Help me not screw this up

I have looked at hundreds of threads on here the last few days and I'm pretty overwhelmed with all of the information here. I'm thinking about going into truck driving as a career change and will try to lay out my thoughts here from what I've picked up so far.

As far as CDL school, it seems that most people recommend to go to a community college instead of the company paid mills. I get the reasons for that and understand that I can get it paid for by a WIA grant here in Ohio. What I'm not sure on is what I should be looking for in a school and if there is specific training that some schools have that will help me in the future on the job. Any help here would be appreciated. Are there ones that will also get me Hazmat endorsements for example, or is that something I have to get later?

I'm single and no kids so I plan on going the homeless trucker route. I'll be changing my CDL to another state and avoiding the state income taxes, but does anyone know of any other benefits of picking one state over another? Any downsides to this that anyone can think of?

I understand that companies will be lining up to hire me after my CDL, but a lot of companies will pass on me until I have more experience. Money is as important to me as anyone else, but starting my career off right is more important. The company can be based out of anywhere, but I'm hoping to find one that has newer equipment that won't force me to do something that I'm not ready for, is illegal, or just plain dangerous. I want to avoid hauls through the Colorado mountains in winter for example, or companies trying to get me to stretch HOS or fudge records or plain forcing me to run loads that I don't have the experience to be running. I know that these things are going to pop up no matter which company I choose, but I'm sure that you guys have some companies in mind with decent records of not doing those things.

On the same chain of thought, I'd like to try and "keep it simple stupid" with my truck/trailer options as well. Is there anything that you would recommend for reducing my stress as far as a truck/trailer combination? I was initially thinking that hauling sand for the oilfields might be good, (don't have to worry about tarping, tie downs, loads shifting, etc...), but from what I'm reading those jobs seem to be paying peanuts right now. Does anyone have any ideas? I want to spend my beginning time learning to drive safely and efficiently and worry about taking on more risk for more reward later. I don't want to set myself up to fail if that makes any sense. I don't expect to be Ice Road Trucking anytime soon.

Lastly, tell me if I'm thinking about this all wrong. Am I missing something? Forgetting something? Looking at this wrong? I'm trying not to fail to plan and hoping that I'm not planning to fail. If you guys can look back to what you did when you first started, and what you would do differently now with what you know, it would be much appreciated.

Thanks ahead of time.

 

Thanks Hoofbeats, I didn't realize that different companies accredited different schools.

As far as the oilfields hiring newbies, I understand that you wouldn't work for one, but would there be any reason I shouldn't?

Thanks as well FlexinTarzan, why should I avoid them? Do they pressure you to be unsafe or something?