Looking For A Mid-size To Small Company

Not to play devils advocate, but one view point that has changed for you, Brett, is company vs private school. In your book, you are heavily biased towards Private School. Currently you extol on the virtues of Company paid training. Just something I noticed.

For starters, back in the day you didn't have nearly as many good Paid CDL Training Programs out there. You only had a few. Now you have a ton of great ones to choose from and the numbers are growing. I'm hearing that Scheider National is supposed to begin sponsoring students again but I'm not sure if they've started that program or not. They used to have one of the largest training programs in the country.

Another reason is because I really like the idea of starting your career with a company that has a vested interest in the student's success. The company has already invested their time, money, personal, equipment, and other resources into training their students. Now they'll lose a bunch of money if their students don't stick with the company and go on to be successful. That's a powerful incentive to train people well and to tolerate their inevitable rookie mishaps. It puts the new driver a far more secure position to start their career.

See, the "free agent" thing can work both ways. Students come out of private school thinking they're free agents and they can play the field, jump from company to company. Well at the same time a company has no vested interest in a student coming from a private school. They can dump you anytime they like and they won't lose a thing. I think that's a bad scenario for both the company and the student. I don't think either party should enter into a situation where there is no real commitment to the other.

In fact, last night I went to see a slideshow by Steve House, an incredibly famous Hall Of Fame caliber alpine climber and he said some incredibly interesting things about the nature of commitment, both in terms of people committed to each other and people committed to an objective. I won't talk about it right now because I'm going to do a podcast about it next week, but I will say that the paid training programs create a much stronger commitment between the company and the student which is far healthier than this "play the field" attitude that inevitably leads to bad things.

Another reason is because a lot of private schools are hanging on by a thread financially and the situation has gotten worse as bigger corporations start taking over private schools. Just like it's nearly impossible to survive with a small, family-owned trucking company or independent family farm it's also becoming nearly impossible to survive as a small, independent private school. So they often have very low paid instructors, really lousy old trucks, and they're constantly trying to limit the amount of time the students spend in the trucks because it's so expensive.

I once spoke with a private school instructor and I was telling him he could eliminate the classroom portion using online training instead. He said, "The classroom is where I make all my money. The more of that 160 hours I can have them in the classroom the more money I'm going to make. If you eliminate my classroom time and the students spend all of their time in the trucks I'll go broke. It's too expensive."

That was an enlightening conversation to say the least! There was a lot more to it, of course, and it really helped me understand just how hard it is to survive as a private school and the lengths they're having to go to in order to stay in the game.

Finally, all of the companies I've spoken with are having far greater success with students from their own programs than they are with private school students. They're all planning on expanding the number of new drivers they put through their own schools and limiting the number they hire from private schools. Nowadays with so many good paid training programs, many people who are choosing private school are doing so because they're hearing all of these conspiracy theories about company contracts and they have these delusions of grandeur about how anyone with a CDL is in high demand. So they come out of these schools thinking they hold all the cards. They have a lousy attitude, they won't put in the effort, and they have no sense of commitment to the company. In fact, they often went to private school because they want to switch companies anytime they like.

Well anyone with good experience in this industry knows that rookie drivers benefit in so many ways by sticking with their first company for one full year. To enter the industry as a brand new student thinking you're valuable, you hold all the cards, and you should play the field is the wrong approach to take in a career that's as risky and complex as trucking. It takes a long time to really get good at this and to prove yourself to be a Top Tier Driver which is when you'll start to see the great paychecks, new equipment, and special favors from dispatch.

So for all of those reasons and more I feel that paid training programs are the way to go in today's industry.

As you know, I went to a technical college program, which by the way is closed down now. We had good instructors and I liked being able to look at different companies. I am still with the company that hired me out of school. I can understand there is a lack of commitment, but let's be honest, even with signing a contract those drivers will still quit.

I went to a technical college program, which by the way is closed down now

I went to a private school which used to have five locations and now has two. The one I went to has since closed also.

even with signing a contract those drivers will still quit.

Some will.

One interesting tactic that some major companies are either using, or mentioning the possibility of using, is to require a new driver out of private school to sign a one year contract just to see the level of commitment and the type of approach a person has. Even if they don't require a contract they may ask the incoming driver if they would be willing to sign a one year contract. If the student freaks out then it's pretty clear they have no intention of sticking around anyhow, so the company passes on them. It's one of the ways some companies are using to narrow down their choice of candidates.

So often you'll hear that new drivers were not offered an opportunity to work for a company even though the met all of the requirements. Well companies use a lot of different tactics to try to determine who the best candidates are during the interview process. They may have 100 applicants who qualify but only intend to bring in 50. They use these type of techniques during the interview process to try to gauge the quality of incoming drivers.

Let me say this, also. I speak regularly with people throughout the trucking industry. I'm either on the phone or chatting through email with safety managers, recruiting directors, marketing managers, training coordinators, private school owners, insurance reps, accountants, attorneys, drug counselors, doctors, and all sorts of other people throughout the trucking industry and beyond. So when I share information with you guys or I recommend what I feel is the best path for new drivers to take it's based on all kinds of great information I'm being given that the rest of you simply don't have. That's what makes this site so valuable.

I know how company schools and private schools operate. I know what type of drivers the recruiters are looking for. I know the tactics being used for recruiting, training, and evaluating drivers. I know the plans that private schools, company schools, and major carriers have for the upcoming year. I know what types of students are succeeding, and what types are failing, and why. I'm continuously gathering and evaluating information so I can help drivers get their career off to a great start or help existing drivers who are struggling to get things turned around.

So the information I share and the strategies I recommend are the result of endless conversations with sources all throughout the industry.

Out of my orientation group of 5 of us, I am the only one left. The last one to leave quit about a month ago. 3 of my group didn't even make it out of training.

My 2 cents worth, I am going to school at Wil-Trans Feb 12th and I picked them for their size and small family approach the people have been amazing so far and make you feel part of the family.

Wil-Trans:

Darrel Wilson bought his first tractor in 1980 at age 20, but, being too young to meet OTR age requirements, he leased the truck out and hired a driver.

Through growth and acquisition, Wil-Trans now employs over 200 drivers, and has a long-standing partnership with Prime, Inc. to haul their refrigerated freight. The family of businesses also includes Jim Palmer Trucking and O & S Trucking.