TDDS in Ohio

Their instructors get anywhere from $14 to $20 an hour, depending on their experience and the time they have been an instructor...or so I've heard (from little blue messenger birdies flying around here and there).

 

Well, hey everyone! Long time since I've been here -two years or there abouts.
Still truckin' and working for the same company I started with out of school.
Now, I'll tell you who I work for. SWIFT
And I don't want to hear the jokes or gripes about the company. I chose them and I like them. The terminal I work out of is great, the people are excellent and friendly. They do a great job at helping you and training you, and do their best to get you home on time. My Driver leaders have been great, too.
Now, I know Swift has a reputation by some, but it is a big company and so more people equals more mistakes. But in these past two years I have witnessed a huge amount of unsafe, discourteous reckless truck drivers of many companies, big names and small. Heck! Even FedEx and UPS drivers have pulled a few winners. And as for the "Supertruckers" like the steel haulers and assorted flatbedders, "parking lots" and ... well, you know. I let them fly by and stay out of their way, but I have seen plenty of them wrecked up on our highways. And by gosh I can't believe the amount of "stupid" I see everyday from the fourwheelers. To be very honest, I have seen only a small amount of idiocy from our own drivers, but just the other day a fellow Swift driver nearly ran me off the road, yet all in all, I think it's a very good company to work for. They like me and I like them.

So enough about that, what I will say is that TDDS did a great job preparing me for this adventure/career and I have recommended the school to several interested people. And I would further recommend that whoever you end up working for after school, that if that company is slack on training or seems "easy" on you about mistakes, that you take a long hard look at who you are really working for. Some companies don't care about the driver, just get the freight there. They don't care about your CSA score or whether or not you have a CDL after six months with them. How do I know? I've spoken with many, many drivers out there, some who came back to Swift, others who have job jumped a few times.

Don't misunderstand me, I know there are perhaps some real cake jobs out there, but those are usually held by people who have many years behind the wheel of a big rig. I hope to land maybe something that will get me home every weekend because I really am getting tired of OTR, but I hate dedicated. I ran a couple of those for a few weeks and it was boring me to death. And my idea of interesting is NOT battling cars in a parking lot of some store just to drop a trailer.

Anyway, my one last bit of advice to new drivers is: Think Safety, Be Safe, and pay attention to what people tell you when you are training. Do the right thing. Anyone can do the wrong thing. And if you do the wrong thing, it may cost someone their life, maybe even yours, too.