Another Update, Started School....
Topic 681 | Page 1
Hey great to hear from ya!
Man, I've gotta say...I'm a bit perplexed. Why did you wait until school started to work on the High Road Training Program and get your permit? You could have had the program complete and had your permit in hand before ever walking in the door. That would have put you miles ahead of everyone else and made life a whole lot easier.
Hopefully you'll have a chance to continue with our program. Make sure you go through the Logbook and Weight & Balance sections because they're not going to teach that nearly well enough for you to know it once you get out there. And you're definitely going to need it.
That's a really long school! 540 hours over 22 weeks??? Good God! Most schools are about 160-240 hours over 4-6 weeks. I would imagine it will be a pretty good school.
Definitely keep us informed about how things go for ya. I guess you won't really have to start working on pre-hires for at least a couple of months yet, eh?
CDL:
Commercial Driver's License (CDL)
A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:
- Any combination of vehicles with a gross combined weight rating (GCWR) of 26,001 or more pounds, providing the gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of the vehicle being towed is in excess of 10,000 pounds.
- Any single vehicle with a GVWR of 26,001 or more pounds, or any such vehicle towing another not in excess of 10,000 pounds.
- Any vehicle, regardless of size, designed to transport 16 or more persons, including the driver.
- Any vehicle required by federal regulations to be placarded while transporting hazardous materials.
Logbook:
A written or electronic record of a driver's duty status which must be maintained at all times. The driver records the amount of time spent driving, on-duty not driving, in the sleeper berth, or off duty. The enforcement of the Hours Of Service Rules (HOS) are based upon the entries put in a driver's logbook.
Pre-hire:
What Exactly Is A Pre-Hire Letter?
Pre-hire letters are acceptance letters from trucking companies to students, or even potential students, to verify placement. The trucking companies are saying in writing that the student, or potential student, appears to meet the company's minimum hiring requirements and is welcome to attend their orientation at the company’s expense once he or she graduates from truck driving school and has their CDL in hand.
We have an excellent article that will help you Understand The Pre-Hire Process.
A Pre-Hire Letter Is Not A Guarantee Of Employment
The people that receive a pre-hire letter are people who meet the company's minimum hiring requirements, but it is not an employment contract. It is an invitation to orientation, and the orientation itself is a prerequisite to employment.
During the orientation you will get a physical, drug screen, and background check done. These and other qualifications must be met before someone in orientation is officially hired.
Pre-hires:
What Exactly Is A Pre-Hire Letter?
Pre-hire letters are acceptance letters from trucking companies to students, or even potential students, to verify placement. The trucking companies are saying in writing that the student, or potential student, appears to meet the company's minimum hiring requirements and is welcome to attend their orientation at the company’s expense once he or she graduates from truck driving school and has their CDL in hand.
We have an excellent article that will help you Understand The Pre-Hire Process.
A Pre-Hire Letter Is Not A Guarantee Of Employment
The people that receive a pre-hire letter are people who meet the company's minimum hiring requirements, but it is not an employment contract. It is an invitation to orientation, and the orientation itself is a prerequisite to employment.
During the orientation you will get a physical, drug screen, and background check done. These and other qualifications must be met before someone in orientation is officially hired.
Hey Brett,
I had been working on the program for a while, but as usual, when you at working on things late in the day, and need sleep, mistakes happen, and the session halted cause I got the same question wrong from wanting to go through it quick and not read the question careful enough...lol...
as far as the school, from what I've experienced, it is a very good school. They do have shorter programs for people who have experience or feel comfortable with the shorter program, the drawback to the shorter programs is that there is no financial aid available, so the student has to come up with the costs up front or make payment arrangements before class starts and also, the student has to pay for the physical, permit, textbooks, and the initial drug test, where the long program the only thing I have to pay for is the $60 or so for my permit. The only thing my financial aid didn't cover was about $750 of a $9k tuition...
I personally like the longer program because it will give me a chance to practice things like inspections and shifting once I get my permit.
I plan on continuing the High Road program while in school and stay ahead of the game. I even mentioned it to the instructor and a couple of fellow students....
well more to come in the near future.
Oh, I almost forgot, I had gotten a prehire from Swift a few months ago, and things happened, and my dad wanted me to stay and help him through the winter. I have been in contact with my recruiter, keeping her in formed of everything, including that I'm in school and my anticipated graduation date, and my recruiter was glad I have been keeping her in the loop.
I am planning on getting more prehires when we get to that point in class, just so I can see what all the companies are offer in.....
