I am being turned down more than I thought I would...

Good luck to you. I had been turned on by all but two companies: Roehl and Covenant. I failed the road test at both companies and was hired by neither. I am now home after 2 days on the bus. The director of my CDL School and I need to sit down and talk. That was suppossed to happen today, but he never called me back. I will bug him Monday. Fortunately, the financing company will not pay the school until I am working. Not sure what happens if I can't get past orientation.

 

@Onthefence, very sorry to hear about that, I know thats gotta be tough. Just stick in there, take some time to block out everything and get mentally focused and believe that you're going to pass. Its not a matter of if you can't get past orientation its a matter of when. Hopefully you can meet with the school and solve the issue though.

 

at least they didnt wait till you went through orientation and got out on the road with a trainer before they disqualified you like they did to me!

 

if u cant get hired b/c you have no work record get ur ##& a job

 

That's a lot easier said then done in this economy.......

 

My advice is don't be picky. Take a job from anyone who will give you a truck. Don't worry about home time, because you aren't going to be seeing that much of home anyway. It doesn't matter where you end up, because the only companies that hire drivers straight out of school all treat them like crap and pay them next to nothing.

I started ten years ago, and the first year was hell. Very little pay, and the employer had a habit of shorting me pay that I was due. I was running 3000 miles a week and raking in $300 paychecks. If I hadn't lumped my own loads, I would have went to bed most nights with no dinner. I didn't see my kids for as long as 3 months. If you talk to 90% of the drivers on this board, you'll find that we all had similar experiences our first year out. What I didn't know when I got my CDL and my cute little diploma from the truck driving school, is that they don't teach you how to drive a truck. They teach you how to pass the CDL test. So you know just about enough to be extremely dangerous.

Most don't make it through their first year. Hell, most don't make it through the orientation at those big companies. If you do make it through orientation, expect to spend a month or three with a trainer. Hopefully, it will be someone you can learn from and not one of those morons that just use you as a second log book. My first trainer didn't teach me a ###### thing. He pulled over at 11pm, put me behind the wheel, closed the curtains and went to bed. Luckily they put me with someone more capable and willing to teach after that.

I say take whatever job you can get, stick it out, once you get a year of driving experience under your belt, start putting in applications at companies that don't fool around with students, and your weekly income will dramatically increase. It's always been like this, even when the economy was strong. I can't imagine how hard it is now, with all these unemployed people clamoring to get into trucking.

Good luck!

 

"pre-hire" letter means nothing

Basically all they are is an INVITATION to submit an application and start the process of seeing if you are acceptable or not. It is like an OFFER to PURCHASE on a house , does not mean YOU BOUGHT IT , only to start the process to see if YOU CAN BUY IT.

 

its not about what you know anymore its about who you know

 

Good way to put it.

After lots of reading and chatter here, I realized the only way to get a real answer about being hired is...to submit an application! Which I did!

And tell the truth; 'cause if ya don't, you're gonna get bagged!