CDL Student Needs Advice

Hey there, well I'm in CDL Class A school,and man,I am lovin it! I'm motivated,excited,sometimes anxious,but mostly thrilled to be learning how to drive a tractor-trailor! I'm actually beginning to get a feel for this big thing and wow! The only thing is,my instructor keeps putting me in a 35 year old dinosaur cabover,he said cause I'm so big and tall,well,I guess I need to be able to drive any truck,new or old,huh? I wonder,do any of these trucking companies keep old jalopy trucks on their fleet? I hope not. Anyways,I have two years experience for driving a school bus in Virginia,and three years experience driving a straight truck for a wholesale hardware company that has since gone out of business.I used to have a route going to Virginia/North Carolina every week and driving that truck was the job I liked best,out of all the gazillion jobs I've had since age 18,I loved that truck job the best! I just wonder,how do the trucking companies try to rip off student drivers? My CDL school is a public college and I'm blessed to going for free! In my personal life,I have a strict no debt policy,and i wont let these companies sell me into a ton a debt.But I wonder,my training doesn't end after I graduate CDL School? Why? And tell me,is 13 cents a mile for training typical or a rip off? Some companies say $400 or $350 a week for training,and others are saying 13 cents a mile? Why do the truck companies like to pay you in PENNIES??? Why are'nt they saying,like,a dollar a mile? Ha! Can ya tell I'm a green horn? But really now....PENNIES per mile? Why not QUARTERS per mile? Thanks for your help.Yahoo! I'm a gonna drive a big truck! ha! ha!

Which instructor? Barnes, Waddell or Ponce? LOL.

Are you still in the yard phase, or are you on the road?

CDL schools teach you how to get your CDL - and prepare you to move on into the industry as an "entry level driver". No matter how good the school is (and Sheridan, which I assume you're going to - is VERY GOOD), they can't give you the real world training, that going out with a trainer and ACTUALLY WORKING is going to give you.

For example: they can't take you out to "bump a dock" at your local Wal-Mart. They're not going to be able to demonstrate how to scale, or trip plan over long distances. There's just some things you're going to have to learn under the watchful eye of an experienced driver with whichever company you end up with. And no company is just going to take you, after even the best 3rd party CDL school - throw you the keys to a +$100K rig, and set you loose out there - without some training/evaluation under one of their guys.

So - once you get okay with the fact that the first year is going to suck any way you slice it - and then after that, each year of experience creates new opportunities to advance - you'll be ok.

Rick

Hey there, well I'm in CDL Class A school,and man,I am lovin it! I'm motivated,excited,sometimes anxious,but mostly thrilled to be learning how to drive a tractor-trailor! I'm actually beginning to get a feel for this big thing and wow! The only thing is,my instructor keeps putting me in a 35 year old dinosaur cabover,he said cause I'm so big and tall,well,I guess I need to be able to drive any truck,new or old,huh? I wonder,do any of these trucking companies keep old jalopy trucks on their fleet? I hope not. Anyways,I have two years experience for driving a school bus in Virginia,and three years experience driving a straight truck for a wholesale hardware company that has since gone out of business.I used to have a route going to Virginia/North Carolina every week and driving that truck was the job I liked best,out of all the gazillion jobs I've had since age 18,I loved that truck job the best! I just wonder,how do the trucking companies try to rip off student drivers? My CDL school is a public college and I'm blessed to going for free! In my personal life,I have a strict no debt policy,and i wont let these companies sell me into a ton a debt.But I wonder,my training doesn't end after I graduate CDL School? Why? And tell me,is 13 cents a mile for training typical or a rip off? Some companies say $400 or $350 a week for training,and others are saying 13 cents a mile? Why do the truck companies like to pay you in PENNIES??? Why are'nt they saying,like,a dollar a mile? Ha! Can ya tell I'm a green horn? But really now....PENNIES per mile? Why not QUARTERS per mile? Thanks for your help.Yahoo! I'm a gonna drive a big truck! ha! ha!

I just finished a 17-day orientation. We were told the company nets $.06 per dollar spent. While the big national company does have some older trucks in their fleet, most are less than 3 years old. CDL school however, had jalopies. Oh well. On the other hand, it is absolutely disgusting what some drivers do to their trucks. I'm talking rolling pig pens. I saw guys with a fridge sitting on the passenger seat and a frying pan on top. Can you imagine what that has to smell like after a guy has fried foods in his cab?

I wouldn't even consider a company that only pays 13 cents/mile while in training. My company paid us $80/day while in orientation (17 days) and now we start at $.29/mile with an increase within 6 months.

My opinion (although it may not be accurate) is that many companies keep you in "training" so they can basically use you as a team driver during that time. They get the truck rolling non-stop while paying you as a trainee instead of the higher team pay.

If you're going to school for free AND you can pick up a driving job paying well, I wouldn't complain. SOMEBODY is paying for that school.