When is the best time to start talking to trucking companies?

My advice: go to school in late winter or early spring, then when you do get hired on to a carrier you will have a lot of time on the road thru the summer and autumn. By that time you should be fairly comfortable driving a truck and be ready to deal with bad winter weather.

As far as getting hired, do lots of research on the major carriers. Beware recruiters will tell you what you want to hear instead of what you need to know about their company. If you do well in trucking school, (and w/ clean background) you won't have any problems getting a job offer from a major carrier.

 

When I was in school we would start applying in the 3rd week of the school to get our prehire letters from whomever hired out of that school. Many recruiters will be showing up to your school anyway to talk about their company, take applications, and take questions from the students. Keep your options open and don't let any of them try to sucker you into a lease agreement. Also don't be afraid to ask the "tough" questions with these recruiters. Its your license not theirs. You earned it and they did not.

 

I would start contacting companies that you might be interested in now just to see if the school you're going to is a school they hire from. I did that and it saved me a lot of headaches later down the road.

 

This is from another site that is no longer around -

 

Good advice; and start submitting online applications the first day of CDL school; don't wait for 3 weeks like the school will probably tell you. Dont' just use the companies the school recommends either; apply to any you're interested in.