Getting Ready To Start CDL School And Want Some Advice?

I would like to add that there are companies that are making even the people who go through private schools sign contracts as well. If there is a sign on bonus then there could be a contract to go with it.

Again I see everyone has jumped on the bandwagon to gang up on me for my comments. I apologized if I offended anyone. Tractor u are right I have been to a company sponsored school or have any experience. But the whole topic was nothing to do with driving but school. Just like everyone on this forum I gave my opinion and only stated facts. I said nothing untrue. So can everyone take a chill pill. Again sorry for my choice of words. But I was only stating a fact and everyone can agree that the fact is true.

Hey G-Town

I'm sorry if I offended u or any other person on the forum. Not my intention at all. Was just stating facts. My choice of words could have been better I agree. But the truth is that anyone going to a company sponsored school will need to sign a year contract and that is a fact RIGHT? That's all I was trying to let the person inquiring about school understand. I have heard many stories of people go to the company sponsored schools and then hate working for the company but they are stuck there for a year.

Yosemite Sam wrote:

But let you know to not to a company CDL school because they will chain u down for a minimum of a year in order to pay for the school.

Chained down? Sam, this is the second time you have discouraged people from Paid CDL Training Programs.

You need to stop coming off as an authority on this subject. You're not. Many of us, including me chose company sponsored. It works and will continue to work. Although it wasn't right for you, that doesn't arbitrarily mean it's a bad choice for others.

Please focus on what you know and have experienced.

You told him not to go the route of company sponsored because of being "chained" to a contract. It's not excessive when considering the extent of the training that is delivered or the follow-on support. It's a commitment that is both viable and reasonable.

In contrast to your point, I would argue that there are numerous success stories resulting from attending a company sponsored school, many of them right here. Typically it's only the so called horror stories that are written about.

You have not experienced company sponsored training so how can you advise a person not to choose that path? Again, tell us about your experience and why it worked for you. Offer information the OP can use to make their decision. Like I said, the path you chose worked for you, but it's right for you and not necessarily for someone else.

Yosemite Sam wrote:

Again I see everyone has jumped on the bandwagon to gang up on me for my comments. I apologized if I offended anyone. Tractor u are right I have been to a company sponsored school or have any experience. But the whole topic was nothing to do with driving but school. Just like everyone on this forum I gave my opinion and only stated facts. I said nothing untrue. So can everyone take a chill pill. Again sorry for my choice of words. But I was only stating a fact and everyone can agree that the fact is true.

Sorry Sam I do not completely agree with your version of the "truth". Granted, there are many trusted folks on this Forum who I will accept the request to "chill out" from. Sir, with all due respect, you are not one of them.

To reiterate and to be clear, you advised a new person researching their training options not to take the route of Paid CDL Training Programs because of being chained to a contract. The falsehood begins with the chained part. There are no chains Sam. Although I highly discourage anyone from breaking a contract, if it's an absolute necessity a driver can "buy" there way out of it by meeting their financial obligations specified in the contract. There are no chains. Not true. I agree, indeed there are contracts, but they are reasonable, customary, and legal. Sam if you offered a valuable service to someone who required it, wouldn't you expect to get paid for it? And paid in full? No different here.

That being the case, my real issue with your post is advising and discouraging a potential student from committing to Company Sponsored only because of the contract when you have no base of experience to arbitrarily offer that. What about quality? What about a high probability of a job offer once graduated? Yes there are Cons with Company Sponsored, but there are also many Pros. I chose Company Sponsored as my path into OTR trucking, it worked for me and I totally believe in it. It does not mean that as a result of my great experience I am going to discourage a person from going to a private school or community college because of my bias toward company sponsored. Not how it works here.

Totally OK if you let him (the OP) know the contract exists with Company Sponsored, but you crossed the line (IMO) when you instructed him to choose some other training route because of the contract and your obvious dislike for it. You did this once in this thread, and again in another thread. This was not a choice of words, but a very strong opinion. You also tried to justify your points by stating that you heard horror stories about Company Sponsored training. Again, that's not going to fly here. We want to read about your experience, your first-hand personal experience; trials, tribulations, successes and failures, but definitely not what you heard or read on the internet. No value in that.

No one is picking on you Sam. Not at all the intent, just an effort to maintain a level playing field and offer unbiased truth and accuracy in the information exchanged.

Yosemite Sam wrote:

Understood G-man. Thanks for ur wisdom. Honestly never been on something like this site before. Starting to understand how to go about this.

No one is picking on you Sam. Not at all the intent, just an effort to maintain a level playing field and offer unbiased truth and accuracy in the information exchanged.

Honestly never been on something like this site before.

Yosemite Sam, you just gave us the highest compliment you could have. We are proud to be uniquely different in the world of information gathering for a future trucking career.

Getting started, and being able to succeed as a rookie at this is terribly misunderstood. We can sympathize with folks getting off to a bad start or even picking up some bad information along their way because the online sources where people would normally look are woefully full of misinformation.

