some advise for newbies from a rookie

Hi Im Nate & brand new to the forums. I'm 31 yrs. old & trained with Werner for a month from 10/12 - 11/13. I know I am still new, but I know I can help people out that are new or thinking about truck driving for a living.
1- Obtaining your class A CDL. From my experience & talking with MANY drivers(both new & experienced), I would highly recommend an independent school & not company paid training(CDL mills). I got lucky with my school in the sense that it only cost me 3,100 dollars for the entire 4 week course & there were only 2 other students in the class with me & the instructors were great(we still keep in touch). I have a couple friends that went to a different school in the St. Louis area & ended up paying twice as much! I advise you to shop around for the best price in your area & find out how long the course is. The longer the better. There is a lot you are going to need to know in this industry. If you decide to go with company paid training, be VERY careful what you sign & agree to. I have talked to several people out there who really got the screw obtaining your CDL this way AND your commited to that company.
2- Choosing a company to work for. First & foremost, if possible, go with a company that has a full service terminal close(within 50 miles of your home). Nothing, & I mean nothing is more grueling than riding on a bus for a long distance. Even if the company has somewhat of a shady reputation, I believe it is worth going with a company as close to home as you can get. I say this because: 1- well over half of new drivers don't even make it through training. If you get started & it doesn't work out, TELL them to get you back to the terminal that is close to your home. 2- If it does work out for you, if you take off for longer than a week, you can take the truck back to the home terminal & start your vacation sooner. I don't know other companies procedure, but Werner says you have to leave the truck at a terminal & take a bus home if your going to be off-duty for 7 days or more. I found it very discouraging that once I got my CDL only 10 companies are so were willing to hire students. It seems that all of the high paying & local companies want at least 1 years experience. I understand why they do this(insurance), but a year is a long time to be stuck working for peanuts & being away from home for long periods at a time.
3- Heading off for orientation & training. BE PREPARED, your company will tell you a list of items to bring(&not to bring). Make sure you have every item they tell you to bring. Expect your initial time away from home 4-5 weeks. As far as trainers go. From what I can tell, it is mostly luck of the draw. My trainer taught me a lot. He was pretty cool most of the time. Towards the end(the last 10 days or so) he paid for most of my meals(probably because he won $900.00 gambling in Albequerqe). He was a very impatient man though & very kranky towards people in general. I considered completing my training(275 hrs.) in one lump sum but I reached a point where I had to get out of there. For a trainer, he was way too impatient in my opinion. If you do get a bad trainer, CONTACT YOUR STUDENT DRVER MANAGER IMMEDIATELY. Don't let it drag on too long & report the problem you had, that's with any company.
All in all, in my brief time behind the wheel, I would have to tell people starting in this industry or thinking about it, I don't have a lot of good things to say about it whether it's waiting at a shipper for hours on end on a regular basis & not getting paid, not having a good nights sleep in 5 weeks, road construction EVERYWHERE it seems, heavy traffic, & bad drivers just to name a few. On the other hand you do get to SEE a good deal of the country( you don't get to do much), you are doing a very important job, & you don't have annoying co-workers bugging you every day. Finally I would recommend reading on this site: "New Drivers"(especially about the recruiters), "company warnings", "good & bad", "good trucking companies", & especially "Special Reports"- "Truck Driver Shortage" Small Wonder... & "Detention Times". The forums on this site seem to be helpful too. Thanks for reading my post & GOOD LUCK!

 

I will also advise newbies, if possible, start your school/training in March or April for the obvious reason you won't have to drive in the cold/ice/snow for at least 7-8 months. By that time, if you stay with it, you should have enough experience under your belt to get something local, regional, or dedicated(depending where you live) and you won't have to do all 48 states & probably Canada in the wintertime. It may not bother you to drive & work in the ice & snow, but me, a person who has lived in Florida for the past 8 years, I don't care if I ever drive in it again. Also when choosing a company, if they constantly have ads in the local paper or on tv, that should behoove you to stay away. From this website, these forums, word of mouth from other drivers & friends, & my own personal experience, I am going to list all of the companies by name now to stay away from. You have been forewarned.

1-Swift- Phoenix,AZ.
2-Werner Enterprises-Omaha,NE
3-J.B. Hunt-Lowell,ARK
4-U.S.A. Truck-Van Buren ARK.
5-USXpress-Chatanooga,TN
6-Covenant Transport-Chatanooga,TN
7-C.R. England-Salt Lake City, UT
8-Prime, Inc.-Springfield,MO
9-Eagle Motor Lines(Southern Cal)-Birmingham, AL
10-Moskowitz Motor Transportation-Plainfield,NJ
11-Stevens Transport

I have also heard lately to be leery of P.A.M. & TMC(the flatbed company out of Des Moines,IA). The ONLY reason to consider working for any of the above companies is if they have a full service terminal AND orientation within 30 minutes from your home. Even then, think it through. I wish someone would have given me the advise I have posted on this thread when I was starting out. Again, thanks for reading my post ang good luck!