financial aid in trucking school?

I have heard that said also but have no idea how that happens. Why would you want to take the money anyway all it does it put you deeper in debt. Use what you need for school and dont take the rest. You financial load will be paid off quicker and life will be easier in the long run. The only way on second thought that this could happen would be scholarship money or sometime you can get grant money to help with living expenses

 

What is your background? If you are a hands-on, wrench-turning, gear-head, equipment operating, farm-boy type person, you will probably pick right up on truck driving and only need enough info to pass the test. If you have been more academic to this point, you may need a longer course to hone the skills needed to pass the driving tests.

If you are truly going to work the oilfields, all they are looking for is the CDL. Not necessarily accreditation or PTDI. Once you have a year or so of experience, THAT is what any employers are looking at. Not the school you attended a year or more ago.

So attend the school that gives you what you need to land the first job.

I wouldn't do that until you picked a school. If part of the school package is paying for the permits you may end up paying twice. But do pick-up the manual, or download it and start studying right away.

On the other hand, with a permit you would stand out when applying for an oilfield job. It probably would not be too difficult to find an oilfield company that would hire you and send you to get your CDL. Then you would actually be paid to get your CDL win/win.

I went through the process a long time ago. They had grants and loans but I didn't go that route. I "worked for it". Besides my day job that kept my bills paid, I delivered pizza at night, and newspapers in the morning. I was able to save and pay cash for the schooling in a surprisingly short amount of time (probably about as long as I am seeing some wait on WIA nowadays). I stayed at the campground outside of town that cost less for the month then others were paying for a week at the motel. The experience showed me I could handle working long hours, and it being MY MONEY on the line pretty much guaranteed success.

-- I didn't twist the government, and I sure ain't whining about it. So logic and common sense for some would be to just go out and earn the money to pay for school. Not spend all the time applying for, and jumping through the hoops to appease the government that will many times just keep you waiting longer for the funds then it would have taken to go earn the money in the first place.

I'm pretty proud of the way I approached the whole thing. That was back in 1992. Not quite 150 years ago. but close...

I watched those grant-students at school. Honestly, I don't even know what half of them were doing there. They had no idea what they signed up for. Didn't really apply themselves. Most were young like I was. Probably their first loan and the reality of what they committed to had not even sunk in yet. It was unbelievable how many acted like truck driving was what the dart hit when they threw it at a vocational course catalog. I would be SHOCKED to hear that any of those guys or girls are even still driving.

Probably don't need to explain why you didn't register. They usually just want compliance. Register and you should be good to go.

 

I qualified for a Pell Grant (FAFSA) way back when and the money went to the institution. The institution took their cut and at the end of the semester what was left over went to me in the form of a check. The Pell Grant was based on income (among other things) so I'm guessing that if a person was in dire financial straits the Pell Grant would be larger than what was needed to pay all the institutional costs (tuition, books, etc).

The first time I got the check I called Financial Aid at the school and asked what's this for? I thought maybe I'd better hold onto it for the following semester or something. She said, "whatever you want."

 

Hopefully Swift raises drivers pay.

But personally, I think they just have too many trucks. I don't think more people driving for Swift would necessarily be a good thing.

The numbers are interesting in that article. It says the industry is 30,000 drivers short. I have also read there are 3.5 million truck drivers in the US. So... We have less then a 1% shortfall of drivers? That doesn't give me a whole lot of confidence of a "driver shortage" pushing up wages.

Even the 200,000 drivers short in a decade they warn of is less then 6% of the total number of drivers. --I doubt grocery store shelves will be going bare because of such a shortage.

 

Yeah, but the point is when you're on the road with a trainer you get PAID.

 

how do you go about the wia program

 

WIA is handled through the unemployment office. They may require 2 or 3 pre-hire letters from trucking companies, but that's no problem.

 

Man I really appreciate you ,You gave me some hope will any of them companies you mention will give me a pre-hire letter