New CDL A, Passed Private CDL Test (no School), Now What?

I dont understand the delimma Tom. The stress you are putting on yourself now can be avoided by simply calling the companies you are interested in and telling them the truth about your situation and why you chose to leave Prime.

No more worrying about what story to tell or how they will react. Make the calls, tell the truth and then you will know, simple as that.

I dont understand the delimma Tom. The stress you are putting on yourself now can be avoided by simply calling the companies you are interested in and telling them the truth about your situation and why you chose to leave Prime.

No more worrying about what story to tell or how they will react. Make the calls, tell the truth and then you will know, simple as that.

^^^^^^This^^^^^^

You dug a small hole. Put the shovel away before making it bigger. Just be truthful, fill out as many apps and get all the pre hires you can and then weigh your options and find the right company for you. You're putting way too much thought into how to get around the dilemma and you'll only make it harder on yourself.

Thanks Doug and Robert, you are right. That's the route I will take. All user's input on this thread has been much appreciated:)

I will look into the pre-hire letters and processes [i just saw that term for the first time today], and I am hopeful that like you have said, I will have some choices and can make an informed decision from there.

I am wiser because of all of this, and so hopefully will do things better, and ask the right questions beforehand, the next time around:)

Thanks all

If it makes you feel better... one PSD at Prime banged up 2 trailers and got a hard break before being sent home. He went to CR England and got his CDL within a week. you'll get a job

Try prime... If you left on good terms and paid what you owed you should be up for rehire... Just a idea

There's absolutely nothing wrong with applying to many companies, and even being accepted by several. It's a good feeling when you have choices like this.

In fact that's what Pre-Hire letters are all about.

Also Trucking Truth has an app to Apply For Truck Driving Jobs at many companies all at once.

Wow Errol, what a great app! That is going to make it so much easier to applied to several companies. It looks like it's preformatted and everything!

I would just like to thank everyone for their input, I really appreciate it. This is definitely helped guide me in the right direction.

So this is my plan at this point: as soon as I receive the free DAC report I ordered, I'm just going to double check my information and make sure everything is in order. Then I'm going to use that awesome app you showed me to apply to all the companies I think I'm interested in working for. I hope that anyone that's been following this post that is interested in what happens to me will see some good news posted in the not too distant future!

Drive safe everyone and I hope to talk to you soon:)

I am still hoping to get any actual valuable advice, and perhaps this thread would then be able to not only guide myself, but others in the future:)

Tom, I can't even begin to tell you how frustrated I was today when I stumbled across your first post. Mostly frustrated that I didn't have the free time to respond at that time, and also frustrated with the fact that even though you had been lurking in the shadows of our forum, you waited this late to come in here for help. There is so many things in this post that could be turned into teaching moments for future aspiring professional drivers. You are a case study in how not to get started as a professional truck driver. I'm not being critical, you seem like a very earnest sincere person trying to break into the industry, but you made all the classic mistakes and blunders.

I got my CDL A Permit 6 weeks ago. I went to Prime's Student Training school (the one I chose after 1 week of reading forums here). I then went to Orientation for 1 week (where I excelled), and on my 8th day there, I had a trainer and drove Team OTR for a week (where I also excelled). After only 2 weeks I quit, but we parted ways neutrally. This was due to my dissatisfaction of being forced into flatbed (with a $3,000 commitment), a trainer who "asked" me to drive on his logs, and being forced to drive 8p-4a only, as well as a 2-year commitment to have the tuition fee paid. Anyway, I decided to leave that school, I returned to my home state, and switched my CDL Permit from Missouri back to my home state. A few days ago I tested through a private tester ($300), and now have my CDL A license.

Tom, I'm not trying to defend Prime - I have no connections there, nor any reason to defend them other than the simple fact that some things in that statement seem really bizarre to me. Let's go through them:

1) You say you got a trainer and drove team OTR for a week. This seems highly illegal since you only have a permit, and the only way you can legally drive the truck is for the trainer to be over there in the passenger seat. I know quite a few trainers at Prime, and when you are in the PSD phase of training it is not a team situation - the student drives most of the time, and the trainer might take over for a little while in a difficult situation, but that initial training time cannot be conducted legally in a team situation - Prime does not allow that, and if that was what your trainer was doing, one simple call to Prime would have gotten you off the truck and onto another trainers truck who knew what he was doing. I know that Stan gave you the number to call if you had any issues going on, and I just can't for the life of me understand why you didn't just nip that problem in the bud.

