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Originally Posted by rakusa
Thanks for the updates nobotox. Been researching here in Las Vegas and was considering Swift in Phx but the 4 man 2 bunk beds to a room is a turnoff so private school is winning but which one? This post whittled it down to AIT and Southwestern. Both sound good. Keep the updates coming for motivation. Who would you like to work for? Gordon looks interesting but just starting to research the companies that hire SW school grads. May be getting ahead of myself here. How long is the SWTS training program, start to CDL and cost? Thanks for any info.
rakusa-- glad to help. I know what your going through as I started researching this stuff in Oct 05 I started to go to Englands in house school in Salt Lake in Oct then got on with ups for xmas. Started to go to Stevens in Dallas 4 weeks ago but got cold feet on that as they seemed to be not so honest about everything. Then I started to read everything I could about schools , trucking co's etc here at cad and am i glad I did. Found to much negative on England and Stevens so they are off my list after if I get my cdl on my own. But for sure the best way to do it is get your cdl without signing a contract with any company to go to there school or sponsor you through any school. Pay your own way. Most all OTR companys will reimburse you for all your tuition. 100% Gordon will reimburse you up to $3000. If you can pay cash up front you can get a better deal at most schools. I could have gone through SWTDT for $3995 but had to finance it so they jacked up the price $500. But they got me financed with no co-signer with only $195 down. My credit is not that so good so I am grateful to them for that as I didn't want to bother friends or relatives to co-sign for me. It is worth $500 extra to avoid that. Besides, most bigger OTR companys will reimbuse you !00% for school. You don't sign a contract with them, they just contribute $100-$150 a month to basically make your payments for you until it is paid off. Of course if you leave them before its paid off you still make your normal payments but you don't owe the trucking co. anything. So as long as you stay with a company long enough they will pay your loan off a month at a time. You may have to pitch in a little extra as your payments are normally around $150 -$200 a month. Mine will be $165 a month. If my company pays $150 then I only need to pay $15 a month outa my pocket. If the co says they will pay 100% they continue to give you $100-$150 a month until they have given you the full amount of the loan including interest,even though the loan is already paid off. Naturally this could take 2-3 years cause they don't usually pay what your loan pmt per month is. If you find a good company and stay there long enough education is free. If you do the company sponsored deal then if you quit they usually stick it to you and they want full payoff of loan right now.
From what I have learned Gordon is a good company, they just might not pay off your entire loan. They don't pay as good as some but better than many. They pay practical miles but don't have safety bonuses,etc. They have good equipment and I love the color of their trucks. They are high on my list. I have an application in front of me now but I think I am going to sign on with May Trucking. They pay $500 a week for training and after training they pay.32 mile and .36 @ 1 year. Gordon pays only $350 a week training but they also give you $600 signing bonus as a newbie @$200 a pop. $200 when the trainer picks u up after orientation. Then $200 on first check after solo and $200 @ 3 months I believe. Lots depends on what you wanna pull also. I still have deboer on my list as a flatbed company. A little more work with securing cargo and tarping but better pay and the shippers and receivers aren't usually as obnoxious as grocery warehouses and such. Lots to consider in this business. I got my tanker endorsement and am going to get my hazmat. I am not going to go to tankers right off the bat though as they require more skill and I have none as yet.
At May I will need to get my hazmat as that is a requirement. Only reason I didn't get it already was you have to get a FBI background check and that costs $90 which I really don't have right now.
As for schools. I checked out Western Truck here and almost went there but they didn't care to help much with financing and they wanted $600 down and a co-signer. Their facilities were kinda crappy here. Just a little strip mall small setup with no on site truck practice range. I don't know much about AIT other than they got a cool flash website and they want more money. They put the hardsell on you also as I couldn't get no info from them over the phone. I didn't even go over to there place cause they were kinda snobby I felt over the phone. I went to SWTDT last and was impressed with facilities even though it was an old place. They have a great onsite practice area though and the trainers and director are super. They also include lifetime placement after graduation and help you to have a job lined up before graduation. Like any contract though you just need to read it thoroughly before signing and ask questions. You can wheel and deal with them some as they want your business and nothing is set in stone. Like buying a car. But from what I know after 2 weeks I am very happy with SWTDT in Phx. The owners son runs this one here so I can't tell you nothing about the Las vegas one, but I would imagine it is pretty similiar as far as professionlism. School is 4 weeks 160 hours which is what most co's that hire students require. And smart thing to do is get a cdl manual from dmv and get ahead of the game. Thats what I did and the classroom stuff and passing test at dmv for permit was a breeze. You can also download a cdl manual here.
http://www.schneiderjobs.com/drive_i...ain.html#study Main thing is research all your options. They are screaming for truck drivers out there as there is a huge shortage of em and only getting worse.
For more Gordon stuff check out this link.
http://gordontrucker.blogspot.com/ and search CAD member KONA911.
Good luck. nobotox
