Knight Or Swift?

A guy at my school was from Florida, so yup I heard about the bussing program. Neat program. I originally was going to do 14/7 with knight but decided to try other options first because of the slip seating. Although I think I already mentioned that lol.

The no reply from knight may not be a big deal. Like you said it is around the holidays. Even when it wasn't I often had to call several times to reach my recruiter. Some are probably more responsive than others, but they are all busy handling several people at a time. I would probably give a courtesy call and let them know you were just checking to make sure the message didnt get lost in a spam filter. I bugged the hell out of my recruiter to make sure she new I was serious.

I know your anxious to get started, but make sure your first company is one you will be willing to stay with for a year. South Florida is always a tougher place to get hired out of, which is why I mentioned the refer division. Sure loads may even out for miles between refer and dry van. But there will always be more refer loads out of Florida than any other type. That makes it easier for the company to get you home for home time.

I go back out with my trainer tomorrow morning. Gonna tell him to beg for a Florida run. The high for Monday in my neck of the woods is projected at 6 BELOW

Take care.

Woody

Wow thats cold! We got 50 here last night and people were going berserk buying space heaters.

I also now understand your point about reefer vs. dry van.

BTW the Knight recruiter has returned my latest email so I'm still good with them to pretty much go to Olive Branch later this month. I just had reservations about the DOT physical and that is what the recruiter has pretty much ignored. She won't respond to my concerns but she says I'm still good to go. What I was trying to avoid was quitting my job, going to Mississippi and being sent home per DOT physical issues. But the more I've researched it the more I think I will be okay.

Hope you got that Florida load to thaw out a bit.

If you think there might be a problem then go have a dot physical done on your own. They are less than $100 and you will have alot less stress.

I have been reading this post a couple days now, I am also looking into knight, so came across this, which has been very helpful, definitely a lot of info being passed, I didn't even know where to begin looking at companies until this post

I saw somewhere that knight has a 7/7 option? if this is true then im definitely a lot more interested,

it is great to see people so ambitious and/or dedicated to the career, Pete looks like so far you have found a pretty good match, hopefully you've spent at least SOME time out of Florida, I live in Wisconsin but came up from Arizona, and wow the cold weather is brutal, I saw -6 for Monday on here, they actually already cancelled my kids' school here due to it being a projected temp of -22 with up to -52 with windchill, so that is another thing that will be hard to prepare yourself for,, well try to anyway nothing really prepares you,

as far as the cold weather one thing I like to do is use the hand warmers, and attach them to my kidneys, since the kidney filter your blood if you keep heat on them, they will act like a hot water heater and spread warmer blood through your body, even sometimes all the way to your fingers

well good luck to all out on the road (new and seasoned) -stay safe-

Also not sure if you came across this or not but a good read about company-paid training

The Boot Camp Known As Company-Sponsored Training

Pete, I agree with Guyjax. You can get a DOT physical from any hospital and some doctor's offices for under $100 most of the time. It's well worth doing if you're concerned about anything. And of course during the physical you'll get all kinds of great advice and information about your current health and staying healthy in the future.

Ryan, if you haven't already, go through our Trucker's Career Guide. It covers a million topics pertaining to getting your trucking career underway and it will also take you throughout TruckingTruth to all of the great resources we have, including company-specific resources like:

Trucking Companies That Hire Inexperienced Drivers

Company-Sponsored Training Programs

How To Choose A Trucking Company To Work For

Thanks for the responses guy's I really appreciate it.

I think I will get a DOT physical here before I commit to Knight. No major issues just want to have all of my ducks in a row before I quit a perfectly good job.

I lived in western NC mountains for about 4 years. I was an electrician part of that time and worked outdoors in below freezing weather. I think the coldest it got when I was there was 9 above. I actually prefer the colder temps compared to S. Fl.'s two seasons...hot and hotter. Over the years I've usually had physical jobs. I'm not enjoying being a desk jockey which I thought I would. I guess I'm used to working outdoors after doing so for many years.

Ryan, one of my sister's lives in southern Wisconsin. I guess that is about the polar opposite of Florida. There is cold and then there is frozen tundra cold. Which by the way I hope the frozen conditions help the Packers defeat the Niners.

I've been researching trucking since about June of last year. Both times that I was ready to make a change, I got a promotion so I stayed where I was. Now I'm ready to make the change. I have scoured this website (thank you to Brett)and found a Plethora of information. The links that Brett gave you will answer many questions that you have. After that, contact recruiters from companies that you are interested in. That is what I did and found my options to be extremely limited given my geographic location.

Knight has everything I am looking for as an inexperienced driver. Paid school, paid training, decent equipment, and they hire out of my area. They do that for me, they will have a loyal employee working for them.

Pete

Well it's good that you've at least had some exposure to the cold climates, and thanks for the link brett ill look into that, and I also have had similar experiences as you have pete, everytime I go to take the jump I get offered better money where I am, just as now I am looking into it again, I applied as a yard horse at my current job, but they put me in the warehouse stacking pallets,but I needed the job so I took it, but now that I am looking to leave I am just about to get an extra 1.10 per hour, plus .01 per box, which adds up quite nicely, but all things considered, I have three kids and possibly a 4th on the way, I don't want to leave them for days and weeks at a time but in the end after a year or so I will have a cdl and a experience, so I would be able to get a more local job, everywhere you look there are trucks with ads on the back looking for drivers, if you hold a cdl you can always have a job,

this is definitely a career better suited for someone without kids and a wife, but I am tired of the struggle and am ready for a career, people do it married with kids all the time,

I also just saw that northern florida is even going to be seeing windchills in the single digits, this is a very crazy time for weather and I pray that all on the road make it through this cold front, as a child I idolized many people as we all do, but what most people don't realize is that truckers are some of the toughest people on the planet, they go through the worst of weather, deal with the worst of drivers, worst of bosses, the list goes on but I guess that's why people always "keep on truckin" when things get hard in life

Pete,

I went through the Knight school in Olive Branch, MS and still work for them based out of Lakeland. My experience so far is that they are a great company to work for and so far all of my experience with the corporate people have been great. There are a couple of things that i don't like but that would be true with any company. I had looked at several companies before choosing Knight and i am happy with my choice. I have a family and they have been very good with getting me home when i need to be there and never raising any complaints. No issues with miles and the money is always there on payday. I had a couple issues with payroll but they fixed them quickly. If you have any specific questions i will be happy to answer them if possible.

Ryan, you can always go otr for a year, then try and get something more local to your area for family. At least that is what I have read from other drivers.

Thomas, fellow Floridian; how do you find the winter driving compared to driving in Florida? If you drove with Knight during the warmer months, how are they on idle time to keep cool at night?

The recruiter told me I would be working out of the Lakeland terminal also, have they kept you east, west or all over? Do you run reefer or dry?

I've seen a few Knight trucks here in southwest Fl on a couple of occasions.