New To Trucking.

Have you done the High Road CDL training program? I HIGHLY recommend it. I was so totally prepared for my test, and I passed with flying colors. If you haven't started, do it now. If you have, keep reviewing

My application has been sent to Prime Inc. as of right now...I feel so official! Hopefully if a recruiter doesn't contact me by tomorrow, I'll contact them and get the ball rolling. I'm excited.

Welcome aboard Emily!

Hey, we have an awesome Truck Driver's Career Guide if you haven't come across it already. It covers about every topic imaginable that pertains to getting your trucking career underway. Go through it thoroughly and follow all the links. You'll learn a ton. Make sure you go through that and our High Road Training Program before you make any firm decisions about your career.

Also, if you're looking for stories and insights about life on the road, my book is a great place for that. You can find the free online version here:

Becoming A Truck Driver: The Raw Truth About Truck Driving

With your birthday coming up, now is the perfect time to start contacting recruiters and learning more about the companies that are out there.

Hey Emily,

Check with a recruiter at Roehl too. They have an excellent program for rookies, but not sure about their age requirements. Good luck!

Goodness, so much do to with so much information. You guys are great, and I'll definitely get started with the guides, quizzes, and training.

I already had a recruiter from Prime call me this morning and leave me a voice mail. I was completely shocked, because all the little part time jobs around here you have to fight for anyone to even talk to you. I'm going to get a list of questions and points to discuss with them though before I call them back. I'm hoping that they'll have a local recruiter or we can communicate continuously via phone or email; regardless, I've never been happier to live near one of the south's largest cities.

I want to thank all of you again, I imagine I'll be doing that much more as I continue to explore this. You're all awesome! I look forward to sharing my experience, good, bad, short term, or long term with you guys ~ I'm glad I came across such a great community to offer information and point me in the right direction.

Hey, when you try getting in touch with recruiters it's usually very difficult to get them to return calls and nearly impossible to get them to respond to emails. Recruiters are very, very busy and they're usually paid some sort of a commission to bring drivers in the door. So what they're looking for is applicants that seem very serious about landing a job with the company. Often times they won't bother calling people back until they've received several calls from someone. They simply don't want to waste their time trying to land a driver that's probably not interested in working there anyhow.

I wrote an article recently called The Biggest Mistake New Drivers Make When Speaking With Recruiters. Have a look at that so you understand the situation pretty well. The take away is simple - do not judge a company by the quality of their recruiters. Just because they're professional, prompt and courteous doesn't mean the company is. Or vice versa, just because they're lazy, unprofessional, and seem lousy at what they do doesn't mean the company is the same way. A lot of people make that mistake. They'll have trouble getting a recruiter to return their calls and emails so they figure the company isn't interested or they're a lousy company. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The best way to get a recruiter to become more available to you is to be persistent. Stay in contact, ask a lot of questions, and keep showing a serious interest in the company. That will get them to pick up the phone.

I remember reading over that somewhere, that the recruiters and trainers will try to get under your skin and stress you out. All part of the training. I'm good with this and prepared for it. I called her back this afternoon, and I'm definitely not opposed to calling once a day to check back on my application. It also gives me time to continue researching other companies and compile a list of questions and compare answers and such. Seeing as how I still can't drive for another month and a half, I have plenty of time as it is.