2) You say you were forced into flat-bed. I have never heard anyone say anything like that statement about Prime. I'm not accusing you of lying, it just sounds really bizarre to me. I know so many folks who got their start at Prime, and even though some of them who wanted to go flat-bed ended up going out with a reefer trainer, or vice versa, they still ended up in the division they chose once they were upgraded to go solo. You have the option of deciding which trainer you go with at Prime, they don't assign you a trainer. The trainers talk to the students and decide which ones they like, and the students get to decide whether they want to go with that trainer or not. I think you had to of somehow misunderstood the whole idea of being forced into flat-bed.

3) I completely understand not wanting to pay the three thousand dollars for equipment, but I just don't see how you considered that they were forcing you into something. You are an individual with his own free will who has the power to choose. That is something Prime cannot take away from you. Again, this is something I have never seen spoken of in our forum, and we have a lot of folks in here working for Prime.

4) You say they wanted a two year commitment from you for the tuition. Once again, I'm concerned that you didn't really understand the whole thing. I've never heard anyone having to make a two year commitment to Prime for their schooling. One Year, yes, but never two.

5) Being forced to drive from 8pm to 4 am. I may be mistaken here, but I thought that Prime had some kind of a policy that in the PSD portion of training you are not allowed to drive at night, at least not at the beginning of it. All of these things should have been covered in your orientation, and I know they gave you numbers to call if you were having difficulties with your training experience.

Again Tom, I'm not trying to hurl accusations at you, something just doesn't add up in all this information, and it is troubling to me. The classic blunder or mistake that is made by people trying to jump into this career is that their experience in training doesn't match up with their expectations. They feel they are being railroaded or cheated so they quit.

I am trying to start my new career under the least stressful conditions possible:)

This is the total opposite approach of what you need to take. You have got to go into this with an unquenchable desire to get it done. I posted in the forum one time about how when a person decides to ride a bull for the first time, there comes a moment when they are "all in." Continued...

At that moment, even though they may be shaking with fear, they nod their head to the person who will open the gate, and they are going for it no matter what. They don't keep on analyzing it, they don't waste their time trying to figure out how to avoid the experience they are about to get, they are intent on conquering the bull and hanging in there till the buzzer goes off. They want it so bad they can taste it. The introduction to this career can be summed up with that analogy - it is a rough ride. Every successful driver out there has gone through a very stressful introduction to it, but the one thing that separates them from you is that they wanted it so badly they were willing to take some risks, expose themselves to trying situations, and endure some hardships and maybe some misunderstandings along the way because they felt the end reward was worth the sacrifice, the cost, and the trouble. If you keep looking for the least stressful path to success you will find it, only it doesn't lead to where you thought it would. If you are not continually aiming for a target you will always fall short of it.

Here is where I am getting completely lost:

I have an excellent employment history, 1 misdemeanor DUI and 1 misdemeanor marijuana possession charge (both are 9 years old), 0 accidents, 0 tickets, 0 failed drug tests, and am in my 40's. I have 3,000 verifiable OTR miles in a Cascadia 10-speed (I printed out my 8-day e-log from Prime). I also was an excellent driver, given that was my first week in a truck, ever. Obviously, I will need experience in weather, backing, Qualcomm , policies and procedures, etc., etc... But NOW what do I do?

Tom, you list all the things that are in your favor, including the fact that you have a CDL. But you also realize that no one will take you - you're not lost, you are right on track. And here's the hard truth: you are right. Just about no one will take you because you circumvented the path that a rookie needs to take for success in this career. Of all the companies you listed, I seriously doubt any one of them will touch you except for Western Express. I started my career at Western Express, and I can assure you that you will come away from there more disillusioned than you were when you left Prime. They sat there with a grin on their face when, after my very difficult training period, they basically told me that they had put me through hell just to see if I was tough enough to play on their team! Personally I would not recommend their program for you.

If one of the companies you mentioned will hire you and train you I would like to hear back from you about it, seriously.

Here is what I think you will have to do. I think you are going to have to be willing to make a one year commitment to a Company-Sponsored Training program. Superman has that big letter "S" on his chest for all the world to see - it says he's Superman. You don't realize it yet, but you have got a big letter "L" tattooed on your forehead - it says that you are a huge Liability - you can't see it, but these insurance underwriters who are taking on the risks of the trucking companies see it like it is glowing in the dark.

I seriously think the only folks who will take you on are the "self insured big players" who offer Company-Sponsored Training. Here is what I would recommend that you do, and that is go right back to Prime and finish what you started. Have a civil conversation with them and tell them you absolutely don't want to be a flat-bedder, and that you want to do your training with a reefer driver. Then talk to the various trainers and hold out till you think you've found the one you want. You should know the right kid of questions to ask now, and you should realize that it's not gonna be a walk in the park to endure the training period. Prime's training is unusually long, but it is thorough, and well thought out to prepare you for what lies ahead.