainly wasn't the company he had wanted to go with. It was starting to look like he would have no choice. I mean, in today's bad economy you have to take a job if you can find one, and Mike certainly wasn't complaining. He never does. But as luck would have it, the refrigerated carrier that he had originally hoped to get on with removed their hiring freeze and Mike is heading there to begin his orientation class on March 2nd. That was spectacular news and we're all pullin' for him in a big way! You can follow along with Mike's trucking blog about his CDL training.

A couple of weeks ago, another author on our site, Scott.P, was accepted into the company sponsored CDL training program at Central Refrigerated - a national refrigerated carrier out of Utah. He's in the process of completing the initial portion of their truck driver training program and getting ready to head out on the road with a trainer within the next couple of weeks. He will then return to complete his CDL exam before finishing his training and getting into his own truck. You can follow along with Scott's days in trucking school as he documents everything he goes through right from day one.

Several other visitors to our site have also had success in recent weeks getting into the company sponsored CDL training programs of Central Refrigerated, Prime Trucking, Driver Solutions, and C.R. England.

So for any of you that are considering becoming a truck driver, it's clear that there are still a number of opportunities available for people to get into the trucking industry and find a job. One thing I'm hearing more and more from new students is that for those of you that decide to go to an independent truck driving school, if you work with the school on getting pre-hired by a trucking company, you can either wind up getting a grant from the state to pay for your schooling, or the financing will be easily available for you. There are also a lot of trucking companies that will make your student loan payments for you as long as you are working for the company - so ask your job placement director at the school about these options.

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