I'm About To Sign A Contract!!!!! Help!

Notch, just take a few hours and look around on this website. You're asking questions that have been answered here over and over again. Also, by sifting through the posts here, you'll discover the answers to questions you've not thought to ask yet.

Good luck.

 

i started at .26 a mile should be higher now in 2003
i made 24,000 that year which is crap
i would suggest a cdl mill sadly enough
just make sure you ask about the cost a lot before going
priceshop is what i would suggest

 

One thing to consider is if you go to a "mill" you will already have a job at the end of your training period versus completing school on your own and having to find a job, which might land you in the same boat after its all said and done, I'm not advocating going to a mill just something to think about

 

My husband did C-1 Driving School in Newport Ar. He signed a contract with P.A.M. (penny a mile) in 1999. He started at .22 cpm and got very little miles. Hard to say what you can expect to make your first year. It greatly depends on the company you go with what they start a newbie out at and what kind of miles they are known to give.
Now I'm not telling you to go to Roehl but as a comparison, call them and ask about their cdl school.
Hey guys what's a cdl mill?

 

We paid for school on our own and sorted through companies picking what we thought was the best fit for us. Most offer tuition reimbursement if you are fresh out of school. If you have a clean driving record and clean criminal record, you shouldn't have anything to worry about as far as getting job offers. The key to being happy in this business is to do your research. I would never sign a contract with a company like that. They have you stuck if you do and there are a ton of horror stories out there from that scenario.

We took out a loan for school (ours was $5000) but we are in control of where we work etc. My husband's first job out of school was 29 cpm plus bonuses. I would guess first year can make $28,000-$30's unless you go to some of the bigger companies like Werner that don't pay anything.

 

I am starting to consider myself lucky, I did the year contract thing with my company, I suppose I may of gotten treated differently than alot of people, because I came from within, having already been in the employ of the company in their shops working on trailers. of the 8 people that I finished the school with, only three of us made it the year, and sadly one was killed on his way home from work one friday night hit head on by a drunk leaving the bar. my first year I took home about 32,000 dollars.

alot of people on here don't think much of the contract for a year in return for the schooling, me personally it depends on the company. my company has a higher turnover in the shops than it does in the fleet. but from what my older brother who has been driving for about 10 years more than me tells me is that every company is going to run a new person at the bottom of the ladder alot harder than it will the guys that have been around for awhile. me I climbed up the ladder alot faster because I teamed up with the owners son in law and we were always early for our appointments and they looked favorably on that. so I went from 4th to 2nd in a hurry cause the other 2 drivers were always late.

 

The first thing I would recommend is bookmarking the various trucking forums and read, read, and keep reading. That should give you a good perspective to get you on your way to deciding how to tackle this as a career. Keep in mind though that most of what you read is purely opinion. Some from experienced drivers, rookies and a mix of disgruntled drivers. But, it should give you enough to go on to be able to weed out the real bad companies.

I'm not going to tell you that the contract type training companies are good or bad. Some have good experiences with them and others don't. It really depends on your situation and what your expectations are. I would suggest though that you ask yourself why these companies need a contract to keep drivers around.

I have been researching this as a career for almost a year now. At first, I was gung-ho and almost went with a training company, actually considered two. I'm now at the point where paying for the training myself sounds better. I guess the lure of not having to outlay any cash had my attention. In my gut it just didn't feel right. So, I started my research all over again.

I then looked at trucking schools. Wow, what a racket we have going on in this arena. 5, 6, 7, $8,000 + interest, for some of these schools. The prices are simply robbery, especially when you only get a 4 week course out of them.

Next, I looked at community colleges. The courses are half the price of even the cheaper trucking schools, yet twice as long. By far, the best bang for your buck, and in my opinion, gives you more time to absorb and learn the material and skills. If asked, I would recommend this route to get your CDL.

Once you decide how you'll obtain your CDL the next step would be to start calling companies. Reading posts here will help you learn the jargon and better know what to ask. Find out their requirements BEFORE you give a school any money for a course. The worst thing to hear is that you paid for a school that doesn't meet the requirements of your favorite company.

Some will say that all recruiters lie. I have talked to quite a few that were super people and a few that just weren't good liars. Ask the questions to the recruiter and write down the answers you get. But, don't sign on with any of them before validating anything that doesn't sound just right. If it sounds too good to be true post your concerns here and I'm sure someone will help you weed through the BS from a recruiter.

Take your time and read as much as you can here. This is a great place to start.

As far as how much you can expect to make the first year, I would keep a figure of somewhere around $32,000 in your head. These are rough numbers but I use this as a realistic approach. Let's say you run 2500 miles a week at 28 cpm for $700 a week. If you take off 1 day per week for home time you're left with approximately 45 weeks a year to run. 45 X $700 = $31,500. Obviously, these numbers are subject to variances but a good conservative number to expect for a first year driver.

 

Nevada called it.

