After serious thought on how to go about getting my CDL and reading the forums here, I have decided my best bet is to go with Roadmaster out of Jacksonville. I have an interview with a recruiter coming up. With my lack of knowledge of driving a truck let alone even a manual, and lack of funds to pay for school I decided this was my best bet to gain employement. The forums can and always will show the good the bad.. and just right down ugly of the various companies. One person says not go to CDL mill while another will say not let a company pay for education for a CDL, it leaves a person sort-of lost at which way is the best way to go. If I had the funds I would still probably go the route I am going due to my lack of knowledge of driving a big truck. But, I still could use some advice on companies listed they say might pay for my training and what I can expect for the Jacksonville-Fl area if I hire on to one of them. I have pulled this list straight off thier homepage and do not know which ones will apply to the Jacksonville area. So if you have any input on this companies from this are please let me know what know and what to expect from this companies. Thank you!

AVERITT
COVENANT
CT
CTL
CYPRESS
FALCON
FFE
HO WOLDING
LCT
MARTEN
MAY
ROEHL
STAR
STEFENS
SWIFT
TMC
TRANS AM
TRANSPORT AMERICA
UNITED ROADS
US XPRESS
USA TRUCK
VALLEY
WERNER
WINDY HILL

Crank out!

You can use the Forum to search for information on just about any company you listed

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Crank,

I can tell you that Transport America will not even bother talking to you if your from Florida and pretty much the same for the rest. What amazes me they must have thousands of people applying every week because if I was them I would at least follow up and ask if the person is willing to relocate and they don't do that.

Good Luck, your probably going to have to go with Schneider National or Swift out of Florida to get them to pay for CDL training and it's still not free you have to pay it back in the long run and with Schneider I mean the LONG RUN.

Be real careful with these truck driving training schools in Florida they will tell you they can get you hired through most of the companies on your list, well they could if they were actually hiring out of Florida. make sure you personally contact each one yourself first and ask, all they can do is tell you no, just don't take it personal.

When I first started looking into this I insulted that I couldn't even get past where I lived. but remember Florida is a consumer state and we don't manufacturer or produce much more then agriculture products so not much to haul from here and what does go out the companies don't pay the trucking companies much. Coming in to Florida an O/O might get $1.30 to $2.00 cpm going out there lucky if they get $0.95 cpm.

Just read these boards and you'll learn alot.

Best of Luck

Covenant, Werner, and Stevens transport will hire residents throughout Florida. be careful what you believe on here... how do i know this? most of my CDL class hired on with those carriers, and they all live in the Miami area. yes, ur home time running teams may be a little tuff, but dont sweat it! living south of I-4 does limit us, tho.

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