Starting A Refresher Course At Stevens Transport

On January 25th; I will be entering the trucking industry for a second time. I am coming back into this career with very little experience under my belt. Giving a little backstory; I initially obtained my Class A CDL in October 2019. I was with a training mega carrier, and only drive for just about 2 months as a trainee. Unfortunately, things did not work out for me. I did not have any safety issues or violations, however that particular carriers training was very lengthy; and I can be transparent and admit that team driving for anywhere from 4-5 months was not a fit for me. Ironically, I chose this particular carrier because of the extensive training. As "they" say - hindsight is 20/20.

At any rate, upon leaving that particular company - I chose to return to my previous career. During the past year, there has not been a day that I did not consider returning. After much pondering and planning - I am excited to say, I am officially coming back!

Seeking out a company to train me on this restart has not been easy. Although I already have my CDL; I found that coming back into this industry after being out the truck for a year with very little driving experience prior to getting out of the truck, I'm at a disadvantage.

While there are many different carriers that are considered training carriers, the majority of these companies will not offer "refresher" training. That was actually a surprise to me. I will admit - I did not reach out to every training company there is ... but needless to say - quite a few said they only train those without a CDL. For those that were willing to work with someone who already has a Class A CDL, they wanted someone with a minimum of 3 months driving experience. STRIKE TWO. It was not looking good. My previous carrier does have me listed as rehire-able; but the training program is still the same. Upon my departure, it was agreed upon that I am welcome to come back and drive for them - but I would need to get 6 months experience at another carrier. This would allow me to forgo the extensive training requirement.

Ultimately, when you want something bad enough - you do not give up! I continued to seek out a company that will work with my situation. I am happy to say that Stevens Transport has agreed to train me! As I looked for resources about Stevens Transport's training; I realized - unfortunately .... there isn't alot of information available. The information I did find - was rather dated. I hope to be able to aide those who maybe considering Stevens Transport as a starter company to begin their trucking career.

My experience will not be the same as some others. I will have a unique experience to share - as I will be documenting my training as a refresher student. My refresher course will be anywhere from 1 - 3 weeks. I will find out exactly how long I will be doing refresher training when I do my skills assessment next week. Once I finish my refresher course, I begin the 240 hours of training with an experienced driver. At that point, the training will be consistent with other "new" drivers. Upon completing the 240 hours of training, I will attend a 4 day orientation and then upgrade.

I hope to be able to provide some highlights about the training experience at Stevens Transport, for those that are considering this carrier.

On January 25th; I will be entering the trucking industry for a second time. I am coming back into this career with very little experience under my belt. Giving a little backstory; I initially obtained my Class A CDL in October 2019. I was with a training mega carrier, and only drive for just about 2 months as a trainee. Unfortunately, things did not work out for me. I did not have any safety issues or violations, however that particular carriers training was very lengthy; and I can be transparent and admit that team driving for anywhere from 4-5 months was not a fit for me. Ironically, I chose this particular carrier because of the extensive training. As "they" say - hindsight is 20/20.

At any rate, upon leaving that particular company - I chose to return to my previous career. During the past year, there has not been a day that I did not consider returning. After much pondering and planning - I am excited to say, I am officially coming back!

Seeking out a company to train me on this restart has not been easy. Although I already have my CDL; I found that coming back into this industry after being out the truck for a year with very little driving experience prior to getting out of the truck, I'm at a disadvantage.

While there are many different carriers that are considered training carriers, the majority of these companies will not offer "refresher" training. That was actually a surprise to me. I will admit - I did not reach out to every training company there is ... but needless to say - quite a few said they only train those without a CDL. For those that were willing to work with someone who already has a Class A CDL, they wanted someone with a minimum of 3 months driving experience. STRIKE TWO. It was not looking good. My previous carrier does have me listed as rehire-able; but the training program is still the same. Upon my departure, it was agreed upon that I am welcome to come back and drive for them - but I would need to get 6 months experience at another carrier. This would allow me to forgo the extensive training requirement.

Ultimately, when you want something bad enough - you do not give up! I continued to seek out a company that will work with my situation. I am happy to say that Stevens Transport has agreed to train me! As I looked for resources about Stevens Transport's training; I realized - unfortunately .... there isn't alot of information available. The information I did find - was rather dated. I hope to be able to aide those who maybe considering Stevens Transport as a starter company to begin their trucking career.

My experience will not be the same as some others. I will have a unique experience to share - as I will be documenting my training as a refresher student. My refresher course will be anywhere from 1 - 3 weeks. I will find out exactly how long I will be doing refresher training when I do my skills assessment next week. Once I finish my refresher course, I begin the 240 hours of training with an experienced driver. At that point, the training will be consistent with other "new" drivers. Upon completing the 240 hours of training, I will attend a 4 day orientation and then upgrade.

I hope to be able to provide some highlights about the training experience at Stevens Transport, for those that are considering this carrier.

Trucking Bunny, welcome to Trucking Truth, and thanks for sharing your story!!!!

I'm thinking you probably started with Prime, just from the info you posted; and yes, I get it. It's probably the lengthiest training out thre, but they are successful (very!) in their M.O. .. gotta give 'em that!

I'll be following your Stevens journey, for sure!

One of our moderators, PJ , his gal pal started out w/ Stevens, and I'm sure he could help with any questions you may have, going forward. We have another potential driver going the Stevens route, and the member's name behooves me, atm.. sorry!

If anything doesn't go 'well' or as planned, or changes .. going to Stevens, you might check out CFI. They, as well, have a similar set up to fast track you into driving.

Again, best wishes; thanks for joining TT ! Stop over in the 'general' category, and join the fray!

~ Anne ~

Hi Anne -

Thank you for the positive feedback!

I definitely appreciate the ability to be apart of this community and share my journey. I am hoping for the best - and from my previous experience ... prepared for the worst. Indeed - my last training mega carrier was successful (because of them I obtained my CDL 🙂). I will not deny that. Unfortunately, not all trainers there should be training - and I was privileged to experience a couple of the bad apples first hand. No matter how great a business is - there are always going to be occasional hiccups.

I didn’t name the previous company (as I don’t fault the carrier for the bad trainers.... I fault the trainers themselves! They were independent contractors you see 😉) I also plan to go back once I have the experience I need to bypass the team training. Knowing that I plan to eventually be a representative of the mystery mega carrier 😁😁 - I am going to leave context clues! Lol let’s just say - you aren’t wrong!!

Either way - I’m looking forward to sharing my journey and learning along the way!!

Any new updates?