Quote:
Originally Posted by wsclinger9869
...with everything that has been said in this thread about driving schools, wouldn't it be a much better solution to get training through one of the schools like Swift or Millis, which I would think would not accept someone who they wouldn't be able to hire once the CDL was obtained and the road training was completed...
In my openion the choice of going to a company sponsered CDL school or a regular commercial CDL school comes down to just a couple things.
The first question would be about finances. If someone doesn't have access to the $4000 (on average) that it costs for a commercial CDL school AND if that person doesn't have access to some sort of "job retraining program", then their next move would be to do some research into the various company sponsered CDL programs. Some are better than others and the one that's right for YOU is not necessarily the best one for the next person.
The second question is one that I alluded to above, you would want to call down to your local job service office run by the city where you live and see if there's some program available that will provide the training. Also, are you a veterarn? If so, thank you for serving. And if you are, do you have VA benefits that will pay for the school? GI bill, VEAP program? etc.
If you're in the boat of choosing a truck driving career as kind of a last resort, then do yourself a favor. While you're checking out the job placement options, don't stop at truck driving, see if they have other options. If you open the Sunday paper in just about any city in the country you'll see that the medical field is by far the largest section. Don't like blood? Check out x-ray techs etc. There are other options out there but you just have to do the research.
It all comes down to this. In these times, you need to go out and make things happen. Ask questions (not just here), call the local government offices, unemployment offices, hospitals (if you may be interested in the medical field.. and I'd highly encourage being open minded to this).
When I went to CDL school in Tampa, FL at Roadmaster we had 28 people in my class and by the end of the first week almost everyone was coming to me asking about this company and that company because every night when I got home I was on the internet and on this site and several others looking stuff up. I say that not to pat my own back but simply as an example. By the end of school I had made a choice to go to May Trucking and I brought 5 others with me out of school. Most of the people there were just going to wait for the school's job placement gal to hook them up with whatever company she called. Bad move in my openion.
Well, I tried to write this in a way that was helpfull. I hope I've succeeded in that and I also hope that someone may get some new ideas from this.
Thanks all and good luck.
BTW, I used to post under the name Doktari but for some reason I can't log in under that name any more. I've been absent from here for a while.