Beginning The Process Of Becoming A Truck Driver

Well this is just an update to my progress. Last week I got outright rejected by Prime it was funny though, some how they thought I had been in the Marine corps for over 40 years, and the recruiter called me all excited, I laughed for real on that. I told the poor fellow that it had to be a mistake that their application program was making, and the reason I knew that was because Swift had also called me and the recruiter had to walk me through the app process because it wasn't doing what it was supposed to do. (Prime and swift use the very same hiring application).

Knowing that I was able to ask him if he had read the rest of the application which he had not done, so I told him to go through it and let me know if the criminal background was on it, it was and that was the part I suspected would cause me problems and wanted to know what he thought would be the result, he didn't know or that is what he said. In short I redid the parts that were messed up, ( the 10 year work history was the problem on both the Prime app and the Swift app). and told him I would redo the errors which I did and He called me back and said I would not be considered at Prime.

Swift was still a go, as of today, the recruiter there is giving me some hope. She got me a phone interview with their security people and I answered their questions and was told I would know by today or tomorrow. So because She was upbeat about it I went to the DMV in Sundance today and blew away the CLP tests and the endorsements, the one endorsement I had NOT studied at all I ACED, doubles and Triples. That surprised me. SO regardless of how things shake out for me the part that matters for anyone who might read this is that All I did was the HIGH ROAD training program. I went through all the (permit) parts and the tanker (endorsement) part. The material in there is all a person needs to pass the Permit part of getting a CDL.

What I did was read every part and took the tests as I went, I wrote down the questions and the answers for all the ones I got wrong, and just kept going until I got everything that was required for the basic permit, General Knowledge, Combo tractor trailer, Air brakes and I did the Tanker endorsement as well. I did not bother with Hazmat because I went to Rapid City TSA office and could not get the background check started because their computer would not take my card for some reason. So if anyone asks if High Road training is enough to pass the CLP test the answer is yes if you read everything and methodically go through the whole process. It took me about 30 hours of reading and testing over the course of 3 weekends. I did go back to the beginning of the program and went back through the tests no reading, just to refresh and check how well I could remember. The design of High Road program is VERY effective. I think that in all parts of the Wyoming tests today I got less than 20 answers wrong all told. I think there were near to 150 questions all told.

Lastly I also applied at C.R.England. They have not called me back and I think that is because they no longer have the same program in place. They literally just changed the way they operate the schooling and hiring process. Their school is now a totally separate entity, anyone can go to it, it costs 3500 dollars, there is no guarantee of being hired either. The school recruiters are recruiters for the school not C.R.England. They are still affiliated though. I do not know the exact relationship but one recruiter I talked to said they could get me into the school and he told me they only go back 10 years on criminal history. That is not verified yet just something I was told by a guy who was trying to get me into the school, so there might be some B.S. in there.

Any how here is hoping I will get good news tomorrow.

Michael, 1 tip I learnt a bit late RE: military bonus's lol.....I got my DD-214 and Honorable Discharge "an actual diploma too" 1978.....Well, I got a whopping 1 cent starting CPM addition (31 cpm) I was told later by retired army guy the companies really push the military thing hard, because....

They get a lot bigger kick back from the Government for hiring a vet, than they're giving you in CPM lol Oh well, I didn't really care or fuss about it like some other guys did.

Very good luck to you man, sounds like it won't be too long until, you're in that drivers seat, with someone out there!!