The charge for the trainer is $2500 and is only charged if one does not stay for the year. This would take it to the $5000 I was avoiding to begin with, but I know that I will last the year.
The classes are certified by the states in which that they are located. I am not sure of the road trainers certifications other than what I have overheard at the terminal. What I heard was that Millis requires one year of service with them and they prefer 3 years of total driving time. The trainer must also have a good safety record and a high ontime delivery percentage.
The Millis website has most of the information.
From the searching for companies that train new drivers, Millis has the most to offer, in my opinion. Higher training pay, newer equipment, family owned company with about 825 tractors and tons of trailers. The instuctor in Ohio has been driving since 1977 and has a genuine desire to train new drivers to drive safely. He has been with Millis since 1994 and the drivers operating out of that terminal take the time to work with the students, too.
I know that everyone has their definition of a good company. For a new driver, this seems to be the best. Time will tell.
Thank you for your time

Thanks Hobo and all. Josh tried the local comm college but its not really his thing, at least not yet. If I had my wish, well then, Id have my wish. I wrote to Van Bridges over at Isothermal, and think maybe he could at least drive over there and ask to meet him and have a sit down talk about the industry. They do boast a 90% placement rate. I dont know how many of them ultimately stay with it. I only know two drivers and one is in his 50s and has been driving for 32 years, and is about to sell his truck and move to the Carolinas. We are in NJ and its a high cost of living area. He spoke with my wife and said def not the CRE route, and offered a couple names of companies. I havent talked to him yet as hes usually gone (go figure). Anyway I havent heard back yet from my son but this is a good start. What I really want is for him to log on and start thinking of all the questions he doesnt know to ask yet. At 21 it probably sounds great just to hear a salary and benefits quoted, but Im sure with anything worthwhile, there is a right way and a wrong way and you have to start with the basic questions. I do appreciate you guys feedback. Im headed down to Maryland to look for a new house because my job has moved with the closure of Ft Monmouth NJ. We will be Marylanders soon. Dave Nolan

Just a thought. Everyone assumes he has to drive OTR. Think about contacting Loggin companies. That will get him experience locally. Also think about contacting local construction companies. My experience----Equipment pays better Overweight/overdimensional.

After he drives local for a year or two and then he wants to go OTR, then he is experienced and has -my opinion- better grasp on driving. I think it is dangerous for new drivers to be out on the road. I went OTR when i started. If i had to do it again........ I would have gotten local experience first or regional experiencce before going OTR. Too many people who think that they know how to drive their 4wheelers, to be able to do everyhting a driver has to do and be new to the industry.

Actually Earlier in the thread someone said he had to be 21 to drive.

that is incorrect depending on the state. 18 yrs old is the minimum age Intrastate. 21 yr old for interstate.

It is a good life,but hard on families. it is something that is wonderful experience. Dont let these guys discourage him. Let him learn and figure out what he wants to do.

So Josh wasnt very interested in the NC School althought I dont think he ever went there to check it out. After a very long silence on the net, he appeared back up in NJ and now says he is going to go to Smith and Soloman in Lakewood NJ. Hes apparently trying to get the state to pay for this (thru unemployment). I told him not to go on unemployment a long time ago, exp at 21 cause it makes a statement, but he did it and so its his game. I hope a future employer wont use that against him. A trucking company wont care, will they??? I also gave him some of the good ideas Ive been collecting. Well, we'll see how this gig works out for him. Im just watching from afar and hope he comes out allright. Im not real sure why he loves NJ so much as its the worst place to try to make a living since its the most expensive place besides Hawaii or Mass to live, but I thinhk it has to to with his budds up here. Anyway, I will keep you posted and of course Im very excited hes choosing to do something wlrthwhile,. has anybody heard of Smith and soloman and have anything to say about them (at all)? Im cautiously optimistic, although this idea that everything has to be free - i dont know wher he got that. dont most pay for their training???

No, most probably don't. Most new drivers go with one of the "mega-carriers" like Swift, Schneider, and too many others to list. Those companies usually pay for the training and either take it out of their pay or hold them to a contract for a time. I was unemployed when I made the jump to trucking, and I let the state/fed gov't pay for my schooling thru the Workforce Investment Act. I don't feel bad about it at all.

