Journey to begin - Registered for CDL school at local technical college

First, I want to thank so many of you for the endless hours of information provided on this forum. The shear amount of information on the forum is overwhelming, but also keeps me coming back to learn something new. Thank you!

Anyway, prior to my decision to attend a technical college, I completed just two company-sponsored applications and was accepted to attend their programs: Millis Transfer and Wilson Logistics. The contact at Millis was top-notch and she provided me with an answer to any question I had. Their program is detailed out in such a way that made me feel they truly have an interest in your success. Wilson-Logistics was ok, but I could never get a complete breakdown of their program even after I completed a thorough application as requested by the recruiter.

After careful consideration of what I feel is best for me in this career changing journey was to enroll in the truck driving weekend program at Waukesha Technical College in Pewaukee, WI. The school is approx. 30 minutes from my residence. The weekend program starts on April 18th and runs through September 19th on Saturday's and Sunday's from 7:30am to 5:30pm. A total of 400 hours of classroom and driving training. One of the Saturday's will be spent on the skid pad at the Fox Valley Technical School in Appleton, WI. Testing for your CDL will take place on site once we are ready to do so. Approximately 70 carriers hire students directly out of the school. At this point I do not have any further information on the specifics of said companies.

Why did I decide to attend a technical college vs. company-sponsored training. The biggest reason was that within the next week, the company I am currently employed with will be posting a full-time position that I am slotted to obtain. This will also give me the opportunity to work Monday thru Friday from 8:45am to 4:15pm, off weekends and holidays and thus attend the CDL program on weekends. I will be able to have the schooling paid off once I have completed the schooling. This will be a huge commitment on my part as I will be using all of the Summer weekends in class. The weekend camping trips, auto racing, family gatherings and alike will be put on the back-burner. I might as well start getting use to it as I have chosen to start a career in trucking.

Once my schooling starts, my plan is to give a weekly update of my journey and my hope is the information I share will be of assistance to anyone looking to start a career in truck driving.

 

Will do.

 

Well it has been quite some time since I posted. Covid hit and my Spring class was cancelled. As things were so crazy with Covid, I put my plans on hold for the technical college CDL training. I did take the full-time position with the company I have been with since April of 2018. However, with the pandemic, my current work hours are consistently short of full-time, which is great for my free time, but not so great for the bank account.

This has led me to believe this is the time for a career change. However this time I am going to look at a company paid training programs. Millis Transfer, Roehl and Wilson Logistics are the three I am considering at this point. I am also researching smaller carriers that offer a paid CDL training program. Haven't had much luck at this point with finding smaller carriers offering a program. As things develop I will post some updates.