Newbie needs advice: Who to go with for experience?

prime has excellent instructors and you will see several hours of steering wheel time before getting your cdl, however when the "training phase" starts you will scarcely speak with your trainer as you are team driving and his only use for you is miles.

 

I will be completing driver school at the end of the year (2010) and want to find a good company to drive for based in the Stockton/Modesto area. I am in my 50's and have no experience and would like to start out locally. I'd also like to win the lottery.... I realize I'm asking for gold here, but does anyone know of any companies in this area that hires newbies? I will drive anything. My record for the past 30 years on everything is clean. And money, at this point, is not a concern. Experience is. Please comment, whether it's good or bad. Thanks!!

 

For any of you who are looking for a trucking school in Minnesota, I just got a line from the administrator's assistant that Dakota County Technical College will open up their Class A CDL 8 week course in December if enough people sign up. Not sure how many she already has but I just wanted to put this out there as an FYI. I'm signing up for sure!
Be well everyone!

 

As I read this forum I'm just gonna go with the impression that there are no good companies to work for, for inexp drivers. I'm thinking that any of the big companies will hire u and most pay low and o my god the training pay is horrible(avg. $350wk) its no wonder y the industry is not getting the drivers. Why hire and train a driver and give him less than 2000 mi a wk min. hell I would think u would want to run them while they are excited to take anything u give them.

I am an older guy 36 (OK NOT THAT OLD) to change careers and hav found that alot of younger people these days don't feel they really should have to work for things, "age of entitlement". I drove in 1998 for swift and found that the Career Development manager of newbies didn't care about your opinion or safety just shut up and drive. That type of attitude ruined my excitement and I left after 4 1/2 weeks of my 6 wks training. Now thats an awesome way to build up someone confidence and show how a company cares for it employees

 

Newbies don't have much choices,searching for days is mostly a waste of time. You can probably count on one hand how many ways a wannabe can get his foot in the door.

 

This is why i asked if there could be some sort of bio set up for each company.

for example -

Company A - flat bed mostly , standard pay is Z, runs mostly to XYZ part of the country.

Company B - tankers mostly , standard pay is Z, runs mostly to XYZ part of the country.

The problem with this forum is I been researching compnays for a week. I got a sheet of paper and comment all over.. BUT on here its bash this , good this, bash this, good this. I got as many good marks on swift as I do bad. I might be more confused now that I was a wek ago. The more I look the more I see and the more burried i become.

Us newbies ask this question casue we have no idea what we are doing. If they are like me I spend 3-4 hours a day online trying to find out info on companys. then I come on here and see more comment s that make me go hmmm.. and the process starts all over.

In the last week I have though of going with Swift, then schnider, then swift, then maverick, then crst, then swift, then jb hunt, then prime, then werner, then conway, then as of tonight i was thinking maybe ill read more on swift... but watkins.sheppard might be ok.. its low pay but lots are happy .. but can I do better??? I dont know...LOL

oh and I live in NW Indiana so who is close to me? its hard to reasearch when you dont know what to look for? Its kinda like fixing dinner but not knowing what you want.. You gotta eat.. but what?

 

AMEN Newbie Brother!

 

How is iit goin? You have been really quiet I see....Did the school in Rosemont get enough students for a class?? I know of it,I went to school there in 1982,-although not the truck driving course

 

If you would slow down and start to think of what YOU want from a company,then you would easily be able to narrow down your list of employers!
For example; you list CRST witch is primarily a team outfit,do you want solo or team driving?
What kind of trailer do you want to pull,flat bed ,van,tanker ?Maverick is all flat bed!
Figure out what YOU want first,then go look for the company.Hope this helps.It can get a little overwhelming there's a ton of info here,not all of it is good though,so you gotta weed through that also.

 

For example; you list CRST witch is primarily a team outfit,do you want solo or team driving?

How do you know what company does what? They don't list these kinds of details on their websites.

I'm doing ok. I had to have a scope surgery on my knee and the news wasn't all good about it. I need to have a partial knee replacement. As far as school goes, DCTC didn't get enough students for the December class but they are still trying for after the first of the year. I've been talking to another school that will put me through faster but of course that won't be as good of an education as DCTC. I just can't wait the two months because by then my house will be in foreclosure. I've been given until March 1st to get a job or they will start the proceedings. So I will start school January 10th, graduate by the end of January, have my surgery and then be with a trainer by March 1st.