Starting TDI in Oxford, AL tomorrow

I will try to keep you guys up to date on how things go, for those who may be thinking about attending TDI. I hope everything goes well, I think it should based on what I have read and heard from people I know.

 

Well, as little indication as you can get from day one of filling out paper work and going over common sense safety, I'd say this is going to be a good educational experience and a good spring board into a career. All of the faculty are very open and friendly. The school is small and simple, but that means nothing so long as you get a good education like you pay for. The school has about 6 or 7 trucks from what I can tell. My class is only 6 people, so a small group. My teacher is a 30 year driver, and seems to know his stuff. The company seems to have their act together and everything runs pretty much like a well oiled machine.

Already filled out some applications today to be sent off. They apparently have a good reputation with a lot of the big companies. I guess that sort of makes them like a meat market, we are fresh meat for the taking by the big companies who go through new drivers like a chain smoker goes through cigarettes. But such is the industry from what I understand. New drivers have to sort of take what they can get, ride out the first year and deal with it. Then you have some say on where you go from there. So far I have applied for Roehl, Stevens, Werner (my last, worst case scenario option) and BTC for flat bed work. I plan to put in one with Prime Inc. tomorrow as well as a few others from companies they deal with. They claim the average person ends up with at least 3 or 4 pre-hires by the end of the week. From what I could tell, I was the only one there with nothing on my driving record at 25 years old, and have decent job history, flawless health screening and have college education. So maybe I will be an easy hire for a few of the better starter companies.

Anybody have any input on which of those companies are the lesser evil for the typical new guy in the industry? Thanks

 

It's one of the most expensive schools I've seen actually, just under $6k if you get a loan through them, or they take off $1,000 if you come up with the payment yourself. They start classes every Monday, so you wouldn't have to wait for more than 7 days to start. I applied and was approved and ready to go within a few days.

Update!!! I'm quite excited. Took my permit test today, and passed with flying colors. I'm the only one in my class of 6 people to pass the test today. I don't see how anyone could fail the test, it's so simple and common sense. My classmates aren't taking it seriously, which is sad since they are wasting their own time and money. They have to wait till next week now to get theirs, where I can start training in a truck Friday or Saturday. On top of getting my permit, I went ahead and took all of the endorsement tests while I was there, since they were free. Having not studied for the at all, I still got my doubles and triples as well as my tanker endorsement, but failed the Hazmat by 2 questions. Which is fine, and by no means a surprise. A good bit of detailed info you have to know that I did not.

They also live up to their promise, I am the only one in my class with job offers. It's only the 3rd day in class and already I have 4 pre-hires! I guess a perfectly flawless criminal record, driving record, decent job history and a flawless physical will do that for you! Two of the offers were the two top companies I was hoping to get a job with. McElroy out of Cuba, AL, so it's local to me, as well as Roehl. McElroy right now is on the top of my list, since they are a flat bed company that guarantees you home every weekend, and have awesome pay, starting you out at $.40/mile with no touch loads. You never have to go more than a few hundred miles from home, and if you are far from home by Wednesday, dispatch will recall you so you can be home by Friday night. They also pay that same $.40.mile whether or not your trailer is empty or loaded, so you always make money. For short trips, they pay a minimum of $150. Everything the recruiter told me sounded really good (of course it did, he is a recruiter) but I believed every word. They are a small company, and the owner/founder is a Seventh Day Adventist, so that is why no one works weekends. So they were serious about being home on weekends. While OTR would be fine with me, I also like knowing I can be home every weekend and still keep some sort of normal life. They also permanently assign you your own truck, and they have a new fleet, and will be adding more new trucks next year. Most of their trucks have electric APU's, so another big plus.

I'm just really excited about this opportunity for myself. I hope to join the ranks of you guys and gals soon as a professional trucker.

 

It's not 100% no touch, there are probably a few very rare occasions where you would have to help load or unload, and you would definitely have to tarp on a regular basis, though he said 65% of loads are pre tarped. But most of what they haul, at least in my area is building materials. They haul for Lowes, and most of what is loaded is too big to be loaded by hand, so it's loaded for you, and then unloaded by Lowes staff at the destination. Tarping a load is no big deal for me at all.

Two more prehires. Maverick and Stevens Transport. Still have my eye on McElroy.

 

For me? Excellent. I am breezing through this course with no problems what so ever. My classmates however must have money growing on trees, because they are wasting this $6000 they spent to attend this short 3 week course. They are all struggling and falling behind.

We are up to covering log books, and I grasped that without any issue at all, so I'm really anxious to get onto the actual driving training. I spend a lot of my day sitting at my desk resting my eyes, waiting for the rest of class to catch up with me. I have some experience driving dump trucks in off road scenarios, as well as a lot of large heavy equipment, so I foresee no problems driving a truck. I just need to get used to pulling a 53' trailer behind me on crowded public roads. I have common sense and a good understanding of what to do and not do, so again, should be no issue. The one thing that I am slightly concerned with is doing the PTI for the test examiner. A lot of steps to remember, in the correct order, and you have to vocalize everything you do, and why you do it. I think that may be tough for me, my memory for things like that is not always the best. But maybe with the 2 weeks of hands on training we will do, I will be able to pick up on it easily. I shall see Saturday, which should be my first day of actually touching one of the trucks.