Profile For Jimi B.

I am a little alarmed by what I perceive as negativity and skepticism. I felt I made it clear that my path was neither traditional nor recommended. I think I had a unique opportunity and was merely sharing my story. Never did I intend to encourage anyone to do the same as I am sure the majority would not have similar resources.

As I stated in the beginning, this was a friend. I didn't mean acquaintance or simply someone who I knew that was a trucker. He charged me nothing for his time. I was able to drive his company truck, on his normal route under real life working conditions. I was able to actually drive a tractor trailer, hauling loads for more than 100 hours of real world driving. Considerably more than I would have acquired under educational conditions. I also was able to observe more hours than in a traditional driving school scenario. I trained myself on the classroom portion using the High Road course here, so I know I got more detail and a more thorough understanding of the material in addition to spending far more time studying than I would have in a classroom for a week.

There are 1,000's of posts on the Internet attesting to the fact that driving schools do not teach you how to be a truck driver, they teach you how to obtain your CDL. I achieved that result without paying $3-7k out of pocket and gained far more experience than I could have in ANY driving school be it company or private. I know that I am way more prepared than the average driving school graduate. I was able to do things that school students are not. I have been through scale houses multiple times daily, blind side alley dock every night, actually maintained a real logbook, performed real pre and post trip inspections, fueled the truck, slept in a sleeper, driven in all weather conditions, dealt with a breakdown and drop/hook trailers every night. None of these are taught or experienced in any school that I am aware of.

The driving school I researched locally, the only one near me that is "accepted" by many of the local and major carriers, is $3000 for 4 weeks in addition to travel, food, lodging, permit, physical and license (all things I would incur or be indebted for no matter my route). They do offer lifetime job placement but the majority of the companies that they place with are the same ones who use this place as their "company school" and are entry level positions. Fact, Schneider Trucking uses this school locally for their company training. It is the exact same course I would receive if I paid for it. I would be in the same classroom with company students. Those folks obviously have employment for the next 12 months but it is to pay off their $5000 debt. ($5k? But the school only charges $3k?) and if you don't stay with the company, you now owe them $7500. Not to mention the company receives a $10,000 grant from the government for training someone in a new profession. To me, that sounds like a scam. Anyway, you get your CDL and certificate from the school and now go to work for a big trucking company where you start off in on the job training for $350 week for 4-6 weeks (with some companies its as long as 6 months). They take their monthly payment out of your check to get reimbursed for your schooling. Once you have completed your time with a company trainer you finally get your own truck where they pay .28 cpm. Based on the research I have done, 2200-2500 miles per week seems to be about the national average. 2500 x .28 is $700 per wk gross but lets not forget that monthly payment for your school "loan." That's $31,400 gross first year after repaying your debt.

I didn't spend $3000. I am not indebted to anyone for any amount of time. My license isn't a different color & doesn't have anything different written on it than anyone else's. I have tanker, hazmat & doubles/triples endorsements with no airbrake restrictions. All of which I studied for and tested on my own thanks to the High Road course. I would've been able to have my license in 3-4 weeks but the NCDMV doesn't road test at every location and even the locations that do test only do 2 per day. The wait was nearly 6 weeks. I researched and found a third party tester locally. It cost me $175, because I supplied the vehicle, and I had 6 attempts. Even with that, DMV controls when and how many they are allowed to test so I had to wait 2 1/2 weeks. I smoked the pretrip and got 100 based largely on the info here.

My friend who helped me made some calls to local companies he had worked for in the past and got me 2 offers within days. I accepted a position with a small furniture company (6 trucks) for $15 per hour, overtime after 40. They pay for my medical insurance. I am home every night in my own bed, I have every weekend off. I have my own assigned truck and I average 70 hours per week. $66,000 first year and I don't owe anybody anything except thanks to my friend & this site.

I am not now nor have I ever claimed to be an expert on truck driving or the industry but I definitely did my due diligence on the subject. I was committed, busted my butt and made the most of the opportunities that were available to me. Sometimes there is a "beaten path" because people are lazy and don't look for alternatives. Again, not suggesting my method for anyone else, simply sharing my story.

Where will I be in 6 months? Better off than those who chose the common path I think.

Thanks again for the site and info.

Finally have a chance to follow up. While it took a little longer than I had hoped, I now have my CDL-A. DMV around here is so backed up that it was a 6 week wait to get an appointment for the road test. I opted to pay $175 and do the test with a third party tester. I was able to get my license without taking out a loan, spending $3-5k on a private school or signing 12-24 months of my life away for less than desirable pay. My ability to get it done was largely thanks to this website and the vast amount of knowledge available here.

Here is what I learned: While mine was not the most common path or highly recommended by many people in the industry the truth is there are more than one way to do anything, if you set your mind to it and are committed. I am fortunate to live in an area that has tons of trucking companies both major lines and lots of smaller local ones. While most companies advertise a minimum of experience or certified schooling what I found out is that many of them use that to filter out applicants. It takes about 15 minutes for a company to run your license info through their insurance company to see if you are insurable via their policy. I ended up with 3 offers from local carriers and 2 from major national carriers. Home every night and off weekends certainly made it worth the extra effort.

I am in no way recommending my method for everyone but did want to share so people could see that you don't necessarily need to follow the traditional or recommended route to get where you want to be.

After a ton of thought and research about schools, company training and the best approach to getting my CDL a friend of mine with 24 years trucking experience convinced me to do it on my own. I studied here religiously for 2 weeks. I did all of the online training course here and felt pretty confident.

Yesterday I got my medical card and went to the DMV to get my permit. Thanks to the info here on Trucking Truth I blew through my GK test and all of the endorsement tests.

Tonight I start training with my friend and he expects me to be testing for my CDL within a couple of weeks.

Thank you again Trucking Truth. After studying here I was completely prepared for all of he testing at DMV. I will continue studying the pre-trip info here while I am working on my skills on the road. This site really works and I think anyone who really wants there CDL can get a great jumpstart here.