I will add to his post that the trucking school "racket" has been brought about by the government. Specifically, the government has provided a cash cow to the trucking schools in the form of grants. Many who receive these are products of Clinton's "Welfare to Work" program. And many of THOSE are dregs who don't deserve the handout. They usually end up wasting it by being careless (they get fired after causing avoidable accidents) or by quitting their new jobs.

Anyway, with the government funding job training for all those being weened off welfare, a "racket" has been set up in the training segment of trucking. Many companies have realized it is actually in their interest to mistreat drivers so they will quit, meaning those drivers can be replaced by newbies who are grads of the trucking schools. Who owns many of these mills outright or owns large stakes in them? Yeah...the trucking companies themselves.

And when a trainee gets a government grant, those who actually own interests in the school he or she attends get a nice little scoop. Indeed what a racket it is.

Of course, the grants are the reason the price of training has gone up so much for us grunts not relying on Uncle Sam. The government doesn't question its paying out 5, 6, 8, even TEN thousand for only a few weeks' truck driver training for a weanie. It just pays it. Because it is willing to fork over whatever the schools ask, the government drives up training costs for us all. And the drivers who are getting the grants may be drivers who stay in the industry only a few months, given the present turnover rate in trucking.

Yeap, thanks to the government sugar titty, When you or I go to a training school on our own dimes, we have to pay what the government is willing to pay, and what we have to fork over is usually a LOT more than the training is worth.

When I went to a training mill, the training was 4995 bones for 5 weeks' training. During those 5 weeks, I missed out on 5 weeks' worth of work at about 700 a week. I also had to pay nearly 300 that month for rent, and I probably had about 300 more in other costs. I think the school used a small, paperback textbook as well, a text that was probably worth five bucks. What did the school charge its students? 250 bones, boy. My total costs ended up running me 4995 + 250 + 300 + 300 + 3500 (lost work) = 9200 or so. I got a job at Swift, a school pushed hard by the mill (because Swift had a stake in the school, I'm sure), worked about four months, and then ended up walking away. After quitting the POS outfit known as Swifty, I had a CDL in my pocket, sure. But I also had a DAC mark on my record (so I could serve as an example to other miscreants who were thinking about quitting), and I had just cost myself nearly 10,000 bucks on it all. That little piece of plastic with "CDL" written on it had cost me more than a year's tution at a university...and I couldn't get a job at a good oufit after I quit Swift, as I had quit 'em too soon after starting. Yeap, five months after getting my CDL, I was back at square one, only a LOT poorer than I was when I started.

Today I would get training that would cost me AT MOST 700 bones, and I'd do it on weekends. I definitely wouldn't give up my regular job for the training, and that training had better not last any longer than about two months. Driving rigs isn't flying a 747. I know. I used to drive rigs, and it ain't that hard. It shouldn't take 5 weeks to learn. If one really wanted to learn and had the smarts, I could train him to drive a rig safely no matter how many gears it has, clutchless shifts and all. I bet I could take him from Class D to Class A in 7 days....guaranteed, but, again, he'd have to really want to learn and have the smarts to go with that desire to learn.

 

The whole contract idea, in itself, is not the problem. The problem, in most cases, is the way drivers are treated after the real fun begins. If the company makes sure the driver gets decent training, miles, has decent equipment, doesn't [screw] up the drivers pay, etc etc etc, then going the contract route would actually be a good way to go. Companies would keep their more experienced drivers and might even put some of these overpriced private schools out of business. But, the cluebird hasn't landed on the shoulders of the management types in these big outfits. I'm kinda convinced some of these companies want rookies to leave shortly after starting on with them. Another newbie in line to pay $4000 for 2 weeks of CDL schooling and the newbie works for 26 or 27 cpm. The newbie pays $4000 for the CDL and then pays for the CDL again in the way of low (read "lost" or "could have made more working for a decent company") wages. Cheap labor and a money maker for the company. Not such a sweet deal for drivers.

 

notch,just give sneider a call and be done with it,they have good driver trainers there that can really help you and get you started,don't waste time with swift,jb hunt,werner. get started and be the best you can be,really concentrate at being the best,shifting,driving forward and backward and make few mistakes,double check setting your brakes,looking in mirrors and get along with your trainer. Thru the years I have talked to many drivers,sneider drivers and trainers are great,i never worked directly for them but after talking to drivers that have started there and stayed there for many years later and went on to be trainers,something has to be good. In trucking there is no excuse for not making great money,ups,roadway,yellow,abf,walmart,there are no limits for good drivers,its how hard you want to work,no pressure or pressure etc,you get what you deserve and want,but ,above all,you've got to get going,learn,learn learn,like i have said a thousand times,i can teach a monkey to drive a truck,but the trick is,to be the best. best of luck,one proud ole truckdriver with 2 sons that drive and I do respect you newbees that are applying your skills to be good drivers and safe drivers so that we may all return safely to our families when the day or week is done.