Yes you can get your cdl on your own, study the book and take the test, pass the permit, then find a guy who will rent you a truck to test in, pass the road test and you have a cdl. That’s what I did, it’s not hard. Getting a “real job” driving is, 20 years later nobody would recognize my driving experience as none was “verifiable” (I drove dump trucks part time for a small gravel yard and also drove concert stages seasonally) so off to school I went, now it’s easy to get a job.
Have you tried Watkins Shepard? www.wksh.com they have their own in house cdl school and they’re a good company to drive for.

 

My training grant was actually a retraining grant because the place that I had worked for 20 years closed.

My class was 14 students and all but 3 were on some kind of training grant from the state.

Check with your State Employment Office and ask if there is training money available for you.

The grant I got was for $6,000. My total school bill was around $2200 with was $1360 for school, $150 for physical and drug screen, $75 for license, $600 for gas. The balance of the $6,000 can be used to pay a employer to hire me.

 

Huh? The State allows you to bribe...er...pay a company to hire you?! :P :roll: :lol:

 

I gave my first 10 years to a small company. I think you're selling the idea short by implying that a "major, reputable" company is a better way to start out. I'd rather not be driving for any of those outfits, and I think putting "major" and "reputable" into the same sentence is almost an oxymoron. The bigger they are, the less they give a crap about you.

"At $THIS_COMPANY you're NEVER just a number to us!"

"So is this dedicated thing for real?"

"Yes it is. I have 749 and 9042 and 810 and 573 and 655 on there, and sometimes 911 and 4256."

Never a number. Humbug.

Unfortunately, my old ship sank, and I have no choice. I liked it better over there. It was a lot less formal, a lot less complicated, and much, much more personal. Over there, I had to keep the DOT happy, and the customers happy, and everything else was purely up to me. The office guys didn't even know we existed until something happened on one of the rare occasions when the boss was out of town, and we liked it that way. Our safety department/fleet manager/mechanic/dispatcher was easy to please, and always a phone call away when needed, and almost never had the need to make a surprise phone call in return. None of this stupid satellite Spy Box 3000 garbage either, and pre-plans and consignees and all this gobbledeblibber. "Here's your bills. Call me Wednesday."

Over here I have to keep the DOT happy, the customers happy, Safety happy, Dispatch happy, Operations happy, Maintenance happy. Everybody is constantly asking me to confirm that, yes, I'm still doing my job, and no, nothing is wrong; if something were wrong, you'd know about it. Blah, blah, blah, will you shut up and let me go back to driving now? Thank you.

*BEEP* FLEET MESSAGE: A HIGHWAY 3,000 MILES AWAY IS BACKED UP. PLEASE TAKE ALTERNATE ROUTE.

If this guy wants to get a CDL off to the side like, without any formal schooling, a small company like the one that vacated me might be his best bet. They trained a guy out of the warehouse once, and put him on the road. (He drove for us for another seven years, before they vacated him too.) At that company, it was a lot more about having the right kind of personality to keep our picky ass customers happy than being a picture perfect driver. Scrape a few gears, bust a few marker lights, no big deal, it's called learning. My old boss was seriously cool that way. It was a good place to start.

Jerry made a good driver out of me, and that wasn't easy friends.

 

The balance can be used to pay a portion of my wages until the unused money is gone. It is incentive to hire me so I guess you can call it a bribe but it's more like daggling a carrot in front of the employer.

 

Go and take your state test on your own. That is what I did. Arrow trucking out of Oklahoma will look at you. I have been with them since November and I did not go to driving school. However, you will have to go with a trainer and do there training.