Length of Training for CDL

[moshoconof]

Hi Everyone.

Full-on Newbie, here. I'm looking into giving up my day-job for a life-job, and was curious as to how the length of training impacts the willingness of employers to bring a new driver on.

I work a solid white-collared job. It's stable in terms of a paycheck coming in, but the personal benefit in it is pretty much non-existant. Because of the stability, though, I wanted to see if it'd be possible to complete my CDL training part-time while maintaining my current job. I found a local school that seems decent... the admissions people are great, and I haven't heard anything bad about the training. They have an 8-week course available that would work around my current schedule...

...but...

...I read while browing the internet that employers are less likely to hire someone that takes a long time (4 Weeks +) to complete a course versus someone taking a 3 to 4 week training program.

What's the validity in that statement, if any?

[proffit]

the length of a course dont really matter, what gets covered, plus the amount of wheel time is what counts,

remember this, the most important part of driving truck is to pay attention to whats going on around you and at least 1/2 mile ahead of u.

take a look at a PTDi institute

[Uturn2001]

Not much validity in that.

What employers look at is the amount of hours a program is. Most really want to see a 160 hour course.

Where the time factor really comes into play is post course completion. If more than 30 days pass between the time you "graduate" and starting your first job the fewer options you have as to who will hire you.

[ActionEarthMover26]

get a local driving job 2 get experiance first, dont think that after ur school u will be the rippin up the road with the best of em, alot to learn after that just an :idea: for yah. dont be like some of these other guys that get there cdl out of a school and think they know it all, those guys end up in a canyon.

[larryh31]

get a local driving job 2 get experiance first, dont think that after ur school u will be the rippin up the road with the best of em, alot to learn after that just an :idea: for yah.

Getting a local job fresh out of school will be tough. There are too many expierenced drivers on the road for you to compete with. Plus if you do get lucky and land a local job, but later on try to go OTR, most companies won't count your local driving time as "expierence". You will be treated as and paid as a rookie at most OTR companies.