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

So I have a question me and my wife and my dad was looking to get our cdl through swift and drive for them with leasing the truck any opinions on if it's a smart idea just starting out or anything just looking for some ideas that we should do let me know plz

 

Don’t lease the truck
I repeat : DO— NOT — lease the truck .


why do you think they offer you the ability to lease it from them ?

hint; it’s not because they make LESS Money leasing it to you .

they make MORE money leasing it to you , that’s the ONLY reason they offer it .

by leasing the truck to you , they offload ALL of the maintenance and repair and operating costs onto your back .
If the engine blows on the truck you’re leasing from them , guess who is gonna have to pay for it ?
When the truck breaks down and is in the shop for several weeks waiting on a sensor from China , guess who is still making the insurance payment and lease payment but isn’t making any revenue to cover it ?
That’s right ! YOU ARE !

get into the trucking industry by working as a company driver paid on a W-2

and I’d suggest you get the CDL training at a community college or vocational school.
The state run community colleges in my state are $1,600 if you pay , and most people get it free on a WOIA grant .
For a 300 hour class , that’s far longer and far better than any private CDL school or any training a company offers

and the “free” training offered by any company is not free. You are required to sign a loan for $7000 and will be required to work for the company for at least 12 months . If you quit before then you will owe the $7k .

85% of new drivers quit in the first 6 months or something like that .

get the CDL class on your own and get hired as a company driver for at least two years before you even think about leasing or buying a truck .

once you’ve been in the industry two or three years and learn the rape sea and how to make money , which type of freight you like to haul , flatbed , tanker , dry van , refrigerator van , bulk tanker etc etc
And what part of the country you like to run and what freight lanes have profitable freight to haul etc and you have saved a good down payment and a very hefty maintenance and repair fund …
Then and only then , should you even consider leasing or buying a truck

@Chinatown
Is the member that can help you .
Post up your city and state .
And MVR history , how many tickets , what they are for , how many accidents etc ,
Criminal convictions ?
Drug use ?
Any pot in the last six months will likely show up on the drug test .
If you’re unsure , go take a private drug test and find out .

Do you have kids and a house and want to stay local and be home every day/night ?

no house no kids and wanna stay gone living in the truck for weeks at a time ?

 

Maybe you should get a heavy equipment operator license instead, because it sounds like you are a bad driver. Or work warehouse side and try to move up there. You generally start in the pick and transfer out in 1-3 years. If you can hang that long. That’s where most people in your situation start. You’ll learn the game much better in a high volume DC than on the road.

All the basics transfer over, from how to make tight turns with cargo to time management to playing office politics

 

I can confirm the Western Express school in Nashville, TN is shut down.

 

Get the Doubles/Triples endorsement, EVEN if you think you will never use it. I think my state charges $15 for the endorsement, maybe less. Doubles/Triples is one endorsement, BTW. The small fee you pay gives you an endorsement that opens up quite a few jobs, like LTL. The endorsement never expires. The small fee is worth it when you consider just walking into the DMV and taking the test years later will cost you several hours and the state fee will be more later than it is right now. No company is likely ever going to point you toward some pup trailers and converter dollies and tell you to hook up your first set without some training or supervision, especially LTL companies. Even if they didn't give you company training you can watch Doubles hook or drop procedures on YouTube. It's not everythign you should know before you get on the road, but you won't have to remember the endorsement test questions to hook up a set. For the test put the heavy trailer up front and lighter trailer in the rear. If one trailer is HazMat put it in the front of the set of trailers and hopefully the weight of the HazMat trailer won't violate the heavy/front guideline. When you do drive a set of doubles, no panic stops and go around corners like you only have the front trailer behind the truck. The second trailer will follow the front trailer. Rookie double drivers swing much wider going around corners because a set of doubles is longer than a 53 ft trailer. When pulling one trailer the longer the trailer the wider you swing to go around a corner. If you do that with doubles you will swing too wide and if you find you can't continue, you now may not be able to back up. So, like I said, you corner a set of doubles like you are only pulling the front trailer. Get the endorsement.

If you are getting your Twic and HazMat you save maybe $20-30 because if you mark your applications they can both use the same background check. If you still haven't run out of money, get your passport. It's $130 for the traditional passport book. It's only $30 for the passport card. I would get just the passport book or BOTH passport book and card for $160. The card has certain limitations, I think only Canada, Mexico, and Caribbean accept the card. The book is accepted for everything every where. The card is enough for trucking use, but you never know you might fly to Bali and need the book in the future.

With all endorsements, including HazMat, TWIC, and Passport there is nothing else to have as a truck driver. You can't be more ready to do whatever a trucking company has to be done. The passport takes longer to get and is least likely to be needed as a new driver so it would be safe to delay it or never have it.

 

One or two states make you re-take all of your endorsments when moving your CDL from another state to their state. I think CA might do that. I BELIEVE

 

You don't need to pay for any test-prep. The questions are available free online at this website (top of the page, click on Practice Tests). I prefer TruckerCountry.com when I study to renew HazMat. They have more test versions than any other website I've found. It's only a multiple choice test. They way I was taught to take any multiple choice test when the answers are published takes very little time. I could pass a multiple choice test on orbital mechanics in a 5-D universe in about 2 days of study. I explain how to pass the TruckerCountry.com practice tests in this link Passing your CLP/CDL Endorsement Tests - HowTo

Keep taking all of the practice test versions for an endorsement until you are routinely scoring 90-95%. These practice tests don't have every question your state may ask, so you should read your state's CDL manual, or just be satisfied with passing the state test with anything less than 100%. Nobody but you will know your score. NOBODY cares what your score was after you pass it. It an 80% as just as good as a 100% score. If you see two questions you've never seen before and miss both, who cares?