I heard back from Nationwide Express and they want me to sign a six month contract that will provide that I will reimburse them for the cost of my "training" should I leave the company in the first six months. Apparently this stems from a past incident where they hired a graduate from my truck driving school (Tenn Tech Center - a state school) about three-four years ago and the fellow went thru the full company training program (five weeks) and was assigned a truck upon completion of training but never showed up for work on his first day. This apparently ###### off the owner of the company and he will now not hire anybody from my school without a contract. Now I am 53 years old and have 28 years of work history behind me. I have never even missed a day of work, much less just failed to show up for a job, so I am sure I would not stick it to them like the other guy did, but the idea of a contract like this kinda sticks in my craw. My instructor (with over 30 years driving experience) said he would never work for any company that required such as a contract because they would have me by the privates and could mistreat me as they pleased. I am not sure that is their motive, but it is something to consider.

Please give me your advice.

a SIX-MONTH contract is the shortest in the business as far as paid training deals go. most are a year or more.

Yeah, these contracts are SOP throughout the business and this is this is ths shortest one I've seen yet. That alone is a point or two in favor of this company. Unfortunatly for the rest of us, a lot of the people hired in this business turn out to be deadbeats. Would you loan a complete stranger that kind of money without any securement? A number of companies allow you to put the cost of tuition on your Visa. Then Visa owns you but the company does not. Some people prefer this.

When you start driving, don't loan money to co-workers if you don't know them well unless you're trying to get rid of them. Sad but true.

__________________

It's said that attitude is everything. That's good because I have a fat one.

It is the duty and the obligation of the professional driver to recognize accident producing situations soon enough to take reasonable and prudent action to avoid an accident.

Maybe I was unclear. I am paying for the Trucking School myself. The money that the company is talking about is the post graduation finishing training that the company provides (trainer in the truck, etc.) not the costs of the school.

Which school are you going to, the one in Nashville?

Shelbyville

TN, check your private messages

I could not reply to your PM. I have not posted 20 times yet. The answer to your questions is yes, however.

From all the accounts I have read, you have to be very careful about these contracts. Several of the larger companies are well known for signing up 100 students and finding excuses or pressuring half of them to leave then charging them $6,000 for training. That's 30,000 profit (if they collect) without moving any freight. You have to ask why they need so many new drivers... and when you read about the reasons their drivers leave it "appears" they don't want keep drivers. The bottom line is nearly always profit... for example:

Many drivers leave because as their pay goes up their miles go down. The miles first go to the lowest paid drivers.. the new guys... saving the companies 10 - 20% in salaries.

Many other drivers leave because the equipment is unsafe and they can't get the company to fix it.

Here is a tip.... email your recruiter and let them know you need specific information *in writing * before you make a decision about working for their company. If you don't hear back after asking the simplest of questions... like how long will you hold my pay, will I get pay if you can't provide a working truck, how much will I get paid for empty miles, will I be paid actual miles... etc, etc. ... you may want to consider another option. You can pretty sure that the recruiters know when they are blowing smoke... and as a company representative they don't want to put anything in writing that they will have to answer for in the future.

Remember, the Devil is in the details. Just aboult all recruiters will tell you things that you would NEVER NEVER NEVER see written on their company websites.

Kind of negates the advantage of having paid for your own CDL course. I don't think I would want to be locked in like that.