One of the things that is so important for a rookie driver to understand is that it takes a lot of commitment to not only survive that first year, but to hopefully establish yourself somewhere as one of the few who understands how to get things done out here. Most, if not all, of the sad tales you will come across on truckers forums are finger pointing tirades at companies who have a good solid core group of drivers who are out there getting it done day in and day out. I had a great start to my career at Western Express, and was a top producer there until I felt compelled to accept a really great offer from Knight Transportation for a dedicated flat bed position. I would challenge you to find anything good on trucking forums about Western Express. Maybe after doing that little exercise you'll realize why G-Town reacted like he did to your initial comments. He's one of those valuable drivers who form the core group of professionals at Swift. I know you've seen plenty of trash talk about Swift.

You have to realize that all that slanderous B.S. on most forums is from people who don't have a clue about how to make it in this industry, and they are more than willing to tell everyone about their failures! The problem is that they've never figured out where the problem lies, so they lash out at the companies they've tried.

We are really big on teaching people to make a one year commitment to their first trucking employer - it just takes that long to really get a grip on this stuff so that you can establish yourself as one of those drivers that I spoke of earlier as part of a core group. That is reason enough to not be scared away by the commitment required from a Company-Sponsored Training Program.

There is no "free lunch." You can pay out of pocket to a school, or you can pay your bill while working and learning your trade from the people who were generous enough to front the money to a total greenhorn with nothing to offer but a chance that they might be one of the almost ten percent who actually succeed at their attempt to break into this challenging yet rewarding career.

You didn't "offend" any of us - you just made it obvious to a bunch of us who know what it takes to get this career off the ground, that you had already picked up on some of the rampant misinformation that permeates anyone's initial searching into how to go about starting this career.

You keep hanging around here and you will find that we shoot straight, and will help you in any way we can. You will also learn a lot in the process about how not to end up as one of the whiners and complainers on those other sites. We want you to be able to help others figure this whole thing out, not keep piling on more stories in the never ending reams of misinformation that are accessed daily by folks like yourself who would like to start a successful career.

Prime's CDL training is top notch, and if you are a veteran, your obligation to them is only nine months instead of a year. You don't pay anything back for your training. You just have to agree to work for them for that length of time.

Yosemite Sam wrote:

Understood G-man. Thanks for ur wisdom. Honestly never been on something like this site before. Starting to understand how to go about this.

No one is picking on you Sam. Not at all the intent, just an effort to maintain a level playing field and offer unbiased truth and accuracy in the information exchanged.

We're good Sam. Here to help and thanks for the compliment.

Sam, Take a few hours (or days) and go through archived posts by Old School. I have learned more about this business and what to expect, maybe more importantly, what NOT to expect in this Industry by reading his posts. The Man is a Goldmine of information that he shares freely on this site. He has not led me wrong! Welcome to "The Friendliest Truckers Forum on the Internet". Brett doesn't call it that for nothing!

Thanks old school. Really appreciate u taking the time to put that out there. Definitely taking in all the advise from all the veterans

Honestly never been on something like this site before.

Yosemite Sam, you just gave us the highest compliment you could have. We are proud to be uniquely different in the world of information gathering for a future trucking career.

Getting started, and being able to succeed as a rookie at this is terribly misunderstood. We can sympathize with folks getting off to a bad start or even picking up some bad information along their way because the online sources where people would normally look are woefully full of misinformation.

One of the things that is so important for a rookie driver to understand is that it takes a lot of commitment to not only survive that first year, but to hopefully establish yourself somewhere as one of the few who understands how to get things done out here. Most, if not all, of the sad tales you will come across on truckers forums are finger pointing tirades at companies who have a good solid core group of drivers who are out there getting it done day in and day out. I had a great start to my career at Western Express, and was a top producer there until I felt compelled to accept a really great offer from Knight Transportation for a dedicated flat bed position. I would challenge you to find anything good on trucking forums about Western Express. Maybe after doing that little exercise you'll realize why G-Town reacted like he did to your initial comments. He's one of those valuable drivers who form the core group of professionals at Swift. I know you've seen plenty of trash talk about Swift.

You have to realize that all that slanderous B.S. on most forums is from people who don't have a clue about how to make it in this industry, and they are more than willing to tell everyone about their failures! The problem is that they've never figured out where the problem lies, so they lash out at the companies they've tried.

We are really big on teaching people to make a one year commitment to their first trucking employer - it just takes that long to really get a grip on this stuff so that you can establish yourself as one of those drivers that I spoke of earlier as part of a core group. That is reason enough to not be scared away by the commitment required from a Company-Sponsored Training Program.

There is no "free lunch." You can pay out of pocket to a school, or you can pay your bill while working and learning your trade from the people who were generous enough to front the money to a total greenhorn with nothing to offer but a chance that they might be one of the almost ten percent who actually succeed at their attempt to break into this challenging yet rewarding career.

You didn't "offend" any of us - you just made it obvious to a bunch of us who know what it takes to get this career off the ground, that you had already picked up on some of the rampant misinformation that permeates anyone's initial searching into how to go about starting this career.

You keep hanging around here and you will find that we shoot straight, and will help you in any way we can. You will also learn a lot in the process about how not to end up as one of the whiners and complainers on those other sites. We want you to be able to help others figure this whole thing out, not keep piling on more stories in the never ending reams of misinformation that are accessed daily by folks like yourself who would like to start a successful career.