Choosing A School

What area are you in?

Pittsburgh area

The local jobs offered at school were either overnight or you would be working from early morning to 8, 9, maybe even 10 PM.

Doesn’t leave much time for a home life. And almost all the local jobs want a years experience first.

I put a lot of hours in at the pizza shop every week, I'm not afraid of the grind. Anything under 60 hours a week would be a break plus there are many weeks I don't take a day off.

I was talking to the driver from the food distributor for the pizza shop and he said there are guys there who attended the schools that I'm looking at. That is not my dream driving job but I could do something like that for a few years, he said they are always hiring. I would love to do OTR for a few years but like I said, that is not an option right now while my kids are still in school.

G-town thank you for the links, I will check them out tonight.

Blackandgold hears things:

I've heard its better to go to school than to be trained by a company whose only concern is training you for the way they want it done.

You go to [trucking] school to get trained in truck driving, truck legal matters and truck operations.

If you go to a Company Sponsored Training Program, the company will train you on truck driving, truck legal matters and truck operations. Yeah, the same thing. Nearly all truck driving schools are focused on one thing: getting you ready to pass the CDL road tests. That's it.

The negative thought that a company might be "training you for the way they want it done" is ridiculous. True, each company has their own system to get things done their way. But if every driver did things their own way nothing would get done.

We hold that company sponsored training is better than a private school because the company will be investing more in you than the ones they hire right from an outside school.

Finally, a private school takes your tuition money and teaches you how to drive. No real guarantee for a job, tough it's not hard to get one.

But the company with a school takes a hard look at you first, and if you get into their school you all but have a job.

What area are you in?

Pittsburgh area

"blackandgold" suddenly makes sense

I was talking to the driver from the food distributor for the pizza shop and he said there are guys there who attended the schools that I'm looking at

I went the route he told you about. However, my company Performance Foods paid for my schooling. Its a very difficult AND RISKY start to this career. I did a diary about my first year Local foodservice if you want a better look at it.

The local jobs offered at school were either overnight or you would be working from early morning to 8, 9, maybe even 10 PM.

Doesn’t leave much time for a home life. And almost all the local jobs want a years experience first.

, that is not an option right now while my kids are still in school.

If the kids are all right by themselves at 60 hours now, then you could probably get away with a local run. But you still may have to do some kind of company school to begin with, I'm not sure. It is also rough for a new driver, backing in on narrow city streets, etc.

You might also consider finding some other type of work for a few years until the kids are ok on their own, then getting into trucking. It's not impossible to find a local job right out of school, but pretty close to it, and it's definitely a very risky way to start your career. Local work is just way too demanding for a brand new driver. You're in heavy traffic, on a tight schedule, working insanely long hours, and oftentimes you're trying to back into a number of docks every day which are extremely hard to get into. It's a recipe for disaster.

Old School did an article on this:

Why You Should Not Start Your Trucking Career As A Local Driver

You're in a tough spot right now for sure. If there is a way you could make a living for a few years doing something else I would strongly consider that. Then you could get into trucking the safest way when you can go regional or OTR.

You might also consider finding some other type of work for a few years until the kids are ok on their own, then getting into trucking. It's not impossible to find a local job right out of school, but pretty close to it, and it's definitely a very risky way to start your career. Local work is just way too demanding for a brand new driver. You're in heavy traffic, on a tight schedule, working insanely long hours, and oftentimes you're trying to back into a number of docks every day which are extremely hard to get into. It's a recipe for disaster.

Old School did an article on this:

Why You Should Not Start Your Trucking Career As A Local Driver

You're in a tough spot right now for sure. If there is a way you could make a living for a few years doing something else I would strongly consider that. Then you could get into trucking the safest way when you can go regional or OTR.

There are LTL companies that will start you on the dock, then let you (and maybe even pay for) your CDL when you are kids are grown and you are able.

Old Dominion, maybe? Maybe someone can expand on this that has more knowledge.

There are LTL companies that will start you on the dock, then let you (and maybe even pay for) your CDL when you are kids are grown and you are able.

Old Dominion, maybe? Maybe someone can expand on this that has more knowledge

At Old Dominion you can work on the dock, once you prove yourself there you can move into the driver training program which splits half your day on the dock and other half working on your CDL. You would be paid hourly through out your training and as long as you stay a year OD covers the full cost of the training. Then you go on the road with a either a P&D trainer or a linehaul trainer depending on which position you took.

If you go to private school as I did, you can skip the dock portion and go straight to on the road training which is all paid at $25 a hour.

Linehaul is almost all overnight but generally pays better. P&D is all hourly and more of a "9 to 5" feel, since your hours are typically less than set and should be more than 55 a week.

Estes, YRC, XPO, USF Holland all have similar programs that are more or less the same.

So I just got back from my first school visit at Rosedal Tech. It is alot more expensive than I was anticipating. Everyone was very professional and nice, which is expected when they're giving a tour to a potential student, but I felt it was genuine. I got to talk to an instructor. He actually got out of a truck and talked to me for a couple minutes so I know it wasn't scripted. He was able to tell me about a decent amount of companies in the area that hired students from the last couple graduating classes for local driving jobs. I'm having a hard time getting past the price though, wondering if its worth it or if I should start calling some companies and asking about on the job training for my cdl.