What company will do me best???

Welcome to the forum Oldenred! I'm Oldengraynbald! You'll, shortly, get some answers to your question. Thanks for joining the forum....it's the smartest move you've made in preparation for a truck driving career! Stick around, you'll see!

 

Swift is ok to start with. Do your year with them and then get the heck away from them. If you can get your CDL from a school or C.C. Then that will open up your options. You could then try May trucking. But what ever you do stay away from CRE. I'm telling you this as one Vet to another. They are bad, bad news.

 

This is true, any company you can stick with for a year will open the door to better companies. If you last a year out there you will be considered a veteran by many.

One thing that gets ignored by some is how good the companies road instructors are. This can make a huge difference. One of my students went with a company that will remain unmentioned and the road instructor turned the truck over acting like a big man with a fragile ego.

Try and get a trainer that has themselves been driving over 10 years and has been with the company for over three. This usually weeds out the misfits of science. There are many who should not be training for ANY company. Surprisingly Central Refrigerated had a good one years ago but I imagine he has since moved on.

 

Oldenred- Welcome. You may want to check out US Xpress. They are my second choice. You may want to check out Stevens Transport. My first choice mainly because of there extensive training and nice equipment they run. US Xpress had automatics. I don't know what your home life situation is like but Stevens expects you to stay on the road 5 weeks then home 5 days. I think US Xpress is 2 to 3 weeks out then home 2 to 3 days. I would recommend checking out one of those companys. Both are "training companies". Good luck to you!

 

Oldenred- Welcome. You may want to check out US Xpress. They are my second choice. You may want to check out Stevens Transport. My first choice mainly because of there extensive training and nice equipment they run. US Xpress has automatics. I don't know what your home life situation is like but Stevens expects you to stay on the road 5 weeks then home 5 days. I think US Xpress is 2 to 3 weeks out then home 2 to 3 days. I would recommend checking out one of those companys. Both are "training companies". Good luck to you!

 

Being from GA, I would check into Millis Transfer if I were you. Not much negative stuff posted about them, and they have a training facility in Cartersville.

 

Being a vet, there might be a possibilty of you going to a comm. college and getting it paid for by the gov't. If so that would be best, so you're not tied to a company for an inflated education if it doesn't work with them. If you check into this, try to find a P.T.D.I.(Professional Truck Drivers Institute) accredited school. This could open up your possibilities even more.

 

Have you exhausted your training financial options to the point where company paid training is the only option?

Getting your training via a community college will provide you the most flexibility.

If you talk to enough people, you will find enough bad comments about any company to make you think that they are the devil himself.

Personally, I would be filling out applications with all the training companies and see who bites. Keep in mind -- they pick you, you don't pick them.

 

Guess I will toss my .02 into the ring as well. My advice would be to go with who ever will take you at this point. These days the companies have the choice of who they hire or don't hire. Don't let the fear that some company might "screw you over" prevent you from putting in an application. You should take many of the "company x is a bad company" or "company y hates drivers" or "company z screwed me over" with a grain of salt. Remember you/we are only hearing one side of the story. Also, many of the stories have the same basic plot line....driver was perfect, did everything he was supposed to and yet got fired, in trouble, screwed over, etc for "no" reason whatsoever.

First, get hired. Second, get seat time and experience. Third, move to a better job for you (if the place you start is not the place long term for you). Don't spend your days reading and agonizing over every post from a bunch of knuckleheads (myself included) on what company is good or bad. If you just read some of the posts, it doesn't take long to realize many that post on here have an ax to grind, come here to complain about everything or don't really know what they are talking about, (because they never worked for said company) yet they just repeat what they saw in other posts.

I liken it to a giant electronic cb. If we could just flip on the B.S. and "non truth" filter, traffic would be reduced by about 95%.