Prehire:
What Exactly Is A Pre-Hire Letter?
Pre-hire letters are acceptance letters from trucking companies to students, or even potential students, to verify placement. The trucking companies are saying in writing that the student, or potential student, appears to meet the company's minimum hiring requirements and is welcome to attend their orientation at the company’s expense once he or she graduates from truck driving school and has their CDL in hand.
We have an excellent article that will help you Understand The Pre-Hire Process.
A Pre-Hire Letter Is Not A Guarantee Of Employment
The people that receive a pre-hire letter are people who meet the company's minimum hiring requirements, but it is not an employment contract. It is an invitation to orientation, and the orientation itself is a prerequisite to employment.
During the orientation you will get a physical, drug screen, and background check done. These and other qualifications must be met before someone in orientation is officially hired.
Prehires:
What Exactly Is A Pre-Hire Letter?
Pre-hire letters are acceptance letters from trucking companies to students, or even potential students, to verify placement. The trucking companies are saying in writing that the student, or potential student, appears to meet the company's minimum hiring requirements and is welcome to attend their orientation at the company’s expense once he or she graduates from truck driving school and has their CDL in hand.
We have an excellent article that will help you Understand The Pre-Hire Process.
A Pre-Hire Letter Is Not A Guarantee Of Employment
The people that receive a pre-hire letter are people who meet the company's minimum hiring requirements, but it is not an employment contract. It is an invitation to orientation, and the orientation itself is a prerequisite to employment.
During the orientation you will get a physical, drug screen, and background check done. These and other qualifications must be met before someone in orientation is officially hired.
Well, except for bailing out on the High Road Training Program, that all sounds pretty good. Definitely keep us informed about how things go for ya.
Yup, if you don't feel the need to go thru the High Road, when you get into whatever school you choose, you will be scrambling to speed learn, just like all the other students, and possibly not make the grade. FREE KNOWLEDGE...wow, I wish I'd had it years ago, cuz I hadta graduate from the school of hard knocks, and got my Masters at OJT college. Theres nothing that compares to walking into a classroom, and knowing that you ALREADY know what they are going to teach you........
OWI:
Operating While Intoxicated
OOS:
When a violation by either a driver or company is confirmed, an out-of-service order removes either the driver or the vehicle from the roadway until the violation is corrected.
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Hello All,
Just wanted to give everyone an update. about 6 weeks ago, I went and visited a school, and I met with the admissions people, took a tour of the facilities and equipment and I was impressed with the both, and the fact that they train the CDL A students not only on combination vehicles, but on box trucks as well.... As far as combination vehicles, they have condo and non-condo tractors from various manufacturors, and decided to take their 22 week, 540 hour course (plus approximatly 60 hours of homework).
Then I went to financial aid, filled out the paperwork, and after was all said and done, I only have to pay less then 10% of the cost out of pocket, plus my CDL Permit.....
Fast forward about 4 weeks, and I started class, and we went over the schools expectations, our expectations, the services the school has to offer, and started in on the general knowledge, history of trucking, and got our homework, which the instructor wanted turned in this coming Sunday after we go through air brakes on Saturday. Well, I got through the all of the homework by Tuesday night, and last night, handed it in to the instructor to go over my answers so I can get pointed in the right direction if the answers were a lttle off, but I was confident that most (if not all the answers were right because I started the High Road program, and knew where to look). Well low and behold, the instructor was impressed that I did very well, with only 1 wrong out of 60 or so questions, and that was because I didn't read the question carefully enough....lol....
So on Saturday, I get to go for my DOT physical, and I get to go for my permit next week....
And as my instructors say, Early is on time, and on time is late..... :-)
Well, I will try and update every couple weeks or so, and I want to thank everyone here for their advice and support......
CDL:
Commercial Driver's License (CDL)
A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:
Combination Vehicle:
A vehicle with two separate parts - the power unit (tractor) and the trailer. Tractor-trailers are considered combination vehicles.
DOT:
Department Of Transportation
A department of the federal executive branch responsible for the national highways and for railroad and airline safety. It also manages Amtrak, the national railroad system, and the Coast Guard.
State and Federal DOT Officers are responsible for commercial vehicle enforcement. "The truck police" you could call them.
Dm:
Dispatcher, Fleet Manager, Driver Manager
The primary person a driver communicates with at his/her company. A dispatcher can play many roles, depending on the company's structure. Dispatchers may assign freight, file requests for home time, relay messages between the driver and management, inform customer service of any delays, change appointment times, and report information to the load planners.