Help Me Make The Right Choice

Most any of the "mega-carriers" are going to be as good as another and will handle your I-5 preferences with a Seattle address. I doubt you can reasonably narrow down any one carrier who hires new drivers and who will gross you more than another. One may pay more CPM, but provide fewer consistent miles, and vice versa. Focus on terminal locations (want to be near a service facility), and equipment specs (want APU) in the beginning, then after 9-12 months you can begin to look for better pay and opportunities elsewhere.

New driver hire carriers are pretty much all the same in general terms of pay expectations IMO so you need to consider other benefits to make a sensible choice. You will find that nearby home terminal (with service) is worth a lot. You can go home and do laundry while they are screwing with your truck, instead of being stuck in a dreary driver lounge for 2 days with nothing to do and/or no means of transportation.

 

I would call TWT out of Spokane,WA and see if the school you are going too is approved for them. if you want to run reefer they will always get you down to southern California and right back up to Seattle. Or if you wanna flatbed and go OTR try System Transport

 

What does APU mean??

 

APU=auxiliary power unit. Think of the Honda generator in you might have in your garage. All I have dealt with have run some sort of AC unit as well as a bunk heater and a power supply so you can plug in all the comforts from home without having to pay high prices for junky electronics from the truck stop. I have a tv, playstation, fridge(non compressor), microwave, computer, ect in my truck. (Before the comments come in, I average 2500 miles a week and always push my dispatch for more) Having an APU is very nice. Not having one means you have to balance idle time of the truck verses freezing to death at night to keep your company happy and have a chance at a fuel bonus. Be weary of freightliners new apu system, batteries won't last all night just running the bunk fan on medium.
CUDOS on paying for your trucking school out of pocket. I did the same and its worth its weight in gold. I have talked to a lot of drivers that participated in company provided CDL programs. The general consensus from them is that they are indentured servants for a couple years just to pay back the company. If they leave they get a hefty bill in the mail.
I think you need to figure out what you want to haul. For every noob with a dream there's a company that will crush it. But once you decide what you want to haul, you can start looking at companies.
I new I wanted to flatbed, and I paid for my CDL. That allowed me to go with a company that had industry respected flatbed training even though the pay and conditions weren't too good. After a few months experience I was able to move to a company where the pay was much better, the conditions were much better, that maintenance is awesome (very important for me), and got an almost new truck with APU. That being said the flatbed training is sub par and leaves a lot of drivers scratching their head. Not knowing how to secure a flatbed load is a big no no never.
Reefer and box require all of 10 minutes training. I can't speak for hoppers or tankers, but I would imagine some tips beyond the DMV manual would be handy.
One last consideration if you haven't committed to you schooling yet: Some companies you may look into will not like or recognize you choice for obtaining your CDL. If you have even a short list of companies your considering you might want to call them, tell them where you going to school, and ask if you might hire you. You may find there are other schooling options in your area that has comparable costs but holds a better rapport.

 

Thanks for the explanation on the APU!!

 

You mentioned Southern California; Navajo has a terminal in Chino and it's longhaul. You can make pretty good money with Watkins & Shepard, Melton Truck Lines, System Transport.

 

There are companies that do more long haul than short runs. What I found worked for me when looking for companies, go to their website. Many/most of the companies that are going to hire you advertise a hiring area and readily supply you the "good" information you are asking about such as average mileage, home time, max cpm pay, ect. What none of them tell you is the "not good" information. Some will say they have great home time until you call them and find out you'll be out min 6 weeks, home 2 days and half your runs will be 300 milers. That they'll bounce you home 350 miles that are unpaid or keep you out an extra week after you planned home time because it wasn't convenient for them to get you home.
I hate to sound negative, but I researched 95% of the companies that take newbies, some more in depth than others. Some I've looked at twice when changing companies. The best advice I ever got was from an old timer. "the best company to work for is one that can put up with your ****, and you can put up with theirs"
Best bet is after checking hiring maps for companies that run the way you want (think you want), dig deeper. Call them, google them. truckertruth and ripoff report have some good information as long as you can read through the whiners. Most of it is whining, but you can get a good look at the bad side of the company. Its like getting to see you wife really mad for the first time. I don't mean to imply that every bad review you read is inaccurate, but generally I would say most of the people typing broke company policy to some degree. At this point you shouldn't have too many companies your still considering, but I suggest your homework isn't done. If you can, head to the local truck stop at peak times and try to talk to some truckers working for the companies you looking at. Walk in the trucker lounge and ask if anybody works for a particular company, or approach one at the fuel island. Some will talk, some won't, in my experience most will at least give you a bit of info. I'd take that with a grain of salt too though. I get people all the time asking me about how I like running skate board or how I like my company and I promise you my answer depends on how my day or week has been going. Last week a guy asked me and my response was "today is the wrong day to ask" because I knew nothing good was going to come out of my mouth.
I have talked to a few bedbuggers (movers). Some love it, some hate it. Try to find one to talk to. I will tell you though anytime I see one pulling up to a truck stop there is a minimum of 3 people in the cab. One mover told me he hires local help when moving but hates dealing with low quality temp workers and it helps to be bilingual. I've also hear they sometimes sit a lot.

 

Another thing the inquire about when checking is how they maintenance their vehicles. Having a terminal close to your hometown might not be a deal breaker. I was initially hung up on this a bit, but found out the only real advantage was that it provides a place to park my truck when I'm home. As far as I'm concerned, the less I'm around a terminal the better off I am and the more miles I'll get. I've been with 4 companies. Two would run/limp the truck cross country to the terminal to fix it rather than pay 100/h shop fees. One didn't fix their trucks at all. One (the one I'm with now) has maintenance done where ever I'm at when its time for it. Things to consider since your CSA score is career.