Company Driver Orientation And Training

Another driver recommended that I just not mention it on my resume. Also I had a preventable from the 2 months with USA and not sure if it would come up some how. I also have another preventable with CR England. Yes I see it was a dumb move now. I changed my resume to original truth and I'm going to call the company on monday then come clean and wait to be dumped.

Why did you think it wise to leave it out?

Why did you think it wise to leave it out?

Yea I see now it was a bad move. I have not made it to orientation as of yet. I will call them on monday and just wait for rejection. The reason why was because another trucker advised me to do this. I have 2 preventable. 1 from each company. USA trucking and the dreaded CR England. I see nothing on my DAC but who knows what these psychics can dig up.

Yes they will find out... and you also lied on your application which asks for ALL driving jobs over the last 10 years. The lying part is often worse than whatever mistakes you made as a new driver. If they cannot trust you.... why would they keep you?

Not a good idea.

This a wonderful site ... a great resource for someone clueless like myself who can get much needed advice... THANK YOU very much for the founders and site admin and to every one who contributes. I was reluctant to stick my neck out at first but after reading the posts I am greatly encouraged and feel like I can ask questions without looking too stupid. So here goes one more question that is making me a bit nervous.

I start training with Schneider in two weeks as an OTR company driver-in-training. Got my CDL from a community college, two months ago and have not had any hands-on experience since then. I am 66 years old and although reasonably fit for my age, yet, learning new motor skills takes me a bit longer than your average 20 or 30-something. I had never been inside a truck before CDL school. I had to work really hard and apply myself in CDL school to get all the skills down which the younger guys seemed not to have any problems learning. The instructors granted me special permission to come one hour early every day and leave one hour late after class ended in order to do extra yard exercises practice. There were three of us old foggies who were struggling. In the end we did manage but only because of the extra time and effort that was put in.

Now here is my concern. Since it will have been over two months from the time of passing CDL exam, what if I am again so rusty that at the end of two weeks of training (Schneider only gives last 5 days of on-the-road training) they don't pass me? Will I be able to go to SWIFT or PRIME or someone else who have a 4-6 week training with an instructor? Or will I be considered "damaged goods"? I'd appreciate if someone has a real insight into this matter.

Thank you in advance for your advice.

Why have you waited 2 months?

Any company is going to evaluate your skills as part of their orientation and determine if you are a good risk. They might also require an abbreviated refresher course. Depends.

If you are that concerned about being rusty; go with a carrier that offers a longer period of road training. Swift is 200 hours.

Truth of the matter; 3 weeks or 3 months, once you are turned loose, you’ll soon realize the real learning occurs after road training.

If you are terminated from Schneider during training, it’s likely that another carrier will give you a chance.

Why have you waited 2 months?

Any company is going to evaluate your skills as part of their orientation and determine if you are a good risk. They might also require an abbreviated refresher course. Depends.

We graduated mid-Feb, 2020, but since my HAZMAT security clearance letter TSA had not come in yet, I waited to go to the DMV office and get my CDL issued, just so that I don't have to spend yet another $66 to get the endorsement put on the CDL ... yes, I was being cheap, but I was told it's just a matter of a couple of weeks. So when the letter came I went to the DMV and got the CDL ... At this point I was interested in joining Schneider's tanker division (5-week training in Houston) ... all went well and I was to begin by late March, but then s**t happened. Schneider called and said they pulled up my MVR from the Alabama state and that I have neither tanker nor HME on my MVR ... I called Montgomery and when I finally got this nice lady and explained the situation she said that my endorsements were all valid and in the computer ... "But Schneider says they pulled my MVR and the endorsements are not showing on it," I protested. That is when she tells me that, oh, someone forgot to key them in, and that it's an innocent error which will be corrected in two minutes. But she said that only the DMV office from where my CDL was issued can make the change, she couldn't ... well, that meant I was S.O.O.L. -- Corona virus madness had closed that office and I'll have to wait until life gets back to normal -- which it still has not to-date (mid-April, 2020). Thus I had to go back to Schneider and request a transfer to their dry van division, thinking that it will be faster than applying at a new company from the start ... after all, everything at Schneider was already a done deal ... but no. Now they were staggering the schedule to accommodate the smaller class sizes for their training sessions ... and this, my friend, is why I ended up "waiting" for two months. The blessed data entry clerk at Alabama state DMV office who forgot to key in my endorsements has inadvertently cost me time as well as money, which the poor chap will never know about or even realize.

But anyway, I thank you for answering my inquiry and appreciate the encouragement.

I would urge you to rethink this...

Tankers, especially smooth-bore (food grade) are not something a rookie should be pulling.

Get some experience with dryvan or reefer before attempting tanker.

You can try asking the school you went too of you can get behind the wheel again for a hour or so. The one I went too let people if they had the time. Even if they charge you $50 its a good investment.

Back to the original question about training time, something interesting I didn’t know in my career, that just because you’re an experienced driver, depending on the field your going into, the training can be even longer. I had two years otr when I switched to a local job, but had to spend nine weeks with a trainer because of the rack certification process. Kind of funny that after five weeks as a brand new driver, I was allowed to go solo, but it took twice as long to go solo as a driver with a quarter million miles under my belt.

There's no right answer to that. It's just the way these companies choose run their operation. If you've passed the CDL exam you've demonstrated that you know the basics to operate that vehicle. Regardless of how much training you have most of your learning is going to happen your first couple weeks solo. It's expensive to train a new driver and that may factor in why they train the way they do.

Firs Cooke weeks solo, truer words have never been spoken

I would urge you to rethink this...

Tankers, especially smooth-bore (food grade) are not something a rookie should be pulling.

Get some experience with dryvan or reefer before attempting tanker.

Thanks to TT forum advice I am not going for the tanker right away, starting dry van OTR ... it was fortuitous that the DMV clerk messed up my MVR so the tanker and HME endorsements didn't show up and I was delayed ...