Newbs do alot of homework.

First, Thank you SouthernPride and DocHoliday for your posts that have made getting back in the seat effortless.
I drove for a year and a half twenty years ago, loved it. but then a job opportunity came up and thats where i went for 15 years. I always missed driving and kept up with old friends. When the ecconomy took a dump I thought long and hard, and took the road back into driving.

Schools Vs. Mills
Why would any of you go to a driver mill nightmare. do not say to me "Because I dont have the money" I had a home,a family, and zero money in the bank, and made it. Look into the schools, do they have 15 trucks,and only 2 that work, and 20 plus students standing around for time behind the wheel. hope that would send up red flags big time.
I looked at six schools and chose one 20 miles from home at a small two year college. not only did they give us the basics to be professionals, Two weeks a year they shut down the driving lot in order to train new DOT officers in my state. All this in five weeks and thousands less than a mill, and no mega carrier contracts.
Can not get a loan for any amount of reasons, so what, any profession worth getting into is worth working for. Every county in every state has WIA government money to pay for your training, in my case, all funds were used up. I went to four differant counties, all were tapped out. Didnt whine or cry, the college my school was at gave credits for thier driver training. By taking an additional computer course opened me up to the pell grant and two government loans to be a student. Training,college credits, all for only two hundred dollars out of pocket. Made that by cleaning gutters and other odd jobs in my nieghborhood,"and im 42".
My school had 8 trucks, 7 instructors all with a minimum of 20 years over the road or local driving experience. Class size was 11 students with a 15 max. While in school every mega carrier sent recruiters, If thats what you want more power to ya. One other guy and me were the only two that looked for pre hire during school, we were also the only two that were in the real world, not expecting to come out of school and have nights,weekends,and holidays off. If thats what you want and expect go to another job.
by WORKING at it, both of us came out of school into jobs that do get us home for 2 days (48hrs) after being out 5 days. And I even get home for my 10 hr 1 to 3 times a week. I make starting slave wage, but its still a better wage than I made in my last job, and alot better than nothing.
When getting an interview I dressed in a button down shirt and nice pants,washed and combed my hair, and got as much info as I could about the company before I went in(thanks mainly to this forum).
1. The only people that will give you something for nothing is a mega carrier. They don't care about You in the least, You arent special, your a body.
2. YOU, yes, YOU have to be willing to (dare I say) WORK,WORK,WORK for what you want.
YOU have to go out and look for a good school.
YOU have to do your best in that school and never give up.
YOU have to work at getting a good job with a good company.
NO ONE worth working for is going to give you something for nothing.

One person can make a differance. You must be willing to work at it to be that one.

 

yep its is, but the pell and school loans are not.

 

Yep I had that head ache. pell wouldnt cover if all I did was driver training. How I got around it was to registar at the college under a degree in logistics and supply. the driver training is an elective for that degree. (so the college can tap into another source of cash!!) So after registaring for the 9 credit driver training and a 3 credit online computer course, I was considered a fulltime oldtimer with full grant and loan privledges.

 

Man wish we had the hope grant thing here.... I hope it works out for you. The good companies our out there, you just have to look for them. 5 weeks of school was enough for me, man 8 weeks would suck.