I Live On The East Coast, Looking To Get Into Trucking.

Here's the scoop on Smith and Solomon and the school in Williamstown who's name escapes me...they suck and suck your money.

When you go to one of the schools you still need training. Just because you get a CDL you can't go solo. I have THREE friends who went to S & S who can't fiND jobs. It took months for the school and their "job placement" sends every student to mom and pop companies so getting one position is hard when 300 students are going. Plus... they pay a lot less because you have no training.

Smith n Solomon used to be awesome years ago... but people I know who went recently can't find work and one decided to come to prime for the OTR training. YAY for me cause we get referral bonuses

With prime you only pay them If you don't stay a year and then it is prorated.. so $3200 if you leave right away.. $1600 if you leave after six months... etc. A year sounds long.. but it flies by. I intended on trying to find local after the year but once I got here and found an awesome company my mind was changed.

Once you get the permit you are automatically hired that day and start getting paid $700 per week gross whike in training.Don't believe any other site on the net.... the people here speak the truth and can provide proof. I was told by others as a rookie I wouldn't get the larger truck but would get squeezed unto a lightweight wuth less room LIE. I can show you pics to prove it. I was told as a prime rookie I would get 1200 miles per week... LIE I can show my pay stubs to you I get 2500 to 3100 per week. I DO get less when my dispatcher is off.. but he makes up for it later. I was told I wouldn't get home on time LIE. I got delayed once by one day... and got home one day early once.

The truth is you have to look at each company and see what works for you. We all have great stories about our companies which is why we are still with them.

As far as those who advertise in our area... Swift, CR England, Roehl are the major ones. Prime had rhe highest pay for training and rookie solo... and they let me bring my cat. If I remember correctly CR England had a very low cent per mile pay so I scratched them immediately.

My friend went to Smith and Solomon the same week I went to prime. The following week I already drove almost 3000 miles. His recruiter told him i was lying and that was impossible so I sent my qualcomm records of my miles.

Those recruiters will tell you anything to get your $6000 in some schools.

Something else to consider is that woth the company sponsored training you are on the road 24/7. Not only do you get a taste of the lifestyle but you have no other home distractions. Everything is ia trucking and learning. There is no waiting period of doing good one day then waiting days or weeks before being able to practice again.

Would you do better on the road test with 3 weeks and 10k miles driven or sporadic driving and a few hundred miles? I wanted all the practice I could get. Lol... and got it essentially for free cause I paid prime nothing

Prime is sounding better and better. Any link to threads about Prime are greatly appreciated. Preparing to go, what to bring etc

Rainy has a great thread about her Prime experience over in the diary forum. Also check out Prime in this section:

Paid CDL Training Programs

A lot of answers there as well.

Prime is sounding better and better. Any link to threads about Prime are greatly appreciated. Preparing to go, what to bring etc

Put prime in the search bar. You ll come up with plenty. ;)

They have reefer which I drive, tanker, and flatbed. They also have intermodal which runs reefers for trains.

Another lie I found found is people claim prime will pressure you into leasing... LIE. I was asked ONE time if I was going to lease or going company. Just so they could assign me a truck. No pressure. And my dispatcher only does company drivers so he's not pressuring any of his drivers or he won't get paid.

Here's the scoop on Smith and Solomon and the school in Williamstown who's name escapes me...they suck and suck your money.

When you go to one of the schools you still need training. Just because you get a CDL you can't go solo. I have THREE friends who went to S & S who can't fiND jobs.

Rainy, first of all there is no such thing as a school that will train you to be a proficient driver. You should know this by now. You need further training no matter what school you graduate from. They're only teaching you the basics you'll need to get your CDL and land a job.

On that note, why can't your friends find jobs after graduating from that school? Have they applied to the major companies? If so, why were they turned down?

Smith And Solomon has 9 locations and have been around for a very long time. From their website:

Smith & Solomon has been in the truck driver training industry for over two decades. We are one of the largest commercial driver training schools in the country, maintaining a fleet of 140 pieces of equipment.

They also have courses of 160 hours and that should meet the minimum requirements of almost any major carrier.

So I'd like to find out more about this. If there is a genuine problem with these schools I'd like to know about it. But for you to make the claims you're making about a system of schools with 9 locations and two decades in the industry it needs to be backed up with some serious facts.

I completely understand you need training , that was my point. S n S promotes themselves to be a complete school and local job placement .. which many trade schools do and fail. They make it seem like you can go straight to a solo local job after that. I went to a job fair with my friend and discouraged him from signing up (before I even heard of company sponsored programs the recruiter was trying to push us away from company sponsored. That is when I realized he saw then as compettion). I got a real snake oil salesman feel about it My friend who works in superior went there 12 years ago and was quite happy. At the time they set up with companies willing to train and had one on one time rather than 10 students to a truck. As you said... they have been in my area for most of my life and used to have a great reputation. They are.the school.our unemployment office sends people to for training. In recent years however that has dwindled. The Bellmawr nj location currently (or did between sept and feb when my friend john went) has 3 trucks. 1 was broken down so they use it for pre trip, one they use to test and the other they use for training. Enrollment varies week to week but they go to job fairs squeezing as many students as they can. My friend was in a class where 9 students stood and did pre trip for 4 weeks while others who enrolled ahead of him prepared for the test. They set up a test for him three months ahead of time and he thought that meant he would get plenty of backing and road time. Wrong. They did take them to the local Petro on I 295 in Bordentown and practiced backing there, but still anywhere for 5 to 10 student to a truck. So actual hands on learning time was much less than promised in the sales pitch. This was not the case back when my superior friend went. He was actually trained one on one by a guy I went to high school with (NJ is congested but we all still know each other lol).

A decade ago they sent people to major carriers.. now they seem to convince the students big carriers are not the way to go. Plus one of their selling points is finding a high paying local job...without having to go OTR. How many times has this forum mentioned that is difficult to do?

The differences between the past and present almost seem like day and night. Perhaps they changed management or owners or something. Even when I called them last summer, depending on who I spoke with the price ranged from "$3000 plus expenses" to "$6000 all inclusive". I was told by one guy there was financial aid, but when i called back to ask for specifics i was told financial aod was not available. That's when John and I went to the job fair to get real info. We got marketing goobelygok and double talk. John was impressed.and believed the promise of high paying local jobs right out of school in brand new trucks.

I researched and my superior friend suggested prime... I found this forum and researched the different companies. John fell for a sales pitch and signed the contract.

At one point at the job fair the recruiter mentioned there was. an issue about their testing. They could not test students in NJ and made people go to PA to test. It was a technicality supposedly and he asked if we would be willing to do that. That made.me.curious though... what would cause that? It almost sounded as though they could not legally test in NJ . The whole.thing left a bad taste with me as that was their job to deal with DMV and DOT type of technicalities.

Perhaps it is really an issue of over zealous recruiters which you can find anywhere. Or unrealistic expectations which are enabled by those recruiters. Perhaps that was the impression left with me before I had any trucking experience. Perhaps all CDL schools are like this but my positive and all consuming experience with Prime tainted my views.

Idk.this is my opinion based on my conversations with both the company and several students.