Paying Up-Front For Company Sponsored CDL School

Nicholas...have you taken the time to read any of this? Below

• Truck Driver's Career Guide
• Brett's Book: The Raw Truth About Trucking (free online version)
• High Road Training Program

There are many factors that determine your pay, CPM rate is only part of the equation. Trip planning, your availability, and the freight your company has in their system significantly affects your income.

There is a whole lot more to driving a truck than steering and listening to howard stern. Are you sure you know what you are in for?

Many people think they kniw and dont have a clue.. Its complete shock when theyre actually out there. Oh and you can get Regional home weekly positions right out of CDL school.. And yes regional IS OTR.

Yeah I've been watching all the YouTube truckers for over a month, I know what I'm getting into. While there's certainly a lot more than just driving and listening to the radio, especially for an owner/operator, most of the time is spent driving and listening to the radio.

Nicholas...have you taken the time to read any of this? Below

• Truck Driver's Career Guide
• Brett's Book: The Raw Truth About Trucking (free online version)
• High Road Training Program

There are many factors that determine your pay, CPM rate is only part of the equation. Trip planning, your availability, and the freight your company has in their system significantly affects your income.

Thanks. I'm reading the Career Guide and Brett's book tonight. I went through part of the High Road last week, and will certainly complete it prior to CDL school.

There is a whole lot more to driving a truck than steering and listening to howard stern. Are you sure you know what you are in for?

Many people think they kniw and dont have a clue.. Its complete shock when theyre actually out there. Oh and you can get Regional home weekly positions right out of CDL school.. And yes regional IS OTR.

Yeah I've been watching all the YouTube truckers for over a month, I know what I'm getting into. While there's certainly a lot more than just driving and listening to the radio, especially for an owner/operator, most of the time is spent driving and listening to the radio.

Interesting...for someone claiming to know what they are getting into, you sure are asking a lot of questions, making claims that are false, and changing directions.

If truck driving was as easy and mindless as you make it out to be then there wouldn't be a shortage of qualified drivers and the failure rate would be in the single digits as opposed to 90%.

Good luck...

There is a whole lot more to driving a truck than steering and listening to howard stern. Are you sure you know what you are in for?

Many people think they kniw and dont have a clue.. Its complete shock when theyre actually out there. Oh and you can get Regional home weekly positions right out of CDL school.. And yes regional IS OTR.

Yeah I've been watching all the YouTube truckers for over a month, I know what I'm getting into. While there's certainly a lot more than just driving and listening to the radio, especially for an owner/operator, most of the time is spent driving and listening to the radio.

Interesting...for someone claiming to know what they are getting into, you sure are asking a lot of questions, making claims that are false, and changing directions.

If truck driving was as easy and mindless as you make it out to be then there wouldn't be a shortage of qualified drivers and the failure rate would be in the single digits as opposed to 90%.

Good luck...

The shortage is because people don't want to live in a truck and have no home life. It's not rocket science. Drive/Sleep/Wait, rinse and repeat.

If you are basing your decisions on " Youtube Truckers", you really need to stop. You sound like a smart Man. This site is called Trucking Truth for a reason. You need to stop the fantasy and get to the FACTS. They are right here if you really want them. Do yourself, and all of us a favor, and spend some time in the archives on this site. Pay particular attention to posts by OLD SCHOOL! and Brett's Book. Once you spend several days taking in that information, you will really have no need to keep this thread going. Please, RESEARCH this site, you will get all of the answers you need. You WILL NOT get all of the answers you WANT!

The shortage is because people don't want to live in a truck and have no home life. It's not rocket science. Drive/Sleep/Wait, rinse and repeat.

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We have another Trucking expert on the site that has never spent 5 minutes in a Tractor Trailer rig. Nicholas, why are you here? You already seem to have all of the answers. You really should be running a Trucking Company. Leave the Driving to all of us toothless dumbass redneck hilbillys. After all, It's not rocket science!!!

The shortage is because people don't want to live in a truck and have no home life. It's not rocket science. Drive/Sleep/Wait, rinse and repeat.

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We have another Trucking expert on the site that has never spent 5 minutes in a Tractor Trailer rig. Nicholas, why are you here? You already seem to have all of the answers. You really should be running a Trucking Company. Leave the Driving to all of us toothless dumbass redneck hilbillys. After all, It's not rocket science!!!

Relax.

Nicholas, yes Prime is a good choice and one that many of our forum members have taken. However it's not the only "good" option, as we also have a good number of members from Schneider, Knight, CR England, Swift, XPO, Old Dominion, Jim Palmer, Roehl, and PAM (actually a longer list than this).

Lots of options, spelled out here: Trucking Company Reviews

Thanks. Of those listed, Knight, England, Palmer, Roehl and Pam are listed on this site as having Sponsored CDL Training. CR England is an immediate no go, based on the reviews I've read. Palmer and Pam look pretty good, and Knight and Roehl look better to me. I think Roehl is the best of that bunch as they pay $500 a week during CDL training, compared to Knight's $300 a week. I'd have to actually sit down and make a spreadsheet comparing all the company's pay when training is over, length of training, if you're solo immediately after training, home time, APU trucks, drop and hook %, etc... I would do that based on the info found here, I wish Brett had one made already ;-)

I went thru Prime a few months ago and it was great! 700 a week while training too.

CDL:

Commercial Driver's License (CDL)

A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:

• Any combination of vehicles with a gross combined weight rating (GCWR) of 26,001 or more pounds, providing the gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of the vehicle being towed is in excess of 10,000 pounds.
• Any single vehicle with a GVWR of 26,001 or more pounds, or any such vehicle towing another not in excess of 10,000 pounds.
• Any vehicle, regardless of size, designed to transport 16 or more persons, including the driver.
• Any vehicle required by federal regulations to be placarded while transporting hazardous materials.

Drop And Hook:

Drop and hook means the driver will drop one trailer and hook to another one.

In order to speed up the pickup and delivery process a driver may be instructed to drop their empty trailer and hook to one that is already loaded, or drop their loaded trailer and hook to one that is already empty. That way the driver will not have to wait for a trailer to be loaded or unloaded.

HOS:

Hours Of Service

HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.

APU:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

Nicholas...you are not approaching this correctly.

First of all there are a half dozen reasons contributing to a newbie's failure that can occur long before the reality of the lifestyle takes hold. I know this for a fact and not because I read it, saw it or heard it somewhere. I witness the struggles of new drivers everyday who have unrealistic expectations and pi**poor attitudes. They fail before ever passing "go".

So this is not rocket science, but then neither is lawyering. Right? It's all in how it's said, admittedly I know very little about the legal profession yet I know it's not rocket science. So as a layperson telling that to a lawyer it's easily perceived as insulting. Get my drift Counselor?

You are NOT a driver!!!

You are an outsider looking in with zero firsthand experience.

Here's the deal,...I will try to be respectful cause you basically diminished the Profession that most of us love and respect. It puts food on your table, clothes on your back and a car under your a**. Without trucks you have none of those things.

You are far too confident and are greatly, greatly underestimating the difficulty and danger of truck driving. Especially in the beginning. If approached as such, this job will figuratively and literally eat you alive. Your lack of humility will not serve you well and likely contribute to your failure.

If an 80,000 pound death machine descending a 9% mountain grade doesn't humble a man or woman, nothing will. But then, I've never been a lawyer.

"Rinse and repeat...right?" It's that easy.