Company Truck Driving School

My wife and I are seriously considering becoming a team driving OTR however we have zero experience so we are looking at company sponsored schools. Our research has narrowed our search down to Prime and CR England. We have read the reviews on each company but what we are looking for is up to date information from drivers that have recently gone through each companies training and is now on the road, during and after training. on what to expect. The blogs we were reading were from a year ago or longer and our thought is that some things may have been improved, or not. So is there someone out there who has recently gone through training with either company and can enlighten us on the process. We have spoken to the recruiters and we fully understand they are sales people and may tell us whatever we want to hear so we want the real scoop from real people that have gone through both programs. Questions we have are about the level of training, time spent on the road with the trainer, pay during and after training and what features are on the trucks assigned to you. Any assistance would be appreciated.

I'm curious, how did you settle on CR England being one of your choices? They're a great company as far as miles and equipment are concerned, but their pay is really low. Now maybe they just recently changed that, but I haven't heard anything.

There are a lot of companies that offer training and we have a ton of information on them. Pages and pages of information in fact:

Paid CDL Training Programs

You can also apply to a bunch of companies at once with one quick form on our site to see what opportunities you'll have:

Apply For Company-Sponsored Training

CR England also trains and tests on auto only transmissions. You will have a restriction on your license right out of the gate. Limiting your opportunities later on down the road.

CR England also trains and tests on auto only transmissions. You will have a restriction on your license right out of the gate. Limiting your opportunities later on down the road.

This is true. But, considering nearly all the major companies are switching to auto-shift, the auto-only restriction may not be such a problem.

CR England also trains and tests on auto only transmissions. You will have a restriction on your license right out of the gate. Limiting your opportunities later on down the road.

This is true. But, considering nearly all the major companies are switching to auto-shift, the auto-only restriction may not be such a problem.

I have to disagree with that because you're not going to be trained how to shift and it requires you to take the driving exam again to get that restriction lifted. If it was just a matter of taking a ten minute written exam, like you do for many of your endorsements, I would say it's no big deal. But chances are at some point in your career you're going to want the opportunity to drive a manual transmission. You're not going to know how to shift and you're going to have that restriction. Now you're going to have to pay a significant amount of money to go to a private school for a week to learn how to shift and then use their truck for the exam. Until you do that, no one with standard transmissions can hire you.

I personally wouldn't go through training that put an automatic restriction on my license. I would learn how to shift and make sure I had no restrictions. It's perfectly fine to take jobs with automatic transmissions, but you want to maximize the opportunities you have down the line.

I personally would prefer an automatic. Since I'm new I don't have the experience with a manual to prefer it over an automatic. Especially if I have to do a lot of city driving. That being said, I have the same opinion as Brett. I would rather train and test out on a manual and not have to deal with the restriction or have to go through the hassle of having to re-test if I want to get it removed. That was my personal choice though.

I went through CFI traing and I have been solo with them since the end of June. I love the company and how they respect the drivers. We hear from the president of the company at least once per month. The company will listen to the drivers. They are always looking for teams. You can look in my profile for all my coments or search any company in the search bar. The more research you do the happier you will be. I have not been dissapointed at all in my choice to drive for a living. I'm getting into my groove and starting to make the kind of money I expected. Hope that helps. Good luck.

Not sure if I using the right area to reply but I wanted to reply to Brett asking about why we were looking at CR England. The simple and honest answer is the amount of training time that my wife and I would be apart. While we both agree the money is much better with Prime we were concerned with the amount of time it would take to achieve the 30,000 miles before we could team up. This is a difficult decision for us and we are really trying to do our research. Early on I googled companies with training programs and I thought I got them all but in looking at this site I am seeing names of companies that apparently have schools that I had not heard of. Can you tell me what are your thoughts about Prime? Are there any other companies with programs that you could recommend that might not have my wife and I apart for so long (like Prime) or should that even be a concern? We definitely want to be properly trained before we go on our own and along with everyone else the pay is a big concern as well. Any ideas, comments or concerns would be helpful. Thanks

My wife and I are looking to team and trying to find a good company with good training and pay. We would prefer to keep the time apart (out with a trainer) as minimal as possible without sacrificing good training. Can some of you suggest or give a nod towards the company you signed with, maybe some details. We are wanting to start this real soon. Thanks for any assistance

There are some companies that will train you and your wife together. I wish I could tell you which ones, but I am sure someone here knows.