hello everyone im new to all this trucking stuff and have alot of questions wich have probably been asked before so im sorry. i would greatly appreciate all the advice i get. trucking is something ive liked all my life but never really looked into it till now. im currently working as a medical assistant and its not what i thought it would be when i went to school for 2 yrs. i start a trucking course on jan. 2 in a school called macfatter technical center. i live in hollywood, fl its between miami and fortlauderdale let me know if anyone has ever heard of this school. i think trucking is pretty big here in this area correct me if im wrong. the course is 12 weeks long because i have to go part time nights. my questions are as follows: my driving recored is not perfect i have 6 points in the last three years but 3 of those will be past 3 yrs in feb. and i had other opver three yrs ago, none of them serious issues just minor violations like not obeying traffic signs. never had a speeding ticket, dui or license suspension. had one accident 5 yrs ago in which i was at fault. i will be 23 yrs old when i finish my trucking school. b-day is in may. how hard will it be to get hired? another question is i will be getting married soon and plan on having a baby even sooner so i dont really want to OTR but i will if i have too. how possible is it to get a local driving job or someting in which i dont really have to be gone too many days at a time? sorry more questions. how much should expect to get paid when i start off? and what are some good companies to start with in my area? also is it possible to get a job not having to go to truckers school and just try to get cdl on my own? thank you very much for helping me out i just want to be as informed as i can.

To begin with the bigest thing I do not see in your post is any felonies and the most part no DUI's. That is what most companies look for.

Unfortunatly you need to understand that in order to get a decent local job you should go OTR a few years to gain experience, otherwise you will not get a decent paying local position. You will need to show a track record of around at least three years if not more before you can see any good prospects.

McFatter Technical, located in Davie, Florida looks to me as if they offer a better than average program, because even the full time students train for 9 weeks. This is a good thing. They apparently focus on quality rather than quantity.

Their accreditation checks out, and the Council On Occupational Education in Atlanta is the real deal, and evaluates many different training facilities across the country. I'm encouraged even more by the fact that this facility is NOT apparently sponsored by motor carriers. That's another big plus. What this means is that McFatter is keeping it's independence and is not beholding to work with sub-par carriers. I'll bet my left arm that your tuition is not outrageous either.

So you're basically saying that by the time you finish training and obtain your CDL, you're only going to have a 3 point violation that will have been obtained in an automobile...right? You don't have any worries there. Some companies will look back 5 years, but it's highly unlikely that these things will matter, because they were non-commercial vehicle related.

Just be careful to read any questions on an application, and only offer information that is specifically being asked for. An MVR will be pulled on you by any potential employer anyway, and most are only concerned with your most recent three years, even if they happen to look back further.

The answer to that question is largely going to depend on the choice of potential employers that hire through McFatter, and the scope of their operations. Understand that local positions, desired by many drivers, are customarily offered to existing employees first, but it's not out of the question for there to be an opportunity available. Florida is one of those unique states, where there are literally hundreds of carriers that run within the state itself, or just outside of it, in a more regional fashion, where you can expect to be home on weekends or even more frequently. Once you discover the list of companies that hire through the school, do some online research to discover more about them, and what they do, and where they operate.

Now...I'm assuming that you live in in the Dade County area, and that being the case, it may present a little more of a challenge, because unless you hook up with a carrier that has a strong freight base in that area, getting you home will be more difficult. The southern tip of Florida is the end of the line, so to speak, so it does limit options.

When it comes time for you to talk to recruiters, stress the importance of hometime to them, and don't be pressured to take a job that will not be right for you, especially if you know you can't live with their terms. You need to do your level best to stick with that first job for at least a year, and keep your nose clean in regards to safety, and if you need to make a change at that time, you will have much wider range of choices to make if need be. Understand that as a newbie, you may have to sacrifice hometime in exchange for the opportunity to gain experience. As a general rule, companies will utilize newbies with a reduced amount of pampering, because they know that if you quit before you gain that precious amount of continuous experience, you have much more to lose. It's hard to find another job without a minimum of a years worth of experience, so keep that in mind, and set it as your number one goal now.

Realistically, expect to make somewhere between $20,000 and $30,000 in gross pay your first year. Florida based trucking companies pay a little less than those of the rest of the country, and unless you go with a nationalized carrier, which I don't think you'd be happy with, based on your hometime needs.

But, of course, this is something that will largely depend on the range of choices you have. I have no clue who hires through McFatter, and you might get a glimpse into this shortly after you start your training. Check back with the forum once you have some names of the companies, and someone might be able to offer some guidance to you.

In this day and age, the chances of you obtaining a CDL on your own are comparable to you being able to get a license to practice medicine without attending medical school. Those days are over, and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is about to tighten that noose even tighter, by requiring schools to meet requirements for training. This is in respponse to the CDL mill schools that are not filling the bill.

I wish you good luck, and if anyone can help you further, please feel free to post your questions.

If you dont go to mcfatter ,it was suggested to me to go to a tech school as the price is right , the time is ample ,unless you are in a hurry, and tech schools are there to benefit the community by training you to get a better job ,but Mcfatter sounded pretty good to me, good luck

Reading this makes me wish I had been in expediting. A quarter million dollar ride....9 MPG # 65 MPH....I could go for that !!

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