Recently my job was eliminated. A large part of my job was to Drive a
pickup truck full of tools from job site to job site and I covered most of the country (covered 36 states) I loved my time on the road so I thought I would give trucking a shot. That was until I started looking for answers about training and company's to hire on with on this form. I learned I should never work for jb hunt,crst,schneider,cr england,crete,swift,roehl,cfi,knight,pam,central transport and the list does go on. No matter who I work for I will never get home, won't make any money,won't get good directions, will get low miles, will have to wait days for a load and so on. I love to drive and could care less when I get home but I don't want the rest of my working life to be miserable either. And I would like to make a half decent living. Is it really this bad? Is there any thing good about it? If so please tell me!

There are companies that can get you in on the weekends. You just have to search them out. Look at mcelroy, maverick, etc. Those are training companies. You need one of them to start.

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My childhood dream of becoming a truck driver turned into a nightmare!

All co's have good & bad---just pick the one that you can live with. Main problem is sticking with a co. for some period to get a history and experience. Then, if I were younger, would go Independent & get my own rig so that I can shop around for loads and have more control over my life!!

What does beeing younger have to do with getting your own authority and chaesing freight. The average age of the new driver right now is way up from what it used to be most new hires now days are secound and third careers for most of them. With corporate down sizeing and retired millitary makeing up most of the new drivers. so age is not a factor and believe me when i say it i will be hustling freight till i can't drive any more. Its the best way i know to make a living and have a say in how you make it happen.

I can only tell you my experience back in 02. I went to Central Tech driving school in Drumwright OK, can't recommend this enough. Werner hired me at the school. I went into flatbed ( FB ) division after initial 3 wks in vans ( never again ) I really did not have any trouble, except when I had a good load, 50% of the time I had to swap trailers with someone else !!! I got home within 1 - 3 days of my request, only when I left Werner after 5 mths did I have problems getting a load to take me home, I needed Fontana Ca depot, they kept offering me CO, meaning, bus home, NO WAY after almost 4 day wait in Salt Lake I finally got a load to CA. I think Werner certainly FB division is ok, ( better than the SWifts Schied' etc etc. I have heard Reohl in WI is ok) . really should stay 1 yr then you can step to a smaller friendly Co. I went from Werner $0.29 / mile to drive Rocky Mtn Dbl sidedumps in N. NV earning $900 / wk after 5 mths OTR experience.

This forum is a great source of information about trucking companies, but it is just the experiences by those who've worked there. Joes perception of xxxx will be different than Jims. Just take the info into account, but dont accept something before trying it out for yourself. Theres a couple ones in your list Id work for, and plan to try out when I get into the industry. Rhoel and Crete would be top choices for me. Just keep an open mind and take no BS and you should be fine.

*this coming from a n00B to trucking, and posting 10 minutes after hes waken up**