Company paid CDL training in Ohio

Hi there. I've been lurking for a hot minute and have finally decided to post, yay.

So I've wanted to get into trucking for a long, long time. I'm finally at the point where I'm ready to take the plunge. Of course, I have basically no savings, bad credit, and a wife and too many pets to support. A major career change into an industry that requires fairly extensive training. Great timing right?

Anyway. I have a phone interview with Schneider tomorrow, and as with most companies they've got mixed reviews online. They've got a (new?) program that would pay my tuition with Southern State Community College, then I'd have to drive for them for at least a year and then it's all good. They're not offering any pay until orientation... which is fair, I reckon.

I guess it is pretty cool that this would be company paid private schooling? Everybody seems to say that private cdl school is better than company schools.

So, I am coming to y'all to ask for guidance, is Schneider alright? Are there better alternatives? I don't really have the means to put much upfront dollar-wise, I'd like to stay nearby or go with someone who'll finance lodging and/or offer pay/food allowance during training. It'd be nice to drive to school but I can also deal with traveling for it.

I can deal with shoddy beginning pay, as if a company is shelling out for my training they're taking a pretty big risk anyway. I'd rather start with a company I could stay with, but I dig that most of these "starter" companies don't seem to offer much for long term drivers.

Good health insurance is fairly important to me, fringe benefits aren't so much. It's nice that some of these joints have terminals with basketball courts and spas and whatnot but I'm not sure if that's a perk I'd take advantage of.

I want to drive solo and I don't mind being away from home. Ideally I'd love to do most of my driving between Ohio and Texas but obviously most companies would take me all over and that's fine too.

I can see that I'm rambling on. Basically I know I'm going to be getting myself in to, I know to generally expect year 1 in trucking to be pretty crummy, I'm just looking for any insight that could make it... less crummy. All advise is helpful.

 

Thanks very much for the posts y'all. The websites like glassdoor and indeed are kind of worthless with this sort of thing... while obviously every company (in every industry) is going to have its ups and downs, the vast difference between the negative and positive reviews make it hard to see what's honest and what's like, somebody who messed up big time and then obviously the company gave them guff.

Hazmat tanker driving is honestly what I would like to get in to as I do know that that's where good money can be had. I have read a lot of good stuff about Millis, too, I think I'm going to put in an app with them. Raising an extra $500 shouldn't be too tricky, and their school is pretty close (so, no lodging to worry about).

I'm happy to see that sort of the top few I had in mind, Schneider, Millis and Knight are what y'all are saying, that's a big relief. I'll probably put in applications with Millis and Knight if I don't think the Schneider interview goes well.

Thanks very much guys.

 

Well, so it's looking like Schneider. In my current financial state the $500 upfront for Millis is a bit out of reach although they do seem like they're probably the better company. (However, they never did contact me after I submitted my application).

I know trucking isn't going to get me rich anyway, but I am hoping that eventually it'd get me to a point where I could look at my checking account balance and think, yeah, I've got $500 I can lay down on (something). Right now I'm paycheck-to-paycheck.

Apparently the program I'm going to be in would put me with a dedicated account for Walmart, regional within 300 miles of Washington CH, Ohio. The average miles, the recruiter said, are 1800-2000 per week, 5 days on, 2 days home. Not quite sure how that's gonna work yet.

I WAS hoping to start with straight OTR (I really do want to see the country) but I've lived in Ohio my entire life, so I do know my way around the state, and being at Walmart stores all the time would make it a little easier to eat decent and cheap as opposed to living out of truck stops.

I DO think it's probably ultimately a good idea to get in to this industry in the Winter, so I'll be building good habits and learning how to control a truck in ice and snow, as opposed to being used to having things like traction and dry pavement in the Summer and being real surprised come the following January.

It looks like Schneider's health insurance kind of sucks, at least deductible-wise.

I have a feeling that this is going to be a case of the ol' paying dues and dealing with a rough first year so that I'll have the experience to get into something better, on the plus side it does look like most companies just want a year's experience for the most part. US Xpress is pretty attractive, but it'll probably come down to whoever offers the best balance between good health insurance and cpm.

The general consensus I seem to see here on the Internets is, too, to expect a rough first year, and it can get better quickly after that if you're willing to work hard.

I'm willing to work hard, and I can deal with a rough first year.

Thoughts?

 

Well it's certainly relieving to hear that from someone who's driven for 30 years!

How long do you reckon I'd need to stay put before they'd be open to that sort of thing?

I do think the Walmart account is going to be decent to get my feet wet, if nothing else because most Walmart stores I've driven behind seem to have pretty big dock areas (and cheap eats), but I know there's a lot more money in proper OTR and certainly more hauling tanks of hazardous stuff.

Of course getting my skills where they need to be and getting plenty of miles under my belt with a good safety record is going to be priority one, but I've been doing tech support long enough to know not to tolerate a dead end; if I can move up I want to move up!