Profile For Bill S.

Errol,

I was just confused cause the first sentence said I just finished CDL school. If Erin had said I just went through company training, that would have made more sense. Thank you for clarifying.

Bill

Merry Christmas to you as well.

Sounds like Erin did company sponsored training more than going to CDL school. Only Jrayl wanted a 10 month contract. .33 cents per mile if you did not sign the ten month contract and .36 cents per mile if you signed the contract. If you left before the contract was up you just had to pay back the .3 cents per mile for every mile driven. Nobody else talked about contracts. Or did I miss something?

Due to some bad weather delays I should graduate this week. I take my road test Wed or Thurs. The lady that does the scheduling could not remember off the top of her head so I will find out on Tuesday.

I honestly didn't learn much in the classroom part of the course. The refresher would have been easier to deal with if we weren't in class for ten hours daily. They are correcting this after the new year. They are going to 8 hour days in the classroom. It will be 8 hour days in the yard. That will be difficult when they have large classes like we have now. It's rough getting truck time with ten hour days.

So far I have 11 pre hires. It is a long process of narrowing down the companies.

The instructors are very helpful. They tell all students not to jump into owner operator status for at least one year. They also say to stick with your first company for a year.

The job placement guy told me to stay away from Prime, Swift, and Boyd Brothers because I have offers from better companies. I don't know why he says that. From what I have learned here Prime and Swift are great companies to work for. I have job offers from TMC, Valley transport, and US Express . Others have pre hired me as well. He cited these companies and Schneider as better choices.

I am still considering Prime. I heard good things about them before I heard of TT. At my last job, I worked with a former Marine and his dad worked for them for 20 years or so. When I first started talking about quitting to become a truck driver, he told me about Prime.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Bill

Make sure you ask if it's an actual weekend off or just a 34 hour reset.

Good luck.

I am halfway done with my CDL class. If you studied the high road series, you likely will not learn much. At least I didn't. But I did study for at least a year before I went to CDL school.

Ken,

Thanks for the tip. I guess I will need to grab more gloves. Are some better than others? For tarping and such.

Pat,

I don't want to waste time getting in and out of the truck just to warm up. That's why I asked this question.

Can you be more specific on the gloves please? I figure I will need 2-3 pair so that they have time to drive. I know I will need separate gloves for fueling.

Thanks.

You are correct. Some companies have the 1500 watt inverters according to the recruiters that have come to the school. Others have APUs but not sure if they are rated to power them. Thanks for the heads up, TM.

Gotcha. The recruiter said that you can request more time. I am sure most companies will let you stay with a trainer until you are ready. However, most people don't want to stay with a trainer longer than necessary cause they make less money. May Trucking's recruiter said that you can go solo in 4 days if you so choose. Their training is also a couple weeks long but they don't force anyone to stay with a trainer if they are competent and confident. I personally don't think 4 days would be enough. Especially this time of year. I chose this time of year so I would not have to figure out how to handle the winter on my own. But that's just me.