[Fozzy]

I'm ready to start school and have a few questions:

Ohhh I respectfully beg to differ.... You are NOT ready to start school as you do not seem to have any job prospects and or job offers from people who actually hire drivers. You can call almost all of the larger carriers who do the majority of the hiring and training of new drivers. Go to the electronic apps, start filling them out, get ready for a lot of calls and HAVE YOUR LIST OF QUESTIONS READY FOR THEM! You should also have about a month or even TWO worth of money saved up for the entire training process and have cut your debt to a minimum!

Why are Community College CDL -A Classes 6 weeks and Company Paid Programs/Schools only 4 weeks? Example, Covenant, Stevens, Swift, USA Truck and a few local companies have Company Sponsored Schooling here where I live that last about a month and they actually send you to the same Community College where it takes 6 weeks if you enroll by yourself and fund the school yourself? Does anyone know the answer?

Easy! The community colleges have instructors that are paid by the state and they honestly do not care how long you drive around in their ranges and such. Most people who want to get paid want to get their licenses and get out on the road where they can at least start to make their money back and get their career started. The deep dark secret is that the first few weeks of all these schools is so close to exactly the same that it’s just silly to pretend otherwise. Lots of practice driving around is great and would be great for everyone if they could all take months off to simply drive around in parking lots and ranges. The fact is that no matter how long you train, the second you hit the real world in a real truck in real conditions, you are going to be a nervous wreck and a tad bit lost!

2) If I choose to enroll and pay for my own school so I'm not "tied" via a contract to a company for 1-2 years, will I have a good chance of getting recruited by a company after graduation? The School "claims a 98% job placement rate"?

Everyone should go out and get financed and pay for their own schooling and or get grants whenever or however they do that. What has always driven me up a tree is that people for some odd reason want “free” training from carriers yet magically think its draconian and evil when the carriers then demand something (like staying with them for a period of time) or having to pay for the training that they received if they do not.

3) Should I choose to go to and pay for my own schooling, should I make sure that it's PTDI Certified?
Here is what I referred too first. GET OFF the idea of just searching for some school and hoping that it’s this or that. Call companies that you’d like to work for FIRST and cut out the chance. ALL of these carriers have training departments full of people who can answer your exact questions on who’s training that they will accept to hire you. The schools do not! They want to put you in a class.. the carriers want to put you to work. The PTDI cert has become rather laughable and there are schools out there that do not have it but are completely acceptable and even preferable to the carriers who have vetted them and sometimes even sponsor some of them.

[MichiganDriver]

A couple of really good answers for you there Sly.

I got my schooling and went down to the state employment office, sat down with a guy and asked him for his help finding a driving job somewhere close to home. I was extremely lucky and a manufacturing outfit less than a mile from my house was hiring. They produce their products and have 2 semis tool around the eastern half of the country delivering it.

A couple of things here that might interest you. They didn't offer driver training, first I got trained then I got hired. They didn't care in the least where I went to school, or how my grades were or anything like that. I possessed a warm body and a CDL. What they did care about was my work ethic. They had had plenty of drivers that would take forever to make deliveries. The fact that I had been self-employed most of my life seemed to reassure them that I might work out ok.

[justin08]

Hey there sly, I have been through this already, I will tell you how things went what I did to so call start my career of driving.

I had the same questions you had. And being from a very limited freight lane. I went through a company that actually hired in my area. It was a larger company that i will not name. After going through training and getting assigned a truck things started out decent. then as time went on things got worse and worse. I put my 2 weeks notice in and left not having any form of job lined up. Thinking of the rumor of oh there is a driver shortage and i have my cdl and some exp. jobs should be easy to come by, which is so wrong on many levels i am finding out.

What i would have done differently.

1) Find as many companies as you can that you meet their min. requirements. ie hires student grads

2) Call every single one, and tell them what trucking school you were looking at, find out if they will hire you after going through that school. (some might want you to go through a different school.

3) Make a backup plan, If this company doesn't work...what to do now?

Note: at larger companies everyone has a different exp., some companies are more prone for creating horror stories.

P.S. Save up money for schooling this way any way you go. You will not be tied to a company, I have called a few companies and explained what happend to a couple. One kind sir said the companies that have their own driving school really treat you like they got you...along those lines.

[driver65]

hi there first off i am a ex trainer for coventant stay away the are only wanting cheap labor and dont care if you are trained correctly thats why there class and time out with a trainer is 35days if your lucky you will get a good trainer,i quit because they would not let me take extra time with my students.and if your tied to a contract your stuck making lousy pay