Best Company With CDL Training To Start With?

Ok, thanks for the link!

Don't knock Prime's 50k training. You aren't doing all 50k, it's dispatched miles and is shared with your trainer. I'm 5 weeks in, hitting my halfway point. I like the program. My trainer is right there as i learn how to handle in the mountains, through tight spots, backing, etc. He's more confident in my backing than I am. I'm actually dreading leaving him because I'm terrified of the alley dock. I can straight back perfectly lol. The time goes fast.

Hey ZedLepellin24, I know how people struggle with this decision of choosing their first trucking employer. It's understandable because they've usually exposed themselves to a bunch of nonsense (via the internet trucker wannabes) before they come to us with questions.

Here's the deal, and the truth. You can and will find a company that "checks off the most boxes" for you. The problem with us as newbies is that we don't even know what boxes are critical or important. This career throws a lot of curve balls at the rookies. They just have no concept of the magnitude of the challenges they are about to face. That stupid self facing camera shouldn't even be on your radar.

Everybody seeks high and low to uncover all these nonessential details about their chosen employer, but none of that is even important. They cannot make you successful at this, nor will they hinder a driver who is determined to succeed at this. A lot of people fail at this career. Their choice of company has nothing to do with that. They fail with cameras, without cameras, and even with self facing cameras.

My only point is that you will determine whether you can make it out here. I hope you can. But, I want you to realize how trivial that name on the doors of your truck really is. We've seen a lot of drivers do a great job at starting this career, and we've also seen a good many throw in the towel. It's no walk in the park. I started my career and built a great foundation for my future at a company many claim is a terribly bad trucking company to work for. Guess what? All the tens of thousands of internet reviews were jaded and misleading.

The only box you've got to check off is the one that says...

I am going to make this happen. In spite of the difficulties, I am determined to be successful at this. I'm going to discipline myself to be creative and learn the secrets that make this career so rewarding and lucrative.

If you can check that box, the rest of your misguided concerns will shrink back in the shadows where they belong.

I got called into the office today. When I walked in I jokingly asked "what'd I do?"

My supervisor hit some keys on the keyboard and turned the monitor so I can see it. It was a video of a run I had a couple of days ago.

He told me the truck flagged an event and he wanted me to watch it. I saw me following another truck. He said I was maintaining a safe distance and after a certain amount of time the truck flags the video. At the bottom of the screen it said how fast I was going, my RPMs and the distance.

He told me that from the video he can see that I have no space on the left, no space on the right and I can't see further than the truck in front of me because the road is straight and level. I told him it's 95 and that was a 560 mile run. 95 is always jammed packed and I want to make it back before I run out of hours.

He was understanding about that and he followed up with some other points. He said worse case scenario if I increase my following distance is I park and wait for a rescue or get an extension. Worse case scenario if I maintain the distance in the video is the guy in front of me crashes or stops suddenly and I have no where to go but into him. Now, it's all taking longer than a rescue would and I have a DOT accident on my record.

Fair points. He told me not to worry about the triggered event. It's the first one I've ever gotten and it's just something to improve on.

When I walked out of the office I instantly thought about this thread and figured I'd share my first camera story.

Rear end collision with another driver is the #1 killer of drivers. #2 are rollover crashes.

I see tons of Fed Ex trucks tailgating daily, so don't think you're the first.

Rear end collision with another driver is the #1 killer of drivers. #2 are rollover crashes.

I see tons of Fed Ex trucks tailgating daily, so don't think you're the first.

The meeting did have an impact on my driving. I made a conscious decision to increase my distance today. I was on 84, which isn't as bad as 95, but I made sure to work on it and improve. The drive back was maybe 20 minutes longer than it normally is.

It's a mind issue for me and I'm working on it. I fall back 7 seconds and a bunch of cars jump in front of me making me have to fall back again. I realized I'm still moving forward, as stupid as that sounds.

The cameras did what they were supposed and I improved because of it.

It's a mind issue for me and I'm working on it. I fall back 7 seconds and a bunch of cars jump in front of me making me have to fall back again. I realized I'm still moving forward, as stupid as that sounds.

maintaining proper following distance drove my trainer absolutely crazy when I was fresh out of school. He always told me speed up if you keep a gap people will just keep moving over. So?? When traffic is heavy I'll drive about 5 mph below the speed limit. If someone cuts into my following distance they'll be out of it real quick. If I'm doing 70 mph in a 70 zone it causes me to slow down to about 65 to get my space back so I find it easier just do 65 in a 70. It minimizes the number of times I'm switching lanes to pass and gives me additional mph to complete the pass quicker. It took me a while to get over the mentality of going so slow. In the end I may think I'm adding 15 minutes to a 200 mile run but in reality its maybe 5 minutes tops but much less stress. Plus I always feel guilty cutting into another drivers following distance. The problem is if i don't then the impatient 4 wheelers will likely start passing on the right and it turns into a bad situation.