Been thinking about getting my Class A for awhile now. Need info. Any help is greatly appreciated!

chrismcallister34 · Aug 18, 2022

Chinatown said: ↑

Student Drivers - CFI
If you are looking to start your career as a professional driver, look no further than CFI. Not only do we offer several ways for you to obtain your Class-A commercial driver’s license (CDL), but we also provide a place you can call home for the duration of your career.
Click to expand...

CFI doesn't allow license suspensions for moving violations in the last 5 years. They were one of my top choices.

chrismcallister34 · Aug 18, 2022

tscottme said: ↑

Recognize if you enter trucking you will be working both with 24/7 surveillance over certain aspects of your driving and you will be given less information and direction about how to do your job than at any job you've done before. At no other job I ever worked was I given so little info about a customer, or how to do something "everyone knows how to do that" (if they were a truck driver the last 10 years, yeah).

That puts being able to think through what to do when you don't know what to do very high. You are going to have people in the company or a customer telling you little more than hurry up when you know what to do, and those same people started their weekend early, or are talking on 5 other phone lines and not answering your text/call when you need an answer in the next 3 minutes before the customer closes, etc. There are tools like GPS, cellphones, Google Maps and the reviews of customers that were not available in the old days but every one seems to operate with almost no margin of time, also. You'll have customers located on street with signs saying "No Trucks". You'll have fuel pumps that won't accept your fuel card and no explanation and nobody is answering the phone.

What I'm saying is it's easy to think this job is much more "paint by numbers" than any other when it is more like "go to Seattle to load, and be in Denver before closing tomorrow" and you figure out the rest. Oh yeah there are no empty trailers or your trailer that is empty has a problem with the brakes. Hurry Up!

You have to learn to translate "hurry up" into "OK, don't screw up here. What am I forgetting?" and then operate with no mistakes even if it isn't running like a crazy man, which they want.

Your job/driving history isn't as bad as many other newbies, but it's some obstacle to getting hired everywhere. It could mean you work at a lesser quality company with more of what I described which makes it easy to make other mistakes. And no matter where you work, when the driver makes a mistake EVERYONE, ESPECIALLY the people that were telling you to hurry up will put all the blame on you and not on them for not giving you the support/info you needed at the moment.

Trucking is a good rescue job, it rescued me. It's a place where you need to mature quickly, hopefully quicker than people's mistakes cause problems. You have to learn from the mistake you make, quickly.
Click to expand...

Chinatown · Aug 18, 2022

chrismcallister34 said: ↑

CFI doesn't allow license suspensions for moving violations in the last 5 years. They were one of my top choices.
Click to expand...

Well, apply to all the others then.
Try the WIOA Program in Texas. CDL school is fully paid for you and your girlfriend.

chrismcallister34 · Aug 18, 2022

tscottme said: ↑

Recognize if you enter trucking you will be working both with 24/7 surveillance over certain aspects of your driving and you will be given less information and direction about how to do your job than at any job you've done before. At no other job I ever worked was I given so little info about a customer, or how to do something "everyone knows how to do that" (if they were a truck driver the last 10 years, yeah).

That puts being able to think through what to do when you don't know what to do very high. You are going to have people in the company or a customer telling you little more than hurry up when you know what to do, and those same people started their weekend early, or are talking on 5 other phone lines and not answering your text/call when you need an answer in the next 3 minutes before the customer closes, etc. There are tools like GPS, cellphones, Google Maps and the reviews of customers that were not available in the old days but every one seems to operate with almost no margin of time, also. You'll have customers located on street with signs saying "No Trucks". You'll have fuel pumps that won't accept your fuel card and no explanation and nobody is answering the phone.

What I'm saying is it's easy to think this job is much more "paint by numbers" than any other when it is more like "go to Seattle to load, and be in Denver before closing tomorrow" and you figure out the rest. Oh yeah there are no empty trailers or your trailer that is empty has a problem with the brakes. Hurry Up!

You have to learn to translate "hurry up" into "OK, don't screw up here. What am I forgetting?" and then operate with no mistakes even if it isn't running like a crazy man, which they want.

Your job/driving history isn't as bad as many other newbies, but it's some obstacle to getting hired everywhere. It could mean you work at a lesser quality company with more of what I described which makes it easy to make other mistakes. And no matter where you work, when the driver makes a mistake EVERYONE, ESPECIALLY the people that were telling you to hurry up will put all the blame on you and not on them for not giving you the support/info you needed at the moment.

Trucking is a good rescue job, it rescued me. It's a place where you need to mature quickly, hopefully quicker than people's mistakes cause problems. You have to learn from the mistake you make, quickly.
Click to expand...

I appreciate the input brother. I have no problem with overcoming obstacles. I was in the Army, so I'm used to the old adage, "adapt, improvise, and overcome." I can usually figure out problems on my own, and can be pretty resourceful. And I've definitely turned my life around, matured a lot, and had a change of character over the last 3 years or so.

Chinatown · Aug 18, 2022

Did you try PAM? You're in a less than desirable situation, so apply to them all.

chrismcallister34 · Aug 18, 2022

Chinatown said: ↑

Well, apply to all the others then.
Try the WIOA Program in Texas. CDL school is fully paid for you and your girlfriend.
Click to expand...

I'll definitely look into it.

chrismcallister34 · Aug 18, 2022

Chinatown said: ↑

Did you try PAM? You're in a less than desirable situation, so apply to them all.
Click to expand...

PAM is on my list. I haven't heard as many horror stories about PAM than I have about CRST or Western Express though so I'm keeping them above those two. Between PAM and CR England, which is the better of the two?

Bobblehead · Aug 18, 2022

CRST will likely hire you. You will be able to team together after you go out with a trainer. Pay and all that is what you’d expect out of a bottom feeder company. Think they make you stay at the terminal for training or they did when I started there years ago however.

Chinatown · Aug 18, 2022

Labatt Food Service
Houston, TX 77092
$65,000 - $90,000 a year
Labatt Food Service is now hiring for a Student Driver at the Houston location. Must be able to provide a valid Texas Class A Permit or Texas Class A CDL.
The Student Driver is a paid position allowing you to qualify as a commercial driver and be trained as a Route Driver for Labatt Food Service.

Chinatown · Aug 18, 2022

chrismcallister34 said: ↑

PAM is on my list. I haven't heard as many horror stories about PAM than I have about CRST or Western Express though so I'm keeping them above those two. Between PAM and CR England, which is the better of the two?
Click to expand...

Western Express doesn't have cdl school anymore. Would probably hire you from a private cdl school.

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