Mother & daughter team looking to start driving

[Ivory_Snow]

My daughter & I are looking to start school in late spring/early summer. This has been a childhood dream of mine and now with both girls out of the home I can finally make this dream come true. I spent 15 years self employed with 2 buisnesses (my husbands & mine), selling out in 2000 we moved and went to work for a RV Manufacturer. This has been a dead end job me, I have been passed over for promotions 4 times even though I have more experience in that opening than the ones they placed there. So I am moving on with my life and my daughter who is not tied down to a home, children or marriage is coming along. Husband is very fine with our decision and he will be coming on as my team mate in a couple of years.
We have been looking at different companies for a couple of months now and have already chosen the school we are going to. We are getting our questions in order to start calling recruiters this next week. We are looking at SMX, Crete, CRST, KLLM. Would love any info on these companies or if there are some othere we should be looking at but haven't thought of. Ivory_Snow

[GMAN]

You may want to do a search on the forum for each carrier that you are interested. Do you plan on paying for your own schooling or find a carrier and attend their school? My suggestion is to pay for your own at a local community college or state vocational school. Doing so will afford you more options starting out. Some other carriers who do team are Covenant and U.S. Express. Good luck to you both.

[Ivory_Snow]

GMAN,
Thank you for responding.
At first we were looking at companies who would pay for our schooling but after spending a month reading the many posts on trucking companies we decided to pay for our own schooling. We also felt that we would have more options if we did this. We are looking at going to Central Tech at Drumright OK. But we are still looking at some other schools here in Kansas before we make our total decision on that.
Most of the classes available to us, close to where we live, so far are just week long courses that only get your your CDL, not much for driving (5 hrs each) and we'd feel much better getting longer training. I know that this is different but I have driven harvest trucks with 4 speed forward gear transmission with 2 speed axel & stock trailers but nothing as long as the tractor trailers. My daughter can bairly drive a standard at all so we figure all the driving time we can get, we will need. My biggest problem is backing with mirrors, if I can look over my shoulder I can put a stocktrailer where i want it but using mirrors to back will take me some time getting used to.
My cousin & her husband drove for Conenant and had a terrable time with their weekend and night dispatch. I am also aware that no one company is 100% great to work for. I know that we will have ups and downs no matter who we go with. My father & brothers-in-law also gave me a list of companies to stay clear of. Dad has been driving 15 years for Dolly Madison and my borthers-in-law has been driving for 10 years through a local company near us.
We starting to do our search on the forum for the companies we are interrested in. I have gotten onto each companies website to check them out although I know not to believe everything I read there. We'd prefer a smaller company to work for rather than an huge one but we just want to be treated fairly and I'm hoping some of the larger companies treat their drivers like human beings.

[GMAN]

Ivory_Snow, you primarily just get your CDL with most schools. Your real training comes when you start actual training with a carrier. I believe a couple of people on the forum have gone to the school in Drumright. You may want to ask on the Women's section of this forum. There are a lot of carriers. I am sure you will find one that is a good fit.

[4roses]

Ivory_Snow .... as GMAN said ... the school in Drumright, Okla is top notch ...... a lot of the major company's send their students to Drumright for their schooling .... when I went there to get my refresher I spoke to several students from other companys ........ and the companys were charging the students almost DOUBLE the price it would of cost them to go on their own to school. So when you call these companys your' looking at ........ be sure and compare the cost of what their charging you and what it would be if you paid it out of your pocket ........... as well, ask them which school they send their students to. ........... while checking out companys ..... check out CFI - they won't make you sign a year contract ...the school will be paid for when they assign you - your tractor and you pull out with your first load ! ..... they pay a large part of your school for you .... so that saves you money.... and their main office is at Joplin so that wouldn't be far from where you live. ...... if you call CFI ask to speak to Christine ... recruiting new students for school.

Good luck .......... I wish I could get my daughter to drive as a team driver ... that would be awesome.

[nickbtubas]

where at in kansas do you live. Wichita Area Techincal college is pretty good i hear. they will teach you everything. doubles, hazmat, passenger, everything.

i do believe they are higher priced than most though but im not sure.

[One]

Just try to take a job with drop and hook or paid detention time that will run you plenty of miles (5k+each week!). You seem like a sharp gal, so I'm sure youll take all the factors of a company into consideration like the milemaker used to calculated your mileage.