Youngster Looking To Start A Career!

Howdy' I'm 20years old an been dreaming of the day i could get behind the wheel of a big rig like my daddy an grand dad has before me. My 21st birthday is coming up at the end of the year. I'm live very close to springfield, missouri and the biggest company around here is Prime Inc. ive read up an they seem to have a pretty good deal i assume? Free cdl training an on the road training for one year contract with the company. Then after i get my first year in, i want to transfer to a regional midwest company to hopefully be home weekends... any thoughts? ive got my Class B cdl but i find it very hard for someone my age to get into transportation even localy.

Welcome aboard Curtis!

Well first of all, the location of a company means pretty much nothing. In 15 years of driving I never once worked for a company that had a terminal or drop lot in my home state. So don't worry about their location when choosing a job. As long as a company hires from your location, you're fine in that regard.

Prime has an excellent Company-Sponsored Training Program and so do about a dozen other companies. They're all quite a bit different and we have a ton of information on each company.

If a Midwest Regional job is what you're after, the dry van or flatbed companies are where it's at. Prime and other refrigerated carriers are going to give you a lot more coast to coast runs. Dry van and flatbed companies will have more regionalized freight. So unless you're looking to run more coast to coast for a while before settling in to a regional job, I would start out with a carrier that has regional opportunities and wind up right where you'd like to be from day one.

I highly suggest going through our entire Truck Driver's Career Guide. Even though your father and grandfather drove, there's a lot that's changed over the years and you want to go into this armed with the best information you can get. Our career guide will give you that for sure.

When do you turn 21?

I turn 21 on December 18 so ive got plenty of time to do lots of research. My first full time job while i was STILL in high school was actually at prime, i graduated before my class an heck' i even had to request a day off to go to my graduation. i was an APU mechanic, and installed power inverters, and did some other odd's and ends on the trucks, and got to talk to lots of drivers, learn about there rigs and it seemed to be a pretty good outfit to start with.

APU:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

Brett hit the nail on the head. Definitely explore your options. Take into consideration the companies equipment, pay, home time policy, what type of freight you want to haul, their passenger/pet policy (if you're planning on bringing a passenger/pet), what area the company runs. And many other options.

Pick what is right for YOU. Don't base it on reviews or "horror" stories. I work for a company based in Utah and I live in Cal. It makes no difference, I still go home on time and get to say hi to my dispatcher from time to time.

Yeah, definitely don't waste your time scouring the forums for people's opinions about various Trucking Companies. The garbage that people will say is just appalling and completely useless 95% of the time.

Judge companies based on measurables like Daniel said - home time, equipment, pay, benefits, types of freight, types of opportunities in different fleets, etc.

Prime indeed is a very good company with a ton of freight available to keep their best drivers moving and about the best mileage pay in the industry for new drivers.

But really, I wouldn't worry about companies too much yet. Look around at your options, but don't obsess over trying to figure out which company to go with. Focus on learning the materials in the High Road Online CDL Training Program and reading through that Trucker's Career Guide.

Thanks for the help yall, that cleared alot of things up, mean while there's a CDL job fair here in springfield tomorrow so i'm gonna try an see if i can get in with a local company till this december an see where it goes from there'

You have lots of time. Please be asking any and all questions that you want to know. Learning before you hit the road is much better than learning while on the road and making mistakes because you never asked.

I also wanted to ask, about some general requirements, obveously since it is a driving job you want a clean driving record right. Well when i was 16 and got my license (4yrs ago) i was big into drag racing with my best friends and naturally got a few speeding tickets nothing too extreme. although my past three years have been clean other than my first and only fender bender accident in a non-commercial vehicle, would this be a problem? or would they oversee the tickets i got as a teen and understand i was young and dumb, because im afraid it will come back to bite me

If the tickets are more than three years old it shouldn't be a problem, depending on the severity. If any of them were for 15 mph over the speed limit, that is considered reckless driving. They will likely ask on the application if you've ever been convicted of DUI or reckless driving. If so, that's not good.

As far as the accident, most companies will want to know the past 3 or 5 years - depends on the company. Answer the question accurately and don't tell them anything they don't ask about specifically. But be accurate.

Trucking companies are looking for responsible drivers. Several speeding tickets and a recent fender bender is not exactly going to put you at the top of the list at any company but depending on the severity you might be ok.