This is also highly dependent on who you know. Most new guys with no experience and no contacts won't be able to get a local job just like that. If that were the case, I'd probably have never gone OTR. Then again, so would a lot of folks. Not many folks want to stay away from home anymore, so the demand for OTR guys is greater than the demand for local drivers, methinks.

I've always heard that local experience doesn't count if he later wants to go OTR. I also believe (just my opinion) that off-road gigs like logging and oilfields might require more experience in handling the truck and gearing than highway driving. No idea if that is true, but I always thought that I'd want some experience driving the truck before taking on those kinds of jobs. Also I have found that in MY area, local jobs don't pay as much.

I agree that it is dangerous to have SOME new drivers out on the open road. This is why I also have always been a supporter of TEAM operations for a driver's first gig.

On the other hand, being able to drive a truck is a great fallback plan if having an education doesn't work out for him. It never has for me.

I've seen people talking about the age 23 thing, but one thing I haven't seen mentioned yet is that you can find jobs after you have experience, and you can find jobs as a fresh brand new trucking school graduate, but finding a job as someone who graduated 2-4 years ago is sketchy at best. If I were a 21-year-old looking at getting into this thing, I'd want to have some pretty firm and encouraging contact with prospective employers before plunking down the money. Don't rely on the school's admissions guy to paint an honest picture of how likely it is for someone that age to find work.

I didn't read all the threads so I don't know if anyone suggested it.. but if you want to read about what the lifestyle is like, do a few searches for truckers' blogs. Some are really good and others just use it as a vent board so you kind of have to decide what is true and what isn't. But it gives a pretty fair assessment of what this industry is about. A few good links to check out are (hopefully this is permissable).. You'll probably have to search back to when the blog was first started but their good none the less (in my opinion). To find more just go to Blogger and do a search for truckers.

The Fenian Godfather
Gi-Gi Roxx
America Through the Windshield
vBob


As for trying other things, I, like others, went into other professions while getting an education and regretted most of it after having got into trucking. Trucking is where my heart was from early in life and I should have followed it. If thats where his heart is, don't discourage him as later in life he might actually regret not having done it... as I did. No its not a glamorous lifestyle and yeah the pay sucks but, for me, it beats getting a higher paycheck but sitting in an office where I know I would be unhappy because of the severe micromanagement. This industry is in need of GOOD drivers and, if his heart is in it, can deal with BS (as with any job nowadays), and can be away from home for extended periods then maybe this is indeed the career choice for him. Good luck to him!

I wanted to follow up since you guys took the time out to respond to me last year. So my son didnt do the CR England thing, and took a couple pt jobs over the last year trying to figure out a plan. At one point he was considering the military, and then a technical college for some type of skill. It turns out the two classes he was considering in health care only took 11 and 12 students in and were full two full years out. So he decided he would try the trucking thing. He found a company that would pay for his training and I know that costs you in pay, but he didnt want to work some BS part time jobs and save for a regular tuition, and so he signed on with PAM. He goes to the Ashville training location next week. From the little he told me, hes going to train and then get hooked up with a buddy driver and then out over the road. I forget the exact schedule but it was like two weeks out and two days home or something of that order of magnitude. I have no idea what he does for food or lodging. Im assuming they stay in the rig and eat on the economy out of their pocket. as for pay, I really dont know but he told me he gets salary of 35 K which seems odd, as I thought pay was a function of mileage? He has a good mentality and can put up with a lot of BS and is a good driver of cars anyway for a young 22 YO. It does seem like a lot of time out there though and even though he may not de driving, he will still be out in the truck. I really wished he'd researched it more and actually talked to some truckers but he is his own man. Im sort of writing on here for me. I have gone to a few of the bigger truck plazas and like hangint around in there and just listening and observing. Anyway, I will update you after training is complete and see how this young man fares out there. Dave - North East Md.

Which party does the trucking industry like? Repubs or the Dems? Im going Red.