Student Accepted with two companies

Very good point Big Don, a side to the coin we tend to not look at. I also think if you just do your homework, research the net on companies, talk to drivers, not recruiters, not cdl school personel, but drivers, even shipers and rec'rs you can get a good feel on good companies and bad ones. If your also looking to only be out a week or 2 at most, better to find a local company, get on a dedicated run, these bigger companies, more likely to go broke as they just wont have the type of frieght for ya. they will offer reg or dedicated, but mojority of the time, not all, bit mojority, you will end up running us fleet runs and then fighting to get home. keep in mind, if you go home that much, not going to really make any money, if you stay out longer, then you will, as the planners can keep you moving on longer mile runs and plan you out 2 -3 loads deep. I stay out 6-8 wks, sadly frieght since about sept last yr had not been very great, so I didnt make as much, but its really starting to pu, so the miles should as well. good luck

 

In this guys defense, I usually learn things the hard way, too. Unfortunately most of the stories about the big companies on here are true. The reason they are still in business treating drivers like this is even with the hundreds of stories on here of them screwing over drivers, here you are, saying there's 2 sides to every story.
I don't think people are on here warning drivers away from these companies just to keep you from driving. I personally couldn't care less if you spend every dime you have and wind up broke and unhireable. Won't affect my career in the least. We just try to give people a heads up as to what it's really like. Best of luck in your career choice.

 

First thing a trainer will tell you is forget what you learned. The school preps you for a CDL. The school training is text book training, not real world trucking.

 

I told that too a few newbie complainers that was fired from maverick. They was saying how bad mav was. I told them they needed to exp a bad co to have something to compare too... Why is it some newbies will tear up their truck 5 or 6 times and cost the co a bunch of money and then blame the co saying they are new? Good thing they ain't new doctors.... well; 6 patients died, but that's OK I am still new and learning...

 

$6000 for a truck school is ridiculous!!!! What a rip off...

http://elitetruckschool.reachlocal.net/index.php

$3750
160hrs total
Classroom & Driving
They will stick with you til you pass your test

Problem is, unless you are willing to hire on with a sub-standard company AND you meet their requirements, where are you going to work?

Both me and a best friend were unable to find decent work after getting our CDL.

I got lucky, I was able to parlay my previous tow truck (1 ton) experience combined with my newly acquired CDL into a good paying job towing class 6 - 8+ trucks. And I am home every night (mostly).

 

You think 6000 is bad, try 8500 and then go to werner....

 

I agree. I made good money for a while then it all went to ####. There are no laws whatsoever regarding our working conditions, we're exempt from minimum wage because we dont matter, etc.

75,000 unemployed and still looking. Most of them could probably go work for swift, schneider, werner...think maybe theres a reason? They probably make more on unemployment than the big boys would pay! Kind of sad, really.

I just had an entire month of extremely low checks, my last one was $300..after a $150 bonus. Come on.

Im scheduled to go to a trainer class in a couple of days..I'm going to go to it, the class pays better than a lot of the loads i get these days, LOL... $150 for a 2 day class, its about $50 less than driving 1000 miles....of course, driving is less boring than sitting in a darn class room...

I have half a mind to go work for the local temp agency. I have years of dealing with the same idiots (at the agency), they know me by name and know that i *always* show up if im asked to..as long as i *can*...and im always on time...even broke down on the way to work once and still showed up on time...and the last little stint i did with them, i made $200 a week. Considering that ive been making around $400 a week OTR lately, and that it costs on average $100 to eat on the road. It's not much less than being OTR. And we're talking about working 3 or 4 nights a week, and being home all day every day. Only difference is i wont have insurance.

I'd also have time to look for and apply for jobs. When you're working 14+ hours a day...not much time for that!

But its not just the miles. They dont care about maintenance. They dont care if the truck runs or not. I had a clutch go out on my last truck, sat for 4 days before maintenance even toucehd it, they gave me another truck. A week out, APU doesnt run right, "take it to the terminal". Yeah, right. As if. $40 a day layover pay...never even saw a penny of it yet.

They also dont train you worth a ####e...and dont fool yourself, spending $10,000 on trucking school is not going to help. You still don't have real world experience.

But, then after you're trained. You're treated like a professional. Professionals dont make mistakes. If you damage anything, you're written up and treated like you're an idiot for it. And charged for it in most cases. Most of the time, it wouldn't happen if training was better.

And i'm talking about real world training. 3 weeks of the classroom is not helpful. I can't even imagine what they would have talked about for that long. What is needed is backing into stupidly tight docks that your truck has no business being near, driving through towns that your truck has no business being in, etc...all day...every day...for a month at minimum. Cause that's how trucking is sometimes, thats how accidents happen.....

 

I owe $5200 for truck driving "school". Did the deal with crst, left owing them $4300 ($4000 for school, $300 in advances to **EAT**), went up due to interest. I have talked to the collection agency and they said they would settle for the original amount if i pay in full...or even if i started paying them and then finished it off with a lump sum. Last person i talked to over there was very reasonable and suggested paying off my other debts (which could be settled for less than $1k) and trying to get a loan to pay them off with...

BUT the problem is. I don't feel like I owe the money. I feel like I was totally screwed over by both CRST and the trucking school. I am extremely interested in suing them. I was essentially forced to quit CRST, and i should not have had to leave owing them $300 just so i could eat, while they weren't paying me. And the truck driving school was just a joke. And there were people going there paying out of pocket for it...sad, huh? I left that school knowing about as much about driving a truck as i did before I went. 162 hours of "training", most of it was standing around doing nothing because they had about 20 people to a truck. And thats why i'm interested in suing, not because of being screwed by the trucking company.. LOL.