Beginning to get desperate, could use help/advice.

It's a tough choice balancing all of the variables in trucking. But you seem to be many miles ahead of 90% of newbies entering the field. The most common message posted on this board by newbies is "I just signed a year contract with CR England and leave on the bus for orientation in an hour, are they a good company to work for?". There are lots of guy willing to help you land at a good place and you seem shrewd enough to not step on the common landmines. It can take a week for every regular to read and respond but there is help out here. Just stay away from CR England if there is ANY other choice.

 

YRC/Yellow has their own cdl school. Probably have to go out of state, then after graduation would report to the terminal nearest you.
Tuition-free CDL Driving Academy - Dock Worker Jobs …

 

Prime has probably the best/longest training period. I hate refrigerated trailers (reefer) for various reasons and that is the majority of Prime. They do have flatbed and tanker, and they haul dry freight inside their reefers. But, their process for training newbies to become independent truck drivers, ESPECIALLY if you want to own your truck, is the best IMO. I would also suggest Wilson Logistics, like Chinatown mentioned. They have almost a carbon copy of the Prime training process, but they are mostly Northwest, West, with some Midwest. They have their CDL school in Missoula, MT and it's not nearly as busy as Prime. Wilson's school might have 5 students. Prime probably has 50-100. Just don't lease a truck from Prime until you finish your contract period (12 months). The trucking rates are near historic lows, fuel prices are near historic highs. It's about the hardest it's ever been to make a profit in trucking right now. If you are a company driver, the boss has to pay all the bills. You only have to drive, eat, and sleep. That will be plenty while you learn trucking.

 

Wilson Logistics has cdl school in Springfield, Missouri and Missoula, Montana.

 

.

 

.

 

IMO, getting your CLP is not important. You have dealt with the medical issue and passed your DOT physical. That definitively solves that issue. Any CDL school you go to will require you get a physical and drug screen before or at the beginning. The fact you are passing all f your endorsement practice tests means you will pass the endorsement tests at the driver license office. All the CLP shows is that you have OFFICIALLY passed those endorsement tests physical and drug screen. Since you and I both know you will pass I don't see the point of passing them before you need to pass it. I've never run a trucking company or been more than a company driver employee, but I don't recall anyone mentioning that having their CLP was ever a deciding factor. Maybe the CDL school, if it is for-profit or community college or vocational tech may give you a slight discount for already having a CLP. In my state the CLP is good for 180 days. I think to keep it simple just make sure you routinely are passing the online tests and then pass your CLP when you go to CDL school, unless they give you a bigger discount than the actual cost of the CLP. I, cheap, I would not spend my money to get a CLP until CDL school or unless you really are told a trucking company wants to know you have one.

As for the Reddit anger. The truth is there IS a lot of anger in trucking. There is a lot of anger on this forum. Trucking is best suited for people that like to be alone or work alone. Many of us that work alone don't have the best social skills and express our frustration is bad ways. Many trucking companies, since they are run by people who don't drive trucks, leave a lot of important details about customers from the drivers. The dispatcher is NEVER going to be looking for the driveway for a customer 8 states away, so the fact every driver that goes to that customer for the first time ALWAYS runs past the driveway and into a dead-end, or a narrow residential neighborhood, etc is not going to be passed along. She has 30 drivers and 70 customers on her plate today. You and I don't spend more of our time thinking about how to make a cashier or clerk's job easier than the dispatcher thinks about the driver's job. There are tools to use so drivers can help drivers inside and outside of the company. Customers treat drivers like rabid skunks. Many implemented "keep out" policies during covid and drivers were locked away from bathrooms, offices, etc. For me the biggest stress EVERY day is the stupid, dangerous, and reckless drivers of 4-wheelers. 99% of them are staring at their smartphone 99% of the day. 90% of them drive in the farthest left lane at all times even if they have to make a right turn in 3 feet. EVERY driving situation for a 4-wheeler seems to be solved by finding a truck, swerving in front of it and slamming on the brakes. It will happen to you multiple times per day, every day you drive. Luckily, or not, being near Boston you will see the worst drivers often so maybe you will adjust to it. It's not something you cannot learn to handle, but it sure does wear on me and many drivers agree it may be the most difficult part of the job. I was so tired of it after 28 years I picked up and worked for a company in Idaho for 14 months and never went home. It was great except that job just traded the names of the cities from Chicago to Seattle, from Atlanta to Portland, etc. That job had a lot more empty miles between the big cities and the scenery is spectacular. But not going home eventually was too much.

There are more trucks on the road than ever before and there is NOT ENOUGH truck parking in any city in America, especially East Coast. There are lots of challenges, no shortage of people willing to put my CDL at risk to make their life a little easier, etc. Trucking is a rescue job for many, many people. It was for me. I don't like it, much. There are great jobs out there, I highly recommend Tanker work. The customers don't treat you like a rat with rabies, they treat you like the man that brought the stuff they really want. There is a solution for many of the difficulties, even if that solution is changing the way you think about things. It is so much easier to stay in contact with others than the old days, there are so many tools you can use to make somethings easier for the driver, and if you can get through the change in your life at the start, and the living in a truck with another man for the 4-8 weeks it takes to get your own truck it is a decent option. I would have sold my pet to the Taliban if I could have stayed with airplanes, but trucking rescued me from permanent low-pay and sweating through my clothes every day in FL before 7am and staying soggy until after dark.

If your lady can be independent and you both understand it might be 6 weeks between home-time and OTR is for a year it can be good for you.