CDL School student looking for recommendations for companies to apply to

Start dry van with Schneider, then once you know how to drive worry about reefer.

 

Here's a post about Leonard's Express:
Post is by @xlsdraw
Here's my first 10 trips:

1) Farmington, NY to West Seneca, NY to Lake City FL. (1,227 miles).

2) Lake City, FL to Auburndale, FL/picked up my gear, to Umatilla, FL to Clackamas, OR. (3,271 miles).

3) Clackamas, OR to Selah, WA to Shelbyville, IN. (2,371 miles).

4) Shelbyville, IN to Northlake, IL to Owatonna, MN. (607 miles).

5) Owatonna, MN to Le Sueur, MN to Woodburn, OR. (1,834 miles).

6) Woodburn, OR to Yakima, WA to Renville, MN. (1,783 miles).

7) Renville, MN to Gaylord, MN to Tampa, FL. (1,701 miles).

Home for a week due to my Mom's passing.

8) Tampa, FL to Lake Wales, FL to Madison, WI. (1,386 miles).

9) Madison, WI to Ripon, WI to Montgomery, MN. (376 miles).

10) Montgomery, MN to Gaylord, MN to Milwaukie, OR. (1,799 miles).

Let's see if I can do this math. 16,355 miles divided by 10 trips= 1,635.5 average trip length.

My next update will have this nice run I'm on from Clackamas, OR to Boca Raton, FL as it's opening leg .

That's all for now.

 

I second the vote for Critter just kidding , I'd stay dry van until you get your feet wet , paying lumpers and reefer freight could put a bad taste in your mouth right out of the gate.
May the force be with you , Good Luck.

 

The driver doesn't pay lumper fee's; the trucking company does.
I pulled reefers for 18 years and never got tired of it; made a lot more money than dry van for sure.

 

Wish you all the best for your future career if this is the path you want to go down, as they say "if trucking stops America stops" right now as ever before there is a huge demand for competent drivers that can take a load from A to B, deliver it on time and return back with another load in a safe and efficient manner. Yes having safety as the #1. in training is important, the only issue I can see is actually finding a company that really focuses on teaching drivers the importance of safety. Most companies seem to be totally focused on getting as many loads delivered on a daily basis which adds to their total income for the week, month, quarter, and year to get maximum profits. Most of my training just involved teaching us all about filling in the paperwork, and making deliveries there was not one mention of how to drive in safe way which was kind of disappointing. Its almost like they just assume you learnt this all during your CDL Driving course, however how many CDL instructors actually focus on driving safely? I do hope you find that one company that will do all those things as it would be a pretty good company to work for.

 

After listening to that reefer kick on and off constantly for months you'll start drinking, don't worry about it.

 

Never bothered me. That's no worse than sleeping in a busy truck stop.

 

When I drove reefer. I got used to it. So much so. I had trouble sleeping in my quiet home. I invented the Reefer Teddy Bear. Complete with 7 sets of differing reefer and idle sounds.
But now? I’d rather not hear noise.

BTW: I think the reefers talked these guys into getting revenge on me. Everywhere I park. They gather outside my door. Talk trash all night long